For this Throwback Thursday, we look back about a decade ago to one of the top pitchers ever when she was just going into her senior season… but first, we profile the Keystone State standout outfielder who’s a true scholar-athlete and a SoCal girl who fell in love with a place that would surprise many…

 

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PLAYER PROFILE: HANNAH EDWARDS

Grad Year: 2016
Pos: Centerfielder
High School: Catasauqua (Pa.)
GPA: 101.98%
Club: Lower South Liberty Gold
Stats: (club, 2013 fall) hit .457 with 25 runs scored, 26 steals and OBP of .498
Honors:  MaxPreps Softball Underclass All-American, 1st Team Pennsylvania All-State, 1st Team All-Colonial League, Morning Call Rookie of the Year
College: Pitt

 

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StudentSportsSoftball.com: You’re No. 1 in your high school class of 113 so you’re obviously doing a great job of managing your time… what are you doing to effectively balance sports, academics and other areas of your life?
Hannah Edwards: The biggest thing for me is prioritizing. I understand that academics are very important, along with athletics. I make sure to fulfill my obligations in both these subjects first, before I worry about my social life.

My older brother, Zac, set a very good example for me. He was the Valedictorian and excelled in sports. Currently, he is a freshman baseball player at Lebanon Valley College. I look up to him as a role model and try to gain the balance of academics and athletics that he has.

SSS.com: What would be a piece of advice you’d give another student-athlete in how to do well academically as well as athletically?
HE: In everything you do, always strive to be the best. Work hard, stay focused, and put in extra time. In school, I always make sure to ask questions and study for tests and quizzes. I take time out of my day and dedicate it to academics. Athletically, I’m always focused to get the job done. I’m never satisfied, so I make sure to get extra reps. I try to perfect the little things. If you’re focused to succeed, then you will.

 

SSS.com: Tell us how you were first seen by the Pitt coaches and how the recruiting process evolved until they offered?
HE: I was first seen by Pitt at Team New Jersey this past summer. They continuously came out to watch me during the summer, then in the fall. I took an unofficial visit in November and that’s when they offered.

 

SSS.com: How did you learn they had offered you?
HE: On my unofficial visit, I sat down and talked with the coaches. This is when they offered me.

SSS.com: When did you decide to commit and what led into the decision?
HE: I committed on March 17, 2014. The previous weekend I came back and watched them play against UNC. That’s when I realized that I wanted to compete in a great conference, like the ACC. Pitt also has great academics, especially in their science programs. That’s when I knew that it was the right choice.

SSS.com: How did you tell the coaches, in person, on the phone, on an unofficial visit?
HE: A couple days after my second unofficial visit, I called Coach Aprile and told her that I’d love to come to Pitt and build a program that’s a tough competitor in the ACC.

 

SSS.com: How far away from home will be?  Was distance a factor in your decision at all?
HE: I’ll be about five hours away from home. Distance wasn’t really a factor in my decision. I was just looking for a place that I felt comfortable in, that had both great academics and athletics.

 

SSS.com:  What do you think (or have others said) are your strengths as a softball player?
HE: I’m a competitor. I hate to lose! I play with heart and passion. My opponent might have an advantage, but I’ll make sure to out-work them just to win. Most people say that I have many tools as a softball player. I can drag bunt, soft slap, chop, power slap, and hit for power. I try to keep the defense guessing, and capitalize on what they are giving me. Once I get on the bases, I’m very aggressive, but can rationalize on what decisions to make. I love to use my speed.

 

SSS.com: What’s been a top memory or two for you in your softball career?
HE: The top memory for me so far has been winning the Colonial League Championship my freshman year in high school. It was the first championship in softball in 32 years!

 

Quick Hitters

 

 

What do you want to major in?
Sport and Exercise Science.

What’s a social issue you have a particular interest in?
Obesity.

Favorite subject:
Math.

Least favorite chore:
Dusting.

Best advice you’ve ever received…
It’s not how big you are, it’s how big you play.

What’s your dream vacation?
Snorkeling and going to the beach in Hawaii.

What type of bat do you use (and why do you like it)?
I use a Xeno, made by Louisville Slugger. I love the balance it has. If I want power, I can hit it on the sweet spot. If I want to bunt or soft slap, I know where to catch it so the ball dies. I also love the sound it makes!

