Are those calluses on the tips of Missy Penna’s fingers? “Yeah. It’s the constant friction.” That would be the blast-off friction of a fastball leaving Penna’s hand, bound for the catcher’s mitt at some 65 miles per hour.
A Penna pitch is a study in minimalism. The second pitcher in the history of Stanford softball to record 600 career strikeouts will tug gently at her red visor, rock back slightly and push off with her right leg, ripping a windmill launch that ends in a neon-yellow blur in the strike zone. Penna opened the season with her third career no-hitter and threw five straight shutouts, earning USA Softball National Player of the Week honors. Going into Pac-10 play, the No. 5 Cardinal had won its first 15 games. The 5-foot-10 junior right-hander was the winning pitcher in 11 of those games, notching 9.4 strikeouts per game and an ERA of 0.90. She led the Pac-10 with 11 wins and 94 strikeouts.
Penna started her rec league career in hometown Miami as a catcher, but didn’t much like getting hit by wild pitches. So she stepped into the circle at age 12, and began to hurl rise balls, drops, curves and screws. The changeup, she says, is a more elusive success. “You need to be more relaxed. It takes more finesse, and you have to trick the batter. I’m still working on it.”
Before each game, Penna warms up for 30 minutes, throwing soft then getting her spins going. “Pitching is very mental, and you have to go out there and pretend you just had the best bullpen,” she says of the days when she may not feel on top of her game. “You have to have the mindset, ‘Okay, maybe my drop ball isn’t working today, but my rise ball is going to be.’”
There’s the occasional stoop to scoop up a handful of dirt in the circle, “when my hand is a little slick.” And there’s the rarer up-and-down shift of both shoulders. “That’s to remind me to end up sideways to the batter, to come together smooth and relaxed,” Penna explains. “Because if you stay open to the batter, you just lose power.”
When Penna is pitching, she knows she has to stay smart: “It’s not just harder, harder, but more about location and spin.” When she’s not pitching, Penna helps keep her teammates pumped by cheering them on from the dugout. On a full count, she’ll yell, “Base hit, perambulate.”
As the strikeout count continues, what milestone matters most to Penna? “What it all comes down to is the College World Series. But I have a game to play today, one pitch at a time.”
