Bates Named Pac-12 Defensive Player Of The Year

SEATTLE - Sis Bates made history Wednesday, becoming the second player in the history of the conference to earn three Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year awards. Bates has earned the Defensive Player of the Year award after each of the last three complete seasons.

Bates joins Rosey Neil of Stanford as the only players in Pac-12 history to earn Defensive Player of the Year three times. Neil shared the award with Mindy Cowles of Arizona State in 2008, then was the sole honoree in 2009 and 2010. Bates is the third Husky to earn the award, along with Jenn Salling in 2011 and Shawna Wright in 2013.

This year, Bates has played every inning of every game at shortstop for Washington, making just three errors. She has a .982 fielding percentage in her career, the second-highest fielding percentage of any middle infielder in Washington history. In her last 75 games, Bates has made three total errors. Since the start of the 2019 season, a span of 125 games, Bates has made five total errors while playing every one of those games at shortstop.

Bates is the first Husky ever to earn three Player of the Year awards of any kind from the Pac-12. Kristen Rivera earned two Player of the Year awards and Danielle Lawrie earned two Pitcher of the Year awards in their careers as the only two other Huskies with multiple such awards from the conference.

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