NCS Sophomore of the Year
NICOLE MAY, FOOTHILL
In softball, and in baseball as well, it’s almost always about pitching and getting outs, and no one in Northern California does it better than Foothill sophomore Nicole May and her 65-mile per hour rise ball. While the rise ball is her bread and butter, which with her great movement is even harder to hit coming from the tall and long-armed right-hander, the Oklahoma-committed May has an arsenal of other pitches as well keeps hitters off balance.
What made this season even more impressive was the fact May played the entire season with pain in the right forearm that caused her to wear a sleeve-like piece over the upper forearm when she was in the circle.
Foothill went 24-4, but in two of the losses May did not pitch, including the championship game of the two-part Livermore Stampede. In fact, because coach Matt Sweeney was concerned about the pain she was having, he held her out for six games.
May pitched all the games in Pool play at the Livermore Stampede, including an overpowering performance we reported on in a 9-0 victory over Bishop Manogue-Reno. In that game she consistently hit 64-65 on the radar gun with the riser.
After that she had an MRI which showed no damage, and when the Oklahoma coaches told her to keep pitching, she did. In her first outing after the first part of the Stampede, five days later, she went up against Amador Valley at their house and lost 1-0, and apparently hurt the forearm even more.
“She had her best velocity and control against Manogue and they’re a good hitting team with D1 players,” Sweeney remarked. “But after the Amador game it hurt real bad. She had trouble moving it without pain. We shut her down and I met with her parents to map out a strategy to finish the season. We knew we had a stretch where we were not going to pitch Nicole. Winning the Stampede is important but winning league and NCS was more important.”
With May out of commission, in terms of pitching, the Falcons lost 3-2 in eight innings to NCS D2 champion Carondelet, and fell four games later to Freedom in the championship game of the Livermore Stampede.
However, May came back for the final four weeks of the season and was superb in a 1-0 win over Amador Valley at home to end the EBAL regular season. After a 4-2 win over Carondelet, she had an 8-0 shutout of Amador Valley in the EBAL playoffs title game. Then, in the NCS D1 playoffs, May blanked California and Heritage, 4-0 and 2-0, before the heartbreaking loss to Amador Valley in the championship where she only gave up three hits with 11 strikeouts.
“She’s as tough as they come. That’s why she’s going to Oklahoma,” Sweeney remarked.
For the season, Foothill was 20-2 with May in the circle, and both losses came to Amador Valley when each time her team was shut out. In 128 innings pitched, she only gave up 12 earned runs for a 0.65 ERA, and struck out 209 batters with only 24 bases on balls.
With bat in hand, May was third on the team to Pittsburgh-bound junior Hope Alley and sophomore catcher Courtney Beaudin with a .404 average. She also had four home runs, five doubles and 14 RBIs with 11 runs scored.
“Nicole is a special player,” Sweeney said. “Not only is she a great player, but like Hope and Courtney she has a presence about her that makes everyone else better, a refuse to lose attitude.”
May and her Falcons teammates didn’t quite get to the promised land this year, but she is back along with Alley and Beaudin and quite a few others, and will be returning as the reigning Prep2Prep North Coast Section Sophomore of the Year.
Other players considered include San Marin's Alexis Bishop, Cloverdale's Tehya Bird, Carondelet's Gabriella Williams, and San Marin's Madison Papenhausen.
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