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Player of the Year: Ennis' Julia Hollingsworth ran her way into the national record books in 2014

Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the...
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the Year. Photographed at, Ennis High School in Ennis, TX on June 4, 2014. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)(Kye R. Lee - Staff Photographer)
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the...
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the Year. Photographed at, Ennis High School in Ennis, TX on June 4, 2014. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)(Kye R. Lee - Staff Photographer)
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the...
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the Year. Photographed at, Ennis High School in Ennis, TX on June 4, 2014. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)(Kye R. Lee - Staff Photographer)
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Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the...
Ennis High School junior softball player Julia Hollingsworth is DMN Softball Player of the Year. Photographed at, Ennis High School in Ennis, TX on June 4, 2014. Right is Julia's father Jason Hollingsworth tossing the ball during photo shoot. (Kye R. Lee/The Dallas Morning News)(Kye R. Lee - Staff Photographer)

It wasn’t until the season was over that Julia Hollingsworth knew she had set a national record for most runs scored in a season.

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“Coach told me that after the championship game,” said the Ennis junior outfielder, who scored 83 runs in 44 games. “I knew I had been close, but that was nowhere near being on my mind.”

That’s because Hollingsworth was more concerned with trying to lead Ennis to its first softball state championship. She and her teammates fell one win short, losing 10-3 to Aledo in the Class 4A title game, but it was still a historic season for Hollingsworth and Ennis.

Ennis reached the state tournament for the first time by following the lead of its leadoff hitter, who has committed to Tulsa, a nationally ranked team that made the NCAA tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

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Hollingsworth was an all-state selection after hitting .638 with 45 RBIs. She stole 56 bases in 57 attempts, making her 100 for 101 on stolen bases the last two seasons.

“Her speed is explosive. ... It’s crazy how fast she is,” Ennis coach Rodney McNeill said. “She’s a big, strong kid. She stands out physically. A lot of times, your speed kids are smaller kids. The thing that makes her so deadly is you can not play her up close and try to take the bunt away because she has so much power. Physically, someone will get hurt, and teams didn’t do it.”

Hollingsworth scored two runs in an 8-7 state semifinal win over previously undefeated Mont Belvieu Barbers Hill — then the nation’s third-ranked team — and scored one run in the state final. Hollingsworth finished with 83 runs, which if verified by the National Federation of State High School Associations, would break the national record of 82 that had been held by three players.

“My job was just to get on base, try to get the team going and get the momentum on our side,” Hollingsworth said. “I had a really strong offense behind me, and the majority of the time, if I got on, I knew the batters coming up behind me would get me in somehow.”

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