Corsicana —
Sometimes the most heartwarming things take place where you least expect them, from people you don’t know and in situations that seem rather insignificant.
Faith McMullen’s pop out to shortstop last week in Rice marked such an occasion.
“This little girl hasn’t hit the ball all year,” Mildred Maniacs 12-under girls softball coach Don Cope told me as he paced the first base coach’s box.
“Heard that before,” I thought, as I umpired first base during the Texas Teen-Age Softball 12-under district championship game. My translation? Faith simply wasn’t a strong hitter.
Then, when she fouled a pitch down the left field line, about 20 feet past third base, I understood. The crowd roared. The other Maniacs went wild. Don turned and looked at me and said, “That’s the first time she has swung the bat all year long!”
Faith, 11 and in her first year of softball, ended up with a fly-out to shortstop. She raced off the field, got high-fives from her teammates – all eight of them, and immediately went to the back entrance of the dugout, where her father came around to congratulate her, and her mother embraced her.
“I ran over and scooped her up,” mother Jackie said recently. “She said, ‘Mom, I did it for you.’
“Everybody was telling us how proud they were of her.”
Faith, literally, had yet to swing the bat all season long. She had a broken finger for much of the year, and suffered from insecurity in the batter’s box, her dad, Mike, said. “She just watched (pitches) go by,” Mike said.
“I was just scared,” Faith admitted.
Not last Thursday. Not in the championship game. Not this time, on her level’s semi-biggest stage. (The Maniacs and the Hillsboro Divas, whom they lost to, 8-7 in the final, will both play next week at the TTAS state tournament in Whitehouse.)
A broken finger kept Faith out for a few games. Maniacs head coach Doug Tapley said she went through in and out one practice with no problem, but hitting – something she did well in practice – was a different story. She told the coaches her finger was hurting, and she ended up in a cast.
Her defense got better once the cast came off, evidenced by 30 more feet on her throws, Tapley said. The batting, an issue all season, didn’t come around. But with only nine players, Faith remained in the lineup. She had to.
“Right before she hit it that time, I told her, ‘Faith, you’re going to have to swing the bat sooner or later,’” Tapley said.
Mom. Dad. Coaches. They’d take a swinging strikeout. The pop-up was monumental.
“That was the season for her. Me too,” Tapley said. “To see her do something positive, it makes you feel good. There are girls more athletic who don’t give 50 percent of the effort.”
Little brother Peyton, 9, has always been the athlete in the family, Mike said. He plays quarterback in pee wee football, and loves the limelight. Faith? She’s a little quieter, prefers cheerleading over the other sports.
“It’s her first year to play,” Mike said. “She tried it once, but she was more interested in her pink cleats than anything else.”
She’s more interested in the game now, and she said she is grateful for the support from her teammates, coaches and family.
Faith may not be the next Jennie Finch, or even the Maniacs seventh or eighth-best player. But on one hot night in Rice, she created a little magic for her family, her friends, complete strangers sitting across the field in the other bleachers, and the guy right behind first base in blue watching everything with an accepting smile.
“It was the same feeling as if she’d have hit a home run, because she did it, she finally hit the ball,” Jackie said.
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Related Photos
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Daily Sun photo/Raymond Linex II Faith McMullen, center, energized her teammates and fans of the Mildred Maniacs last week when she swung the bat for the first time all year. Pictured, left to right, are her mother, Jackie, Faith and her father, Mike. Faith is playing softball for the first time, and said she has simply been scared at the plate.
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Positive Contact: Simple pop fly brings big joy for McMullen, Maniacs
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