It’s no coincidence Maddy Meierer’s workload in the center circle has been reduced this season.
The Nixa pitcher enters Thursday's Class 5 Quarterfinal contest at Blue Springs South having thrown 123 innings over the Lady Eagles’ 31 games. Last season, she threw 139.2 innings in 27 games.
Coach Matt Walker has taken a cautious approach with Meierer, after she endured lower back pain in the spring. For a month, she was reduced to throwing just once a week and still would find herself in pain.
“Oh my gosh, it was awful. Some days, I would cry and cry because it would hurt so bad,” Meierer said. “I didn't know what I did to it. It happened randomly. I didn't know what to do to fix it. I wanted it to go away, but it wouldn’t.
“(Doctors) thought I might have a hairline fracture and that worried me,” she added. “Finally, they determined my bottom vertebrae is stuck to my tailbone, so they rub together.”
The good news was doctors told Meierer she could relieve herself of pain by going through exercises designed to stretch her back. It’s worked, as she was able to throw in the summer and into the high school season.
“I have to stretch every day,” she said. “(Prior to Saturday’s District final against Ozark), I stretched three times last night and I stretched before the game. I've been stretching so much lately. Earlier in the season, I stopped stretching because I was feeling good. But then I started going downhill with my pitching. I started it back up again and have been doing better. You can see the difference between when I do stretch and don’t.”
“Usually, her mom comes in and they find somewhere to get the stretching in before the game starts,” Walker said.
Meierer, a junior, has been the most dominant pitcher in southwest Missouri this fall. She owns a 17-4 W-L record, to go along with a 2.05 ERA and 153 strikeouts.
Blue Springs South (28-4) features .520-hitting leadoff hitter Elle Smith. She has 52 hits and 43 runs scored. Smith was 5-for-5 in South’s District final win over Grain Valley.
Sophomore Madison Hoffman, whose homer capped South’s rally from a 4-0 deficit to beat Gran Valley 9-7, is hitting .472. Bailey Brumley has hit 11 home runs and Emily Berry six.
South faced three COC foes this season, beating Willard 10-0, downing Ozark 8-2 and whipping Carthage 17-5.
Nixa has 32 home runs and South has 29.
South has three pitchers with six wins or more and all three have thrown at least 50 innings. Maddie Duvall is 10-0 with a 1.81 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 73.2 innings. Brumley is 9-1 with a 2.14 ERA.
