MORGANTOWN — Almost every time Autumn Stemple got to Mylan Park for a home game or practice, or stepped foot on the bus to hit the road, she found out at least one of her teammates wasn’t going to play.
That has been life this season with COVID-19 still lingering around, on top of the grind of a condensed season squeezed into two months.
“Whether it was someone with a new injury or they have to be in quarantine, there are always 2-3 people who can’t make it,” she said. “We are still permanently down a starter who has been having issues since the beginning of the season.”
Attrition has been one of the biggest storylines for this year for the 11-10 Hawks, who are gearing up for next week’s sectional tournament.
One constant, though, has been Stemple, both as a dominant pitcher and steady bat in the middle of the lineup.
The start of the spring sports season in West Virginia was delayed about three weeks, moving from the middle of March to about a week into April. While the softball season, which usually ends this week in a normal year, will now ended in mid-June, the regular season took just a month and a half to complete.
UHS played 21 games in six weeks, playing an average of three or four games per week, and for most of those games, Stemple toed the rubber in the circle. She has been about as reliable as the Hawks could ask for, putting together a spectacular season as a junior.
Stemple pitched in 17 of the Hawks’ 21 games, starting 16, and has tossed 104 2/3 innings, allowing just 72 hits and 25 earned runs for a 2.12 ERA.
“It’s definitely challenging physically, but I would argue that it’s even more challenging mentally,” she Stemple said. “You can push your body past points you didn’t think were possible and I’ve had to do a lot of that this year. Keeping myself mentally in these games is what has kept my team in some of these close contests.”
A personal goal coming into the season was to reach 200 strikeouts and Stemple she currently sits at 196, an average of 11 1/2 per game in her 17 appearances. With an arsenal of seven pitches, she keeps opposing hitters off balance with different off-speed pitches and a change-up, to go along with a fastball.
Getting different spins is a key to Stemple’s massive strikeout numbers, and she uses a variety of methods to work on her spin rate.
“I would rather stick to perfecting my spin than trying to throw harder any day,” she said. “Speed is just timing, and it’s just a matter of time before they square it up. With having a tool belt of seven different pitches, it always has the batters guessing. I use different size balls to build the muscles up in my fingers and forearm. A standard softball is 12 inches and I have 14-inch and 16-inch (balls), and a device similar to a hockey puck to make sure I’m getting good rotation. Basically, the main way to improve spins are to get stronger and spin faster.”
Stemple also throws the opposite, taking some spin off the ball, including a change-up and knuckleball, which speed the hitter up and force them to swing early.
With Stemple’s dominance in the circle, it’s easy to overlook what she’s done at the plate, but she is also putting up big numbers offensively.
Stemple is hitting .415 with two home runs and 17 RBIs, while playing in every game. She knows her team needs her and has done her best to make sure she can continue to contribute heading into the postseason.
“I know there’s tons of people counting on me,” she said. “Not only teammates and coaches, but my parents and family, too. I feel like I don’t let it affect my play, though. The toughest part is reflecting on games and having factors like that impact my thoughts on the end result. One of my goals this year has been trying to not take all of the responsibility and let it impact me negatively.”
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