2005 Male Player: Bill Sahagian

Bill Sahagian

In his 17-year career, which began in 1987, Bartlett’s Bill Sahagian has gathered many individual honors and team championships along the way. Sahagian mainly played first base with some time at catcher for teams such as Kings, KA Softball and Tron Piping, and is now retired from softball except for the 45 & Over program.

The slugging first sacker has compiled some impressive numbers with a .615 batting average and launched over 700 home runs for his career.

In 1987, Sahagian’s first season in softball, he was selected to the All-Tournament team at the Class C Divisional Qualifier that the Kings won at Downers Grove. That season he was also named Best Offensive Player at Class C State in Rockford, where the Kings finished third. He was also named to the Class B State All-Tournament teams in 1992 and 1995 and Tournament Most Valuable Player in 1996 while playing for the Kings.

Sahagian states his most exciting moment in his USSSA career took place in 1995 at Joliet when the Kings won their second Class B State Championship.

“It was 102 degrees,” Sahagian recalls. “We came back from the loser’s bracket to win five games on Sunday, and I was named to the All-Tournament team after hitting .735.”

In 1995, Sahagian helped lead Tron Piping to their first of five straight Major 35 & Over State Championships, earning his first of three consecutive All-Tournament honors. He also paced Tron Piping to back-to-back Major 35 & Over World Tournament Titles (1995 and 1996), while being named the Most Valuable Player at the 1996 World Tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida. Starting again in 1999, Sahagian was named to three straight Major 35 & Over State Tournament teams. Playing with Extreme Easton (2000) who finished third at Class B State and KA Softball (2001-2003) who won Class B State in 2003, Sahagian retired from the Men’s B program after the 2003 season.

“I would like to see [Illinois USSSA] have a better B program like in past years when there were 25 or 30 teams in the state of Illinois,” Sahagian said.

He feels as a whole, however, that USSSA in Illinois has a lot to be proud of saying, “USSSA has the most talented players and best-run tournaments of all the associations in Illinois.”

In 2004, Sahagian was named to the All-Tournament team at the Major 45 & Over World Tournament while playing for Ken’s Beverage, showing that the fire for competition still burns bright.

We honor Bill Sahagian and his great softball career by welcoming him into the Illinois USSSA Hall of Fame.