Niwot ace Nickie Blue has dominated opposing hitters this season, posting a 14-1 record and 0.36 ERA in the circle. She has committed to play at South Carolina next year.
Photo courtesy of Niwot softball
Prior to the 2011 season, it was very regular for a Colorado high school pitcher to be dominant. Then the pitching circle was moved back from 40 to 43 feet, and 1-0 games became an endangered species.
With the extra split second of reaction time, hitters caught up and scores more resembled those of baseball games — 14-7, 9-5, 7-4. Even pitching-rich squads were playing 5-3 games rather than 1-0 and 2-1 contests.
Some have argued that the change has drastically altered the landscape of Colorado softball, with dominant pitchers such as Legacy's Shelby Babcock (now at Arizona) a thing of the past.
Nickie Blue is shattering that perception.
The
Niwot senior is putting up pick-an-adjective numbers: ridiculous, spellbinding, mind-boggling, etc. The 6-foot-1, South Carolina-bound right-hander has struck out 196 batters in 96 innings – better than two an inning – and has guided a team largely composed of underclassmen to a Class 4A Northern League-best 16-1 record. Only Pueblo East (16-0-1) has a better overall record in the classification.
As a pitcher, she enters the weekend 14-1 with an 0.36 ERA, numbers more befitting of the previous era. As a hitter, she has batted .541 with four home runs and 24 RBIs.
"When it was at 40 feet, pitchers had a definite advantage, especially when they throw as hard as Nickie does," Niwot coach Bobby Matthews said. "I haven't seen anything like this since they've moved it back. She is definitely dominant right now."
The closest to Blue's strikeout total among in-state players is
Keely Gray of 3A
Faith Christian (Arvada). Gray has struck out 152 for the 12-4 Eagles, but her periphery numbers aren't as dominant.
"I don't have a good memory, so I don't really remember what it was like pitching from 40 feet," Blue said with a laugh. "When Bobby told me something about that, I said, ‘Oh, I didn't even know they moved it.'"
Modest words from perhaps the best player in the state.
Her feats become more impressive every day, too. On Thursday, Blue struck out 18 of the 25 batters she faced en route to a 3-1 win against Broomfield. Two days prior, she shut out a potent Silver Creek (Longmont) squad 4-0, which might have been Niwot's most crucial win this season. The Cougars were coming off their lone loss, a 3-0 decision to Thompson Valley (Loveland).
Thanks in large part to Blue, Niwot has outscored its foes 142-24.
"One thing I always tell people is that until you really get to know Nickie, you don't understand what an amazing athlete she is," Matthews said. "I firmly believe that whatever sport that girl would put her heart into, she would go Division I."
Don't be deceived by Blue's tall frame. She is one of the team's fastest players and often takes groundballs in the infield just to remain sharp in all facets. Matthews believes she could play shortstop if that was her focus.
By her own admission, Blue is shy. In her moments of being outgoing, she usually is more humorous than serious. All the same, she has morphed into a leader this season.
"She's a very quiet person," Matthews said. "But one thing I told her is that your words carry a lot of weight. If you tell a girl ‘I think you can do it,' then they believe that. I'm very amazed at how far she's come as a leader. She's very vocal now. Not to the point where she's a rah-rah type, because she's not that type of person, but at practice she'll take girls to the side and talk with them and say, ‘hey, you can do this.'"
On a team with only one other senior and seven freshmen, Blue's well-rounded approach from a mental and physical standpoint hasn't gone unnoticed.
"Playing behind Nickie is really great," Niwot freshman outfielder/first baseman
Meghan Waidler said. "It's nice to know she can step up to get her job done and we're looked upon to get our job done. It's really nice to know she supports us as much as we support her."
Said Blue: "It really has been a dream season. We all get along great. And the freshmen that came in, they're amazing. I was thinking about it today, that I'm said I only get to spend a year with them. But I'm glad I got to meet them and be around them."
An instance of Blue's leadership was provided after the Cougars' lone loss. Before the team met for its post-game chat, Blue approached Matthews and told him not to be harsh because players already were beating themselves up as much as possible.
Then her perspective of the loss allowed teammates to quickly move on.
"That game, I mean, I guess the stars just aligned for Thompson Valley," Blue said. "They did everything right. They put the bat on the ball, got the little dink hits when they needed to and they just came through. I was a little — not afraid — but anxious to see how we would react to it because we hadn't been put in that situation before. I'm really proud of my team, how we didn't get down on ourselves."
Blue's college process wasn't as instant as that of some surefire Division-I prospects. Oftentimes, athletes talk of taking one visit and becoming enraptured with the campus and coaching staff. That indeed happened for Blue, but not on her initial visit.
She first glanced at the big softball schools, places such as Florida and Tennessee, before getting advice to start smaller and work her way up. She took a look at Colorado State, her father's alma mater, and took a visit prior to her junior season.
She generated further interest during summer softball showcases, and that's when she initially found out about the Gamecocks. She also visited Washington, Minnesota and Ohio State. She initially had big-time interest in the Buckeyes, but Ohio State's interest somewhat waned, Blue said.
That opened the door for the Gamecocks.
"It was weird because I didn't really know anything about South Carolina until about two months before I committed," Blue said. "I took my unofficial visit there and just fell in love with the place."
