Girls’ Athlete of the Year: Carlmont’s Ashley Trierweiler

“I have had (players just as good as Trierweiler),” Carlmont head softball coach Marco Giuliacci said. “They are playing Division I (college softball).”

Although Trierweiler has recently wrapped up her junior year, she already has under her belt three varsity seasons. It wasn’t a slow transition either. Trierweiler has made an impact in both sports since her first year at the Belmont school, but the expectations were raised this past year.

“Everybody expected me to come in and be a significant role player on both the basketball and softball teams,” Trierweiler said. “I just pushed myself to do the best I could in both sports.”

She thrived in both environments, which makes deciding which sport is hers an even tougher question to answer. She has decided she enjoys both equally.

“I get asked that a lot. I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t really have a favorite,” Trierweiler said. “I think I’m a better softball player. … But that doesn’t change the fact I enjoy both sports.”

While she has become a Swiss Army knife on the basketball court, she is a leadoff hit machine for the Scots’ softball team. After two years of falling just short of the 50-hit plateau, she put together a 54-hit season this past year — just three shy of Janelle Yousef’s 1999 single-season record of 57 — as she helped the Scots to an undefeated Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division season and a spot in the Central Coast Section Open Division.

Trierweiler, who has 149 hits through three varsity softball seasons, needs just 46 more to set the career hits mark at Carlmont. Yousef currently sits atop the list with 194 hits compiled from 1997 to 2000.

“Every time she came up, you said, ‘It’s a hit,’” Giuliacci said. “There was nothing easy about getting her out. The outs she did make were hard outs.”

Burgeoning basketball star

After two seasons of playing in a supporting role, Trierweiler blossomed into a go-to, two-way player for the Scots as a junior. She averged just under 11 points per game this season, but she was so much more than points scored.

“Ashley is someone who does everything for us. Offensively … she can score in a variety of ways,” Carlmont girls’ basketball head coach Dan Mori said of the 5-11 wing player. “Defensively, there were often times — because of her size and length — we could have her guard a quick point guard to a big post. Most of the time she was guarding the opponents’ best player.”

An ability to guard every position on the floor, while at the same time stuffing a stat line, is no easy task. But Trierweiler’s relentless nature and competitive streak refused to let her settle to be good in just one phase of the game.

“For me, it’s just about being there for your team and being there for your coaches,” Trierweiler said. “If they ask me to play a certain position … I’m willing to do it, even if it’s not something I’m comfortable with.”

A leadoff nightmare

Trierweiler is not your prototypical leadoff hitter, only in a sense that she tends to put the ball in play nearly every at-bat.

“Teams don’t seem to walk her a lot,” Giuliacci said. Stats submitted to MaxPreps.com indicate Trierweiler walked only eight times and didn’t strike out once.

“You really don’t want to put her on first base.”

All that means, however, is that Trieweiler reached base by swinging the bat and very few did it better. Trieweiler’s .600 batting average was good for 10th in all of CCS. Her 54 hits were second in the section, while posting a 1.350 OPS.

“This is a quote from my grandma — hit them where they aren’t,” said Trierweiler, describing her approach at the plate. “I just read the defense and decide whether to slap, swing or bunt.”

Added Giuliacci: “I never give Ashley a sign. She looks at the defense and decides what to do.”

Getting on base was a season-long trend for Trierweiler, who was held hitless in only one game this season — a 5-0 win over rival Notre Dame-Belmont.

The rest of the season, however, Trierweiler was a hitting machine, finishing with two or more hits in 19 of 24 games and nine games of three hits or more.

“Knowing how well I did my freshman and sophomore years, I had to do just as good, if not better, my junior year,” Trierweiler said.