Sports

Spring in their step

• Led by ace Mindy Mager, the defending SIAC champ Lady Rams softball team is 14-0 in conference heading into the start of today’s Spring Championships.

Scott Chancey

ALBANY — Albany State pitcher Mindy Mager has the SIAC at the mercy of her curveball, yet you wouldn’t know it.

“We have a great bunch of selfless teammates, everybody works hard for each other,” she said Tuesday while preparing for this week’s SIAC Spring Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Her curveball is such a big foundation in her motion that no matter what she throws, it breaks. She’s the reigning conference MVP, 7-0 in the SIAC and 15-9 overall and has 171 strikeouts — not to mention she hasn’t given up but one run to an SIAC opponent all season.

“She’s one of the best pitchers I’ve ever caught for,” teammate Kandis Tate said.

Yet Mager had no idea her numbers are that good.

“The only numbers important to me are wins and losses,” said Mager, who has a 1.99 ERA. “As long as we are winning, anything else is a bonus.”

Nearing the completion of her softball career and preparing for her final Spring Championships — which the Rams begin at 3 p.m. Thursday against an undetermined opponent — Mager realizes the moment at hand. She has known it since the defending SIAC champion Lady Rams’ season opener against Brewton-Parker in February — it’s now her time to shine.

Simply put: Mager has been one of Albany State’s keys to success and unblemished 14-0 SIAC mark.

During her most recent win Monday against the Gulf South Conference’s top team, Delta State (Miss.), she struck out three batters and allowed two earned runs.

And yet, she still deflects the praise.

Growing up and playing softball in Houston, her father, Mark, would not have her any other way. In an age of mostly “Me” against “We,” Mager became a throwback of sorts.

“I stressed to her that she existed because of the team and that the team didn’t exist because of her,” Mark said.

Mager remembered other words from Dad at the time she was named the SIAC MVP.

“He’d always tell me I haven’t arrived,” Mager said. “He was never mean or negative or anything like that. It gave me the mindset that I would never reach my full potential if I didn’t keep working.”

Mager’s road to fulfilling her potential hardly seemed possible while playing tee-ball as a 4-year old, more interested in picking flowers than shagging fly balls. Seeing more time on the bench than the field, and only reaching base if she walked or got hit by a pitch, she saw one option to play: Become a pitcher.

At age 9, she began taking pitching lessons from a local pitching coach, the late Margie Sterr,while Mark brought a bucket of balls to practice with.

“He and I practiced a year before he even let me pitch in my first game,” Mager said.

In that first game, she beaned 10 batters.

“I was sad and depressed, but (my dad) found a way to pick me back up,” she said.

She had far from reached her potential, but realized maybe the journey would be worth it.

“(My dad) said that if you start at the top, you only have further to fall,” Mager said. “And if you start from the bottom, you have a better chance of moving upward.”

Then, another Texan by the name of Thomas Hill helped Mager hone her skills even more. After Sterr passed away in 2002, the shock almost turned Mager against pitching, but she soon realized her play would instead act as a tribute.

“I felt I had picked up enough from her that I could continue,” Mager said. “Some days, I just throw for her.”

After winning state and being named All-County, All-District and All-State at Danburn High School, Mager elected to play junior college softball to help grow stronger as a player (she weighed only 97 pounds in high school).

Attending Okaloosa-Walton, Mager found herself being pushed back toward the mound her sophomore year when a couple of positions opened up and she went 9-2 in the Panhandle Conference. She only had partial scholarship offers, but only one for a full ride: Albany State.

Interestingly enough, Skinner showed interest in two other pitchers before focusing on Mager.

“I guess the third one’s the charm,” he joked. “I’ve had good pitchers in the past, but few had the discipline and work ethic that Mindy has. Like I said before, If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be just like Mindy.”

Mager propelled last season’s Lady Rams to the program’s first conference title since 2005, finishing the season 19-14. This year, she has only gotten better.

“If there’s one thing (Mark) noticed from last year’s final (a 9-0 win against Miles) was that I seemed tired and got behind in the count a lot,” Mager said. “Once again, I had yet to reach my potential.”

So Mager focused, running before practices and then pushing herself through workouts. Pitching with Melissa Hurst (14-11 overall), the Rams have had enough offense from players like Tate (10 home runs), and Allyssa Spellman and Monroe product Ta’Shelya Bynum to be the SIAC’s overwhelming favorites.

If Mager is named the MVP again, she will — as she has in the past — likely deflect all those accolades to her teammates. She would rather hear nothing about her reaching per potential.

“If (Mark) tells me I reached my potential, it would hurt me if he said that,” Mager said. “I always want to get better.”

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