What do you do to “recharge your batteries”?
Sleep!

What’s something unusual or different about you that few know?
Most people think that I rely on my speed, but I was the leading home run hitter on my high school team as a freshman. One game I led off with a home run!

Do you have any softball rituals or superstitions?
Yes! I’m very superstitious! I have to wear my hair the same way every game with my lucky bow! Before every at bat, I spit on my batting gloves, then lick my fingers between every pitch.

What’s playing in your ear buds/headphones these days?
I like listening to country, but on game days, I make sure to listen to songs that are upbeat to pump me up and get in the zone.

What inspires you most in life?
My will to succeed. I always want to win and be the best I can be. That drives me to push my limits and raise my goals higher. My brother also inspires me to succeed in everything I do. When we work out together, he makes sure I’m always giving 110%.

 

 

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RECRUITING SPOTLIGHT OF THE DAY: KRISTEN WILLIAMS

Nickname: “Avatar”
High school: Chaparral
City: Temecula
State: 
Calif.
Grad year: 2014
Club: Minors Gold-Lovelace
Position(s): SS/3B
Height: 6-0

Stats & Honors:  2013: .382 average with .588 slugging percentage, .488 OBP, four doubles, eight RBI

College: Idaho State
Other Offers:  “South Carolina, Michigan State, Cal State Fullerton, New Mexico.” State
Why ISU: “It wasn’t what I expected. Pocatello, Idaho reminded me a lot of home (Temecula). Coach Wright had a lot to do with the decision. She is building something special there. She has added Team USA pitcher, Jessica Moore, as her assistant. I definitely think I made the right decision.”

What is your favorite bat: “My Demarini Phenix (-8).”
What bat does your team use? “I use the Phenix and a Worth. I am getting a Louisville LXT. My college team is sponsored by Louisville so I want to get used to those bats.”
What is your favorite brand of cleats? 
”Mizuno.”
What is the uniform brand you prefer? “Gluv.”

 

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RECRUITING NEWS:

*** Steve Svekis of the Sun Sentinel (Fla.) reported yesterday that Cypress Bay junior catcher Olivia Gott has committed to play softball at the University of Virginia.

He wrote: “Gott helped the Lightning finish as the Class 8A state runner-up in 2013 and plays travel ball for the Gold Coast Hurricanes team coached by Jeff Norman.”

The Cavaliers play in the Atlantic Coast Conference and former Sun Sentinel player of the year Aimee Chapdelaine from American Heritage is a sophomore pitcher there.

Also, former Everglades High coach Heidi Freitager-Kirkaldy is an assistant there. The university is located in Charlottesville, Va.”

 

*** More verbals:

— 3B/1B Julianna Bravo (2014, Alderson Broaduss)… plays for  So Cal Strikkers
— 3B Alexis Perry (2016, Nebraksa)… plays for Oklahoma Exclusive Gold
— IF Katie Vretzos (2017, San Diego)… plays for Sorcerer-Schroll

 

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HIGH SCHOOL: FAB 50 TEAM TO WATCH

*** This morning we released our first in-season Student Sports Softball FAB 50 rankings… so, what’d ya think?

We’ve had a good response so far and appreciate all those who sent into in on their favorite teams.

One Calif. team that’s on the bubble as a Team to Watch is Vacaville, Calif.; I got a nice e-mail this week from Tom Kibby, who is on the Board of Directors for the Sorcerer Organization and an assistant coach for the 16U team. His daughter is on the Vacaville squad as are several of her Sorcerer teammates… here’s what Coach Kibby had to say:

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I wanted to give you some information on our local high school team that has 5 players from our Sorcerer club that I feel is one of the top teams in Northern California.

This past weekend we took first place at the 2014 Victory Pre-Season High School tourney in Sacramento against some of the top teams in the area including Vintage High School.  We went 4-0-1 with the tie being with our second string pitcher.  

Our starting pitcher, Katie Kibby, went 4-0 with two shutouts including the championship game 7-0. Katie is a sophomore this year and has verbaled to UC Davis.

Starting off this year she is 7-0 with three shutouts and 63 strikeouts in 45 innings.  Last year as a freshman she pitched a no-hitter against the top-rated team Vintage High School during a 0-1 loss on a fielding error.  Katie was our starting pitcher on our 14U Sorcerer team that lead us to our 3rd place finish at PGF Championships this summer pitching five games.

Backing up Katie Kibby from the Sorcerer’s club is Julia DePonte, a senior going to Washington who has played on our 18 Gold team for the past four years.  Julia is an outstanding shortstop and dominate hitter.

Sisters Maddie and Alysse Rojas (sophomore/freshman) were integral part of our 14U teams 3rd place finish this summer.  Alysse plays center field and Maddie plays 3rd with them being our 1 – 2 batters and leading the team with .400 averages.  Maddie has also already verbaled to UC Davis and Alysse is one of the top prospects for the

The 2017 class is also being heavily recruited.

Morgan Conner, a freshman, played with our 14U team this past fall and is our starting left fielder and contributes a very strong bat.

These five girls combined with some other quality players will give Vacaville High School a great team. The season is starting off good and we anticipate it to continue if everybody stays healthy.

Maxpreps just ranked us 13th in California so I hope you consider Vacaville to be in your FAB 50 ratings this year.  

 

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: ALICIA HOLLOWELL

Younger players may have only heard the name, but those who’ve followed softball for a while definitely know who Alicia Hollowell is.  One of the greatest pitchers in softball history, she was a four-time All-American at Arizona from 2003-2006 and helped the Wildcats win the 2006 World Series.

Alicia still is in the top 10 in several key pitching categories after winning 144 games and striking out 1,768.

Back in 2002, we profiled her in our magazine called Student Sports… here’s the content of that article as Hollowell was primed for her senior season of high school…

Here’s the article…

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NOTHING HOLLOW ABOUT HOLLOWELL
California softball pitcher filling up the record books with her name

By Mark Tennis

Go ahead, count ‘em up. Every word in this story, excluding the photo captions but including this lead paragraph and all headlines and bylines, represents a batter who has struck out while facing Fairfield High pitcher Alicia Hollowell during the last two California softball seasons.

It adds up to 1,277 words or 641 batters for the 2000 season and 636 batters for 2001. Of course, Hollowell has many more strikeouts than that since her freshman season of 1999. In fact, entering the 2002 season, she had 1,769 strikeouts for her prep career and needs only 229 more to tie the national record set last year by LaTonya Coates from Bangor, Mich.

Hollowell will likely finish her career with well over 2,000, possibly as high as 2,300. The prep softball pitching records she’s already established and the ones she’s likely to set are akin to what Wayne Gretzky did in hockey or Wilt Chamberlain in basketball.

Sixty-one of last year’s strikeouts came in a 30-inning game in May against Woodland in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championships, which broke the single game national record by eight. Thirty-three of them came consecutively over a three-game stretch in her sophomore season. That’s the equivalent of 11 straight innings of three up, three down and batters celebrating any kind of contact with the ball at all.

With statistics like that, you might expect Hollowell to be some freak of nature, a giant of a girl with a rifler who creates blisters on the hand of any catcher who dares to crouch behind the plate. And while she is big, at nearly 6-foot-2, Alicia does not make opposing batters mutter because of her velocity. It’s the complete opposite. She baffles with pinpoint control, riseballs that really rise and drop balls that fall off the table.

“I usually want to take care of the batters myself,” Hollowell explains. “I don’t want the defense to have to worry about them at all. Just do it myself.”

Fairfield coach Ron Clarke loves that attitude and says another key to the prolific strikeout total is Hollowell’s delivery.

“She’s so smooth and so fluid,” says Clarke, the second-winningest softball coach in California history with 556 wins over a 20-year career. “A lot of other good pitchers are herky, jerky. She’s pretty natural and she works at it. You have to have the talent, but you have to put in a lot of hard work, too.”

Woodland coach Steve Meitner, whose team actually won that 30-inning marathon last spring even though he saw 61 of his batters strike out, believes the movement of Hollowell’s pitches horizontally is as difficult an aspect of trying to hit her as the movement vertically.

