The Voice traveled out to the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy to catch up with Georgetown softball (10-14, 0-0 Big East) and their senior ace and captain Megan Hyson as the team worked with young athletes from around the city. With conference play starting this weekend at home against Villanova (7-11, 0-0 Big East), Hyson shared her thoughts on her own progress this season as well as her views on this year’s team.
What are the main things you attribute your success in the circle to so far this season?
Last year, especially, we worked on getting ahead in the count. I think that’s a big thing because usually when I get behind in the count, it’s not a very good outcome. In practice we’ve been working on it. Also, with my team behind me, I think they do very well picking me up, especially in hard innings and tough situations, they help me get out of them.
When you’re pitching, what kind of mindset do you try to keep?
I like to be pumped up, but I also have this motto of not thinking, of just going out there and it being just me and the catcher. A lot of times when I overdo or overthink, it just never turns out right, so I go out there without thinking about anything.
Have you been doing anything differently this season that has helped you while you’ve been pitching?
My changeup, I’ve definitely worked on my changeup, which has helped me in a lot of situations. And when you have an off-speed pitch, it definitely offsets the batters, and that’s definitely helped me a lot this season.
What do you think the biggest challenge is for your team as you begin conference play this weekend?
I don’t think we really have any challenges. I think our team is honestly going to be really good in conference just with the mindset we have and knowing that we always play really good against our conference because we’re always pumped up, especially the first games. And we love playing Villanova, they’re one of our rivals, so we’re always going to pumped up for that one.
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season, and what have you enjoyed about this season so far?
I’ve enjoyed my teammates, especially since if I didn’t have them, I would probably hate being on the team. Just that I have friends on the team this year who I can talk to if anything goes wrong and they’re kind of like my therapists sometimes, especially when I’ve had tough games or something like that. I’m also looking forward to hopefully winning the Big East. That’s our goal, so if we win, that will be awesome.
What advice do you hope to leave with the underclassmen after you graduate?
Just play hard all the time. You only have four years to play softball and it’s so weird because you don’t realize it until you get to your senior year. And then once you graduate you’re really going to miss it, so just play with all your heart every game.
What’s next for Megan?
Well, hopefully I’m going to get a job and become a nurse. I’m crossing my fingers for whoever will take me. I’m also hoping to maybe do something like this with [Nationals] Academy, or helping little kids learn the game of softball, which I can never get away from softball. So I’ll try to do something with that.
