Melissa Stone is not a pitcher who will go out and overpower a team. She simply gets outs by throwing strikes and using a little finesse.
That formula helped Stone emerge as a pretty fair supporting role pitcher the last two years for the Carson High School softball team. Fair enough that she received second-team all-conference honors during her senior season and earned a shot to continue playing softball at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D.
Stone signed a letter-of-intent with Division II Northern State to extend a pitching career that began when she was playing Bobby Sox softball as a 9-year-old.
"I think Melissa did a real good job," Carson coach John Sullivan said. "There are a lot of girls who play softball, but not too many get scholarships. She did prove that hard work pays off.
"Her junior year, she started out as our No. 3 pitcher and by the end of the year she may have been our best."
It did for Stone, who compiled an 8-4 record with one save and a 1.86 ERA this season while sharing the pitching duties with Nicole Freeman. Stone worked 90.1 innings, struck out 84, walked only 26 and limited opposing hitters to a .182 batting average.
The right-hander pitched a two-hitter to beat Ganesha (Pomona, Calif.) at the Fred Davidson Memorial tournament in Las Vegas on April 16, then five days later, she twirled a three-hitter in a 1-0 loss to Foothill (Palo Cedro, Calif.) in the Reed Easter Tournament semifinals. Another highlight for Stone was her four-hitter to shut out Douglas 1-0 on March 28 in Minden.
Stone did all this as the Tom Glavine of Northern 4A softball. That is, a pitcher who sets batters up with an assortment of offspeed stuff, including an extremely effective changeup.
"I think it's good to have a lot of pitches," Stone said. "Even if you can throw really hard, the batters are going to know what's coming and they're eventually going to be able to get the timing down. If you can throw five or six pitches, you're going to be able to keep them off balance."
She calls the changeup her best pitch.
"Louie (Sanchez, Carson pitching coach) taught me the basics of the changeup and I just kept working on it," Stone said. "I worked on it a lot in practice - I'd throw 100 of them every day - and it paid off because I'm confident throwing it at any time."
Stone hopes to step in and play for the Northern State Wolves, who went 9-23 overall and 6-12 in their Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference this season. The team already has one Northern Nevada player, Kristen Luchetti, a 1999 graduate of Bishop Manogue High School in Reno.
"I'm really nervous, and excited at the same time," Stone said, flashing a smile. "It's going to be a good experience to move on and play softball.
"I enjoyed my two varsity years here. I had a good time; I played with a lot of good girls and with good coaches who taught us a lot."
Notes ... Five former Carson players were listed on Division I rosters this season, including Leah Sanchez, Margie Foster and Rosette Rough at Long Island University (Sanchez and Foster were first-team all-conference), Nicole Karasek pitched for Kent State and Mimi Utt was a medical redshirt at Georgia Tech (she won 13 games as a freshman in 1999).
