Handley’s Breydan Watkins hit 11 home runs this season to set the all-time county career home run record with 36.
(Editor’s note: There is a correction to this story with information that came to light after this article was published. That story with the corrected information can be read here.)
When Handley’s Breydan Watkins hit a two-run home run against Talladega in a 16-0 win in the team’s area tournament earlier this month, she not only stepped on home plate.
She stepped into the record books.
That home run, which turned out to be the final one of her career, was the 36th that she hit as a member of the Handley varsity softball team. That allowed her to surpass RCHS’s Talee Sims’s 35 career home runs and put her atop the county’s all-time home run list.
Watkins, who missed her entire sophomore season due to an injury, finished this season with 11 home runs to set a career high.
Both Watkins and Sims could have had much higher totals if not for injuries. Sims missed most of her junior year because of an injury and hit just one home run that season. Sims also had her eighth grade season cut short because of Covid-19.
The shoulder injury that took Watkins’s 10th grade year also lingered at times in the following two seasons – and she was the target of some very careful pitching once other teams realized what a power threat she was.
Watkins surpassed former teammate Ava Hill as the Handley all-time home run record holder. Hill hit 30 round-trippers in her career.
The Lady Tigers finished the season 13-21 and made it to the second day of the Class 4A Central Regional in Montgomery.
