TAMPA, Fla. — Bloomingdale High School (13-0) softball pitcher Natalie Cable has continued her dominance in the pitching circle this season.
“This year, I have been working on my curveball and change-up a little more,” she said.
As if Cable needed more options to get hitters to swing and miss, the junior is tops in the Tampa Bay area and ranks third in the state this season with 175 strikeouts.
“I take each game one pitch at a time,” Cable said. “I think that’s my strong suit. I’m very much in the moment, a one-pitch warrior.”
To put her eye-popping strike-out totals in perspective, she’s pitched 75.1 innings and faced 288 batters.
Nearly 61% of those batter did a U-turn back to the dugout.
“Velocity is definitely a big one,” head coach Leah Pemberton said. “Just her grit on the mound. She goes up there like, ‘I’m going to win.’ As a batter, that’s really hard to face a pitcher who has that mentality of ‘I’m going to win, I’m going to win this at-bat.'"
In 10 starts in which she pitched seven innings this season, Cable struck out at least 15 batters in eight times. In one game, she fanned 20 of the 21 batters faced.
“If I were going up there, I would be intimidated,” Bloomingdale catcher Ashlee Singer said. “especially when she goes inside on the batters, and she can really get in and up on their hands.”
“We constantly have different umpires coming up saying the movement is unbelievable,” Pemberton added. “It’s really hard to see and catch.”
Cable is also talented with the bat leading her time in home runs the last three seasons.
“I love competing on both sides of the plate. I love it all. I love hitting, I love pitching, I love playing the field,” Cable said. “I just love the opportunity to play.”
That opportunity will continue on the West Coast after her high school career is over. Cable has verbally committed to UCLA.
