It was a warm, humid Saturday night in Palm Springs, Calif., and the bases were loaded.
Freshman pitcher Bailey Erwin was in the circle for the Missouri Tigers, watching as the four-spot batter for University of California-Davis trots to first base after drawing a full-count walk. The Tigers were sitting on a tidy two-run lead. The situation was as high-pressure as it gets for a rookie pitcher in only her second appearance on the collegiate diamond.
How would Erwin handle the situation?
She killed the Aggie threat by forcing a double-play groundout.
For Erwin, the young season has been a contrast in results. After escaping the first-inning jam, the Claremore, Okla., native managed to shut out UC-Davis in the team’s 8-0 win. The victory was Erwin’s first career win as a Tiger, after the team fell in extra innings to Eastern Kentucky in her first start earlier in the year.
Equipped with a smile as warm as her dropball is tricky and quietly reserved despite her 6-foot-5-inch frame, Erwin said that a visit to the circle from coach Ehren Earleywine helped her keep the focus needed to end the UC-Davis scoring opportunity and keep the Tigers cruising.
“She was a nervous wreck, and so I just tried to calm her down a little bit, and she pitched out of a jam,” Earlywine said. “That’s a big deal.”
A similar, albeit less menacing situation reared its head in the bottom of the fourth. UC-Davis again managed to snag two leadoff singles against Erwin, but this time she shut them down with an emphatic strikeout to end the inning. It was her only K of the game, but it was the one that broke the Aggies’ backs.
Sophomore Rachel Hay, who has caught both of Erwin’s starts this season, said the shutout was a confidence boost for the young pitcher.
“After the previous game she pitched that we ended up losing, her confidence might have been lacking,” Hay said. “I think the girls being behind her and making that great play gave her the confidence boost that said ‘Hey, my teammates are behind me, they’ll pick me up if I make mistakes.’”
Despite her clutch performance last weekend, Erwin is still a young, raw pitcher playing on a totally new stage. Earleywine expects it will take some time before the towering Oklahoman is fully comfortable pitching on the higher level.
“I knew that Bailey was nervous in her first outing, and she’s still nervous,” he said. “We’re still waiting for her to get comfortable.”
Earlywine said the coaching staff didn’t want to change strategies between Erwin’s starts.
“We didn’t want to deviate too much from what she does well, which is to throw the ball down at the knees and try to induce ground balls,” he said. “We didn’t try to do anything different, but I knew it was going to be a process of her getting comfortable and confident.”
One key element in Erwin’s development is the fact that she is a part of arguably the best pitching staff in the nation. Junior ace Chelsea Thomas was a USA Softball National Player of the Year top three finalist last season. Senior Kristin Nottelmann finished last year with a 17-1 record and a 1.91 ERA, good for eighth in the Big 12.
“Honestly, I wouldn’t trade our pitching staff for any other staff in the country,” Earleywine said.
Erwin has already benefited from having two top-caliber, upperclassmen pitchers ahead of her in the rotation.
“Chelsea and Kristen are my mentors,” Erwin said. “I’ve learned so much from them. “I always tell Chelsea that I’m going to drive her crazy with all of the questions I ask, but I’m going to ask them anyway because I’m trying to soak in everything that I possibly can and learn from them.”
At least for now, Erwin can shrug off some of the early-season nerves now that an official “W” is next to her name in the Missouri record books.
“It felt good to finally have that off of my shoulders,” Erwin said. “You dream of this your entire life and then it happens, and you’re just kind of in the moment saying, ‘Oh my gosh, this is really happening. It did happen.’”
