Hannah Null had a weight problem.
So the Flower Mound Marcus softball pitcher decided she needed to gain about 25 pounds.
Null had been running and working out so vigorously in the off-season after her junior year that her select team coach became concerned when Null got “really thin.” About 25 pounds lighter after also cutting out candy, Null was throwing a steady diet of slower pitches last summer because she lost some muscle.
“I didn’t notice it, but my coach did,” Null said. “I probably lost 4 to 5 miles an hour on my pitches. … People were hitting me a lot more.”
“She decided to get in the weight room,” said Brian Menefee, who coaches Null on the Texas Rapid Fire Gold select team. “She started eating more protein and stayed in great condition, and now she’s as strong as she’s ever been.”
With Null emerging as one of the state’s most dominant pitchers, Marcus is perhaps as strong as it has been since reaching the Class 5A state semifinals in 2007. After finishing 16-16 and missing the playoffs last year, Marcus is 14-0 and ranked No. 5 nationally by MaxPreps.com.
Now able to throw six different pitches and hit 63 to 64 mph — up from 56 to 57 mph two years ago — Null is 9-0 and has allowed only two runs (both unearned). After striking out 22 in a 5-1, 10-inning win over Kennedale last week, she has 119 strikeouts in 54 innings.
“She has gained so much speed,” said Kelly Johnson, an Angelo State signee who catches Null for Marcus and in select softball. “She is popping my glove and hurting my hand.”
It didn’t hurt that Null worked with fellow Texas Rapid Fire Gold pitchers Heather Stearns of Hebron and Alicia Pille of Royse City — sometimes for five or six hours a day. Stearns, now at Baylor, and Pille, at Kansas, both rank in the top 10 in the Big 12 in wins, ERA and strikeouts.
As a senior, Null has pitched a perfect game against Rowlett and no-hitters against 2012 regional semifinalists Celina and Wichita Falls Rider. The Abilene Christian signee also shut out Plano East, striking out 14 against last year’s 5A state semifinalist.
“She loves the game and works her tail off,” said Abilene Christian coach Bobby Reeves, whose school is transitioning from Division II to Division I status. “She has made tremendous strides in the last six months, and that goes back to work ethic.”
Null isn’t the only reason Marcus rose to No. 1 in the 5A state rankings late last month. The team is tight-knit and loaded with experience and talent. All five seniors will play college softball, and four juniors have committed to do the same.
“[Last year] we had a lot of sophomores that it was their first year on varsity,” Marcus coach Christy Tumilty said. “This year, of the 13 that are on varsity, we only have two that are new to varsity. It’s that year of experience under your belt, understanding the expectations at the varsity level and the intensity and the level of play.”
Six players are hitting better than .340, paced by the .500 average of Texas State signee Danielle Warne. West Texas A&M pledge Ashley Hardin leads the team with six home runs and 17 RBIs, and Johnson and Angelo State pledge Madison Greenwell have combined for seven home runs. Oklahoma Panhandle State signee Madison Heathington provided the season’s most dramatic hit, belting a walk-off grand slam last month to beat Mansfield, 8-7, after Marcus trailed 7-3 entering its final at-bat.
Marcus’ 2012 season ended when it lost, 2-1, to Hebron in the regular-season finale on a two-out, walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh. That game decided the last playoff spot from Marcus’ district, and Hebron went on to reach the regional final.
“We used that to fuel our fire, to come back and get stuff done this year,” Heathington said.
Quick turnaround
Flower Mound Marcus isn’t the only area softball team that is off to a strong start after missing the playoffs last season. Here are others:
