Ellington

You could see this coming in February.

But can inevitability really detract from the kind of season — no, career — Danielle Lawrie has put together at Washington?

Lawrie was named the ASA/USA Softball National Player of the Year yesterday at the opening ceremonies of this year’s Women’s College World Series for the second consecutive season, the only known UW athlete to take home national POY honors twice in any sport in school history.

She beat out UCLA’s Megan Langenfeld and Georgia Tech’s Jen Yee.

The Huskies begin their national-title defense with a 6:30 p.m. PST game against No. 6 Georgia tomorrow in Oklahoma City.

Another national championship is now the only thing missing from Lawrie’s trophy case, her list of individual achievements running about as long as Lawrence Taylor’s rap sheet.

She’s 40-3 this season with a 1.00 ERA and 478 strikeouts in 288.1 innings, and also leads the team with 15 home runs, 57 RBI and a slugging percentage of .616.

Her award progression was fairly predictable. Lawrie was named first-team All-Region, first-team All Pac-10 and Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year (also for the second time), and set a record this year by winning Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week eight times (she holds the career record for that, too).

Lawrie also won National Player of the Week five times this year, and broke the Pac-10’s all-time strikeout record during Washington’s last regular-season series, against ASU.

“Obviously, this is a prestigious award, so I am deeply honored,” Lawrie said in a release. “I would not have won it if my team didn’t do what it has been doing all year. Everyone has performed at a high level all season, and [catcher] Shawna (Wright), as a freshman, has come in and played so well. So, it’s tough for me to take the credit. This is a huge honor, and I’m extremely thankful.”

Lawrie was also named as one of four finalists for the Honda Award, and if she wins that, she’ll be eligible for the Honda-Broderick Award, given annually to the nation’s best female athlete for all sports.

It’s fitting that yesterday’s award comes after what may have been her most impressive performance of the season. After allowing five home runs in a 6-1 loss to Oklahoma in the Huskies’ Super Regional opener last week, Lawrie bounced back the next day to throw two shutouts and strike out 27 batters to lead Washington to its third WCWS appearance in the past four years.

Lawrie sat out the only year in that span the Huskies failed to make it to Oklahoma City, redshirting while competing in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Reach Sports Editor Christian Caple at sports@dailyuw.com.