Izabella Nelson has put together quite the resume through just two seasons at the varsity level. She’s already on pace to surpass the 500-strikeout mark from the circle, was the winning pitcher in each of the last two Division II championship games and has the All-State accolades to match her eye-popping statistics.
And as far as anybody on the John Stark softball team is concerned, Nelson, the sophomore ace and big bat in the Generals lineup, is just getting started.
“I can say from the first day I saw her, she was a competitor. She’s always competed and I never thought her grade had anything to do with it. That’s just something that’s in Izzy,” Stark head coach Gerry Morin said. “So when you get to a game like the finals, that’s where she shines because she just lives for that. She lives for competition.”
Nelson wrapped up her second season with the Generals the same way she did her first: launching her glove high in the air in celebration after recording the final out on the biggest stage.
She helped Stark bring home its first title in program history as a freshman in 2018 after tossing a complete game against Coe-Brown in the final, no-hitting the Bears through five innings to get her first taste of that championship feeling.
This past spring, Nelson wanted more and she used that experience to guide the Generals to a repeat.
Shutting down one of the premiere lineups in D-II, Nelson fanned 10, allowed one run and held No. 3 Merrimack Valley to two hits in another complete-game effort as the No. 4 Generals claimed the ultimate prize with a 3-1 victory over the Pride.
“After I figured out everything that was working in the first couple of innings, it was pretty much lights-out from there,” Nelson said. “I think we had the upper hand knowing the pressure. We jumped on them earlier knowing the pressure coming in so that was definitely an advantage we had on them.”
The Generals finished the year with 17 wins. Nelson was responsible for 13 of those victories. She tossed 105 ⅓ innings for Stark with 172 strikeouts – 130 coming on swings and misses – while allowing 66 hits for a 1.59 ERA.
Most afternoons, Nelson was a problem opponents couldn’t solve.
She threw two no-hitters during the regular season, the first in a 12-strikeout performance against Stevens on April 29 before repeating the feat against Sanborn on May 8, this time striking out 14 batters. Nelson also tossed a pair of one-hitters – against ConVal on May 13 and Stevens on May 29 – while setting her season-high for strikeouts with 17 against Merrimack Valley on May 1.
In the tournament, Nelson allowed one earned run on 10 hits in 21 innings while striking out 27 to bring her career strikeout total to 302.
“She’s crested that 300 mark, so if she stays on that pace, she’s looking to easily get to five hundred some time in her senior year at some point,” Morin said. “That will be a huge milestone. Five hundred strikeouts for a high school pitcher is pretty cool. That’s what’s looming for her and she’s going to keep pitching as much as she can.”
Along with the help of catcher Anna Stenger, who Morin said “pretty much calls the game on her own” for the pitching staff, the development of the hard-throwing Nelson’s changeup played a huge factor in her continued success.
“I’m sure everybody cranked up their pitching machines and said, ‘Let’s hit the fastball.’ So we recognized that halfway through the season,” Morin said. “They recognized as a team that (the changeup) was a weapon. And it was just like anything: the more she threw it, the better it got.”
Not to be lost in all of Nelson’s pitching numbers was the steady job she did with the bat for Stark’s lineup. On top of being one of the most feared pitchers inside the division, Nelson batted .548 this season with four home runs and 28 RBI.
That type of complete player leaves the Generals in a good place for the foreseeable future.
“It’s great to know,” said Morin on the comfort of having a caliber of player like Nelson coming back. “Obviously (the team) is so close, they have so much experience under their belts from these last two great seasons. It’s going to be fun for a long time for me.”
Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)