File photo/illustration by Travis Rosenau Nicollet’s Marah Hulke delivers a pitch during the Section 2A softball finals game against Springfield on June 10 at Caswell Park. Hulke was named the 2021 All-Journal Softball Player of the Year on Thursday.
NICOLLET — With high school softball back this year after 2020’s canceled season, Nicollet High School junior Marah Hulke had no problems picking up from where she left off.
During her freshman season two years ago, Hulke hit .514 at the plate and turned in a 1.62 ERA in the circle.
The numbers and play only improved over the past two years as Hulke finished her junior year with a .534 batting average, 39 hits, 33 RBIs, eight doubles, seven homers and three triples. Splitting time with teammate and fellow 2021 All-Journal player Hayley Selby in the circle again this season, Hulke finished with a 10-3 record, a 1.15 ERA and 124 strikeouts in 79 innings. She also had two holds.
Hulke finished this season as a Valley All-Conference player and an All-State Second Team member. She is also the top returning member from the 2019 All-Journal Softball First Team, finishing fifth in the voting that year.
And to top off a dominant junior season, Hulke was unanimously chosen as the 2021 All-Journal Softball Player of the Year as voted on by The Journal’s sports staff.
“It’s such an honor to get all of these awards,” Hulke said. “To me it means a lot, but it wouldn’t be possible without all the teammates and everyone who is there playing with me and playing behind me when I’m pitching. But it’s just nice all of the hard work and the extra hours put in — that they’re finally paying off and that I’m getting the recognition.”
Hulke’s improved play was expected in her sophomore year. Despite the unfortunate loss of that sophomore season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hulke continued to put in time improving and staying active over the year.
“Our school offered an outdoor strength and conditioning program, so I did that,” Hulke said. “It wasn’t the same as the indoor stuff, but we still got a lot done and it was a lot of conditioning, which was good. And I did a lot of pitching on my own, my parents caught for me. I also played for a team in Mankato, a travel club team [Mankato Peppers], and we got to go to tournaments, which was nice. So I did get to play, which was good after missing the season.”
With talks of the volleyball season being pushed back to the spring of 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns, Hulke took up cross-country in the fall of 2020. But volleyball ended up being approved for the fall after all, leaving Hulke to compete in two sports. After finishing both fall sports, she played basketball in the winter and capped off her junior year with a stellar softball season in the spring.
A lot has changed since 2019 for Hulke, such as growing into more of a leader and adding new pitches to her arsenal.
“In 2019 I was a freshman and playing on varsity,” Hulke said. “It was good, but I still was one of the younger players on the team. This year being a junior and one of the upperclassmen, I really took on a leadership role. I knew if our team was going to do good, I needed to play a big role in that.
“I had a lot of confidence, and over the past two years, I developed two more strikeout pitches that were very noticeable to see this year,” Hulke added. “And this past winter, one of my teammates has an indoor batting cage, so after basketball practices and on the weekends, we would go down there and bat there to get ready for the season. So that definitely made a big difference, because when the season started we didn’t have very much time to practice and we were having our first games.”
The Raiders were two wins away from making it to the Class A State Softball Tournament this year. In a Section 2A semifinals game, Springfield defeated and knocked Nicollet into a elimination bracket meeting with Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s.
The Raiders ended up earning a walkoff win over the Knights in nine innings to advance to the section finals and a rematch with Springfield, with Nicollet needing two wins to advance to state. The Tigers got the better of Nicollet again, however, picking up a 6-4 win to move on to the state tourney.
Despite the section finals loss, the Raiders ended the season with a 19-7 record, a solid improvement from their 12-10 finish in 2019.
“We came in this year and didn’t have as much varsity experience,” Hulke said. “Everyone was like, ‘Well, it’ll probably be a rebuilding year and you guys might have a .500 record, hopefully it’ll be a good season.’ And we started playing and we were having a really good season. I believe it’s been [more than] 35 years since a Nicollet softball team has been in the section finals.”
Nicollet last made it to the softball section finals in 1982, where the Raiders ended up making the state tournament.
While the improvements have been nice to see for Nicollet fans, coaches and players, Hulke and her returning teammates have bigger goals for next season.
“It was just really cool to get [to the section finals], and obviously next year we have higher goals and we’re really hoping to make a deep run again and hopefully get to state,” Hulke added. “But there are a lot of tough, young teams in our section. So we’re just hoping that, just like this year, we start playing our best ball as a team and everyone’s on their game when it gets to section time.”
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