Perrysburg’s Griggs gives MVP performance in All-America softball game

IRVINE, Calif. — Hayley Griggs, the incoming senior at Perrysburg ranked as one of the top players in the Class of 2025 and a middle infielder committed to Florida State, was named the MVP of the PGF Futures Game played Saturday night.

She was selected earlier this summer to the prestigious All-American Game featuring elite high school juniors versus standout prep sophomores.

Griggs was chosen as the game MVP after going 2-for-2 with an RBI.

The game was scoreless until the top of the sixth inning when the juniors team scored four runs, capped by the standout’s single to center that pushed the score to 4-0 en route to the juniors winning 7-0.

Earlier in the week, Griggs had helped her travel ball team, the Beverly Bandits coached by Bill Conroy, finish ninth in the PGF 18U Nationals, considered by many as the top club softball event of the summer.

In one game, she hit a key home run that allowed the Bandits to extend the game into extra innings before winning dramatically in the ninth inning

“Hayley is a terrific kid with a great personality and a great glove, and we’re looking forward to her coming back and being our leader next year,” Conroy said.

As for the Futures All-American Game, she admitted to being surprised at being named the game’s MVP.

“I thought a lot of us did super well,” Griggs said. “We were hitting the ball pretty good, but it’s just an honor to be able to be known in front of all these big players. Being able to play with everybody is super fun.”

She said she felt confident going against the best of the best in the nation.

“You’re going up against great pitchers, and you know they’re about to go big [into college], so you’re just sitting in there mentally thinking ‘see ball, hit ball’ and then try to do what’s best for the team,” Griggs said. “I feel at the beginning it was a little bit different, but once we got to know each other we all blended super well and then decided to play our best for each other.”