Abby Morgan received one of the highest vote totals in the history of The Vicksburg Post’s Athlete of the Week contest, and needed every single one of them to win it.

Morgan, a senior softball pitcher for Warren Central, got 603 votes out of 1,715 cast to win the award. She beat out Vicksburg High track athlete Shaniyah Walker by only 11 votes.

Walker received 592 votes. St. Aloysius track athlete Megan Theriot was third, with 391 votes, and Porter’s Chapel Academy baseball player Gage Palmer was fourth with 129.

Morgan went 3-1 and had 30 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings pitched for the week of March 25 through April 1. Morgan had 14 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings in an 11-4 win over Clinton on March 31, and only allowed 12 total hits and four walks in the four games.

Morgan also batted .417 (5-for-12) with a home run, double and three RBIs during the week.

Congratulations to Abby and the other nominees, and thank you to our readers for voting. Morgan’s vote total was the second-highest individual total recorded since the contest began in September 2022. The overall total was the most ever. The previous high was 1,415 in the Sept. 25-28, 2022 contest.

The nominees for the Athlete of the Week award are announced each week on Sunday, and voting is open until midnight Tuesday. Links to the poll will be posted on our Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as at vicksburgpost.com.