“It doesn’t look like she’s making much of an effort, but her pitches show a lot of movement,” Meitner says. “The batters think the pitch is going to the outside part of the plate, but by they time they’re swinging it breaks well off the plate. It wasn’t her rise ball that hurt us most. It was her curve.”

This isn’t some small school ace running up prolific records against weak competition, either. All three of the teams she’s led at Fairfield have been among the top 10 of the Student Sports FAB 50 national rankings at various points of each season and this year’s squad should do the same after starting out as preseason No. 1.

Hollowell also has struck out an average of two batters per inning when she’s been in major American Softball Association summer club tournaments. At the prestigious ASA Gold Nationals last summer, while pitching for Gordon’s Panthers of Southern California, Hollowell went 5-0 with three no-hitters, a 0.00 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 34 innings. She was recruited by all the major college softball programs and signed with national power Arizona during last November’s signing period.

Sometimes, outstanding coaches cultivate their players. Sometimes, a gem just falls into their laps. You can say both about Alicia Hollowell hooking up with Ron Clarke at Fairfield High.

Alicia didn’t start playing softball until her fifth grade year when she joined a local Bobby Sox team. The following year she decided she’d try to pitch.

“Now comes the famous story when I tried to talk her out of pitching,” says Alicia’s father, Doug. “I just thought it would be too difficult for her and that she wouldn’t like it.”

Alicia quickly showed that Daddy doesn’t always know what’s best and not only made pitching look easy, but she liked it, too.

“I didn’t know a thing about high school and just casually asked around town about it,” Doug Hollowell says. “A few people gave me Ron’s name. He took a look at her and said, ‘Let’s talk.’ It wasn’t very long before he was telling me she was going to be a good one.”

Before he inserted Hollowell into the pitching circle as a freshman, Clarke already had guided five consecutive pitchers to Div. I college scholarships — Jenny Martinez (Middle Tennessee State), Carmen Martinez (Texas), Leslie Rodgers (Pacific), Dana Garcia (Oklahoma) and Trish Cavilles (Southern Florida) — and while he had high expectations for the youngster, he was not expecting the kind of totals she would achieve.

“I always figured she might be the type who’d get double figures in strikeouts for most games,” Clarke says. “But now, right off the bat, we’re talking 16, 17 and 18 per game. It’s been pretty unbelievable and it really is a once-in-a-lifetime situation for a high school coach.”

Alicia doesn’t remember her first strikeout, but does remember the first time she ever faced a batter.

“It was a scrimmage against Bear Creek (in Stockton) and I almost cried because I walked her,” she says.

Hollowell credits some of her success to the competition she went up against in her team’s league, particularly against fellow pitcher Katie Layne, a two-time all-state pick from Hogan High of Vallejo, who graduated after the 2001 season. Another who pushed her was two-time Sacramento Bee Player of the Year Andrea Vidlund from Casa Roble High of Fair Oaks, who graduated after 2000.

“Everything was all so new to me as a freshman,” Hollowell recalls. “Last year I was just trying to live up to all the hype. I knew how difficult it would be to improve upon what I did as a sophomore.”

Hollowell hopes to be more relaxed as a senior since it’s almost a foregone conclusion that she’ll break a bunch more records.

“I just want to win, break the national (career strikeout) record and hopefully put it out of reach for anybody to come close to it for a long time.”

 

Alicia by the Numbers

35 – Pitching wins in each of the last two seasons. According to the Cal-Hi Sports Record Book & Almanac, Hollowell broke the state record in this category as a sophomore, then tied it herself last spring.

86 – Career shutout total entering senior season. It’s already the all-time state best.

102 – Career win total entering senior season. Hollowell only needs nine more to break the state record of 116 set three years ago by Tori Nyberg from Carlmont of Belmont. One of the previous record holders in this category is San Mateo Hillsdale’s Maureen Brady, older sister of Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady.

126 – Consecutive innings pitched without allowing a run. Stretch took place during sophomore year and is yet another California state record.

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Players, parents and coaches:  want to know the best way to get us info on your favorite player?  Fill out our Recruit Form link and complete.  It comes directly to me (Brentt) and you very likely could see the info used somewhere on our site!

 

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If you’d like to submit information, forward to brentt@studentsports.com.  Also, follow us on twitter at @SS_Softball.