This season, the softball team started out with a 4-5 record while working in several first-time starters at key positions. One piece that has been a constant for the Tigers is starting pitcher Ellen Roberts. Hailing from Westleigh in New South Wales, Australia, the senior is pitching in her last season as a Memphis Tiger.
After her three starts in the Ragin' Cajuns Invitational, Roberts has started 75 games as a Tiger with 362 strikeouts in 486 2/3 innings pitched. For her career, Roberts has posted an average of 5.2 strikeouts per seven innings, and an earned run average of 3.04 per game.
For most softball players, it takes years of dedication to reach Roberts' level. However, she almost decided against playing softball when she was growing up. She started out on the diamond playing baseball in Australia on a coed team when she was seven years old.
"I played there for a couple years and I wanted to grow up and play baseball," Roberts said. "One of my best friends at the time wanted to play softball. I didn't want to but I wanted to play with my friend, so we played softball together."
Her friend convinced her to play softball, even though Ellen said the sport is not widely popular in Australia. There are club leagues for talented players, much like soccer is treated in the United States. The most talented softball players who strive for a higher level of competition can choose to leave Australia to play for university teams in the U.S. On one of these club-level softball teams, Ellen realized that she wanted become one of the best - one of the ones who leaves for organized softball in the U.S.
"Some American girls had come over to play in our summer competition," Roberts said. "They were talking about the college league and that it is one of the best competitions in the world. Ever since then I always wanted to play in America and play against the best, because I wanted to improve my game and to be able to compete in this league since I was about 13."
She continued to play softball at a high level in Australia, leading Loreto Normanhurst to the New South Whales national championships three years in a row (2008-2010), and was a member of the Australian National U19 team from 2008 to 2010. She joined the Memphis softball team in 2011, and she has developed and elevated her game constantly.
Many of Roberts' biggest challenges have been adjusting to the heavier workload.
"Now, since my sophomore to senior year I have played a lot more games," Roberts said. "The hitters in this competition are just so good it is not easy to get players out on just a couple pitches. Hitters will face a lot of balls and I have to have the endurance to pitch through it."
There is a lot of work that goes into being physically ready for the toll of seven or more innings of pitching. Each practice, pitchers usually show up an hour early in order to get one-on-one time and instruction with the coaches.
Roberts said that there are different drills and exercises specific to pitchers that they need to do, such as drills that involve driving with the legs, extra time with catchers and working with certain pitches. On top of all those pitcher-specific drills, there are also arm-specific workouts for Roberts.
"Our trainer gets us to do some exercises to strengthen our arm," Roberts said. "It is to make us a better thrower so we can pitch harder and longer. We also do it to prevent injury and stuff like that because we pitch hundreds of balls per day. It is really important for us to do things to strengthen our arms."
Her contributions so far to the softball team have been innumerable, and this season the team will lean on her starting pitching. Roberts has constantly been finding ways to get hitters out, and with 83 more strikeouts she will seize the strikeouts record from Carly Hummel (445) and become just the third player in Memphis softball history with at least 400 strikeouts.
