Tuscola rising junior Melody Hannah, right, and Mountaineers catcher Heather Carver.
Tuscola rising junior Melody Hannah, right, and Mountaineers catcher Heather Carver.
Tuscola rising junior Melody Hannah hardly made her college softball pick in the heat of the moment.
“I went to North Greenville (S.C.) two years ago and told my family that’s where I wanted to go,” Hannah said.
“The location is good. It’s close to home, The people are so nice, they have a lot of majors you can choose from and a new sports complex. The coach (Sarah Hall) is awesome. I just love it down there.”
Hannah has committed to pitch for the Crusaders midway through her high school career, and shortly after a dramatic turnaround season for the Mountaineers.
They were 13-8 last spring after winning only two games in 2015.
Hannah is a right-hander who used a fastball, changeup, screwball, curveball, dropball, riseball and drop curve to engineer a big improvement under first-year coach Tara Gibbs.
Hannah was an All-Western North Carolina Athletic Conference and Citizen-Times All-WNC player for the Mountaineers and maintained a 4.75 earned-run average with 101 strikeouts. At the plate, she batted .397 with 25 RBIs and three home runs.
“We showed what we could do, and now I think we’re all ready to fix our mistakes and have an even better season,” Hannah said.
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