LYNN — From her days as a Wyoma Little League softball player, Lynn native Michaela Hamill has always dreamed of pitching on the biggest stage. Hamill, now a junior pitcher at Endicott College, is watching her dream become a reality.
Champions of the Commonwealth Coast Conference, the Gulls are bound for the Division III NCAA Tournament. They traveled to Union, New Jersey this week and start their tournament quest Friday afternoon (2), when they take on No. 13 Kean in the opening round.
“It’s still crazy that we’re going to NCAA’s,” Hamill, a St. Mary’s graduate, said. “It’s kind of like a dream come true.”
Hamill and the Gulls made quick work of the CCC during the regular season, going 16-0 against conference opponents. But when the CCC Tournament rolled around, Endicott made things difficult on itself. The Gulls fell to University of New England, 6-2, in the opening round, dropping Endicott to the loser’s bracket. They bounced back with an 9-1 win over Salve Regina and earned another shot at UNE. Behind five innings of shutout softball from Hamill, Endicott defeated UNE 8-0 to force a winner-take-all clash against the Nor’easters. Endicott punched its ticket to NCAA’s with a 10-0 win. The victory was Gulls coach Katie Bettencourt’s 100th career win.
“It was awesome,” Hamill said. “We had a lot to celebrate. Maggie Oram pitched a perfect game so that was really exciting. We hit three home runs which was really cool. We were really excited.”
Hamill and her teammates feel things came full-circle this season. Endicott fell one win short of the CCC Championship in 2018. Rather than hang their heads on last year’s shortcomings, the Gulls learned from their mistakes and corrected them this time around.
“We kind of ended up doing the same thing we did last year,” Hamill said. “We had to win three games to win the championship because we had to go into the loser’s bracket. Losing last year lit a fire underneath us. We wanted to win that much more. We have a lot of returners this year and we all talked about how uptight we played last year. Last year’s experiences helped us. We played much more loose and calm.”
This season, Hamill has posted a 9-2 record in 69 1/3 innings of work. She allowed just 19 earned runs, a career low, in 13 appearances. Her 50 strikeouts and 1.92 ERA are also career bests.
“I’ve really improved with being smarter in pitching to batters,” Hamill, a right-hander, said. “Everyone knows me as a pitcher. You have to learn to work around that and strategize. The (CCC Tournament) game against UNE was my third time pitching against them. I was pretty proud of myself that they weren’t able to figure it out.”
Hamill’s family shares in her success by making the quick drive from Lynn to Beverly to watch her pitch.
“It’s a big part of it,” Hamill said. “It’s fun to be able to celebrate with them. They come to every single game. They’re coming to New Jersey. They’re super excited, as excited as we were. A lot of the families and parents were really involved. The parents kind of felt like they won too.”
An elementary education major, Hamill will intern at the May Institute in Wilmington during the fall. She plans on pursuing a master’s in severe special needs. With the close of the academic year around the corner, Hamill has kept busy over the past few weeks.
“Our professors are really understanding,” Hamill said. “Endicott’s a big student-athlete school. I’ve had to miss class a lot but they’re supportive. A lot of professors go to our games and email us ‘good job’ after. Everyone’s really supportive of athletics at Endicott.”
Endicott’s 32-win regular season was a feat easier said than accomplished. The team tested itself with a competitive non-conference schedule, including a slate of tough opponents out of the gate in its Florida trip, in hopes of preparing itself for the biggest stage. Now they feel well-prepared for what’s ahead of them.
“We played nationally-ranked teams,” Hamill said. “I feel that kind of prepared us. Some of those teams are in the tournament so that was good for us to see where we stand. We played well in our conference and there were out of conference games that helped us. We beat Tufts, that was a huge win. Wins like that kind of gave us re-assurance heading into NCAA’s.
“We’re super excited. We’re going to go down there, have fun, do our best and see what happens.”
