Softball
Favorite athlete: Derek Jeter – New York Yankees Shortstop
Favorite team: New York Yankees
Favorite memory competing in sports: My favorite memory is making the last out to win our first round states game against Central Dauphin last year. Liz (Parkins) threw a rise ball, and the batter popped up behind home plate. I threw the mask off and found the ball that seemed to be 10 miles high. I tracked the ball all the way to the backstop fence, and when the ball finally fell into my glove, it was the best feeling ever. I tossed the ball to the umpire and ran out onto the field to celebrate with my team.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Last year we were in the middle of a pretty important game, not sure who it was against, but the bases were loaded and I thought we had two outs. When Liz struck out the next batter, I routinely rolled the ball back to the pitcher’s mound and started running over to our dugout. Luckily, the runner on third didn’t realize my mistake and stayed where she was. Liz recovered the ball and informed me we only now had two outs, and I ran back behind the plate quite embarrassed.
Music on iPod: Drake, Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, Taylor Swift, John Mayer
Future plans: My future plans include studying Health Sciences and playing softball at Philadelphia University.
Words to live by: ‘The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.’ – Mia Hamm
One goal before turning 30: Win a National Championship with PhilaU and have a successful job.
One thing people don’t know about me: My real name is Amalia. I was named after my great-grandmother who also went by the name Mollie.
Mollie Burrell, according to her coach, was the unsung hero during the Souderton softball team’s magical postseason run to the state quarterfinals last year.
“Mollie called every pitch for Liz (Parkins),” coach Courtney Hughes said of her senior captain who anchored the team behind the plate last season. “She’s such an intelligent kid, and she was making some of those great decisions, and that’s what made us so successful last year.
“She would read what pitches were working, what pitches weren’t working and what the ump was calling.”
Hughes was counting on Burrell’s experience behind the plate to help smooth the transition to a completely new and very young pitching staff this season, but things didn’t exactly go as planned.
Burrell was sidelined for the better part of her senior season, rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn labrum in her right shoulder. Although Burrell, who still served as a captain, helped call the games from the sidelines, her presence was sorely missed on the field by an Indian squad that won just six games after winning 18 last year.
“We knew we had a new pitching staff, and to be able to have some experience coming back was the part we really needed,” Hughes said. “It wasn’t anything against our other catchers, but the pitchers have confidence in Mollie back there, which means so much to the new pitchers because they would have confidence in whatever she was calling.
“Mollie had been preparing herself for that role all summer and fall, and when she was unable to be in that role, it took a lot of wind out of the team. I really think not having her call the pitches was a big thing for our team this year.”
Burrell’s uncanny knack for calling pitches didn’t just happen. The Souderton senior, who is in the top five percent of her class, is not only intelligent, she is a student of the game.
“I grew up watching the Yankees with my dad,” she said. “We would always talk about pitches and moving the ball around and trying to catch the batters off balance. I learned a lot just from watching that.”
The senior signal caller believes that pitch calling is one of the most important aspects of the game for a catcher.
“A coach can sit on the sidelines and call the game and know what they’re doing, but a catcher has the best perspective,” Burrell said. “I always try and develop a good relationship with my pitchers.
“When something isn’t working or something needs to be better, the catcher is the first person to see that.”
It didn’t take long for Hughes to realize that Burrell had what it takes to call a game, and by the midway point of her sophomore season, the rookie catcher was calling every pitch.
“She was just making great decisions about pitches she was calling and why she called the pitch,” Hughes said. “We discussed a lot of that her sophomore year, and after she caught for her travel team that summer, she came back her junior year with even more understanding. When the game starts coming to you like that, you’re able to make those decisions.
“Even this year during practices with the pitchers, we would put Mollie with each of the pitchers because she’s one of the few who would honestly tell us how balls were moving.”
It was during her junior season that Burrell’s value to the team was underscored as Liz Parkins – with Burrell calling every pitch – elevated her game, earning all-state honors and leading the Indians to lofty heights.
“We definitely had a once-in-a-lifetime chemistry between a battery,” Burrell said. “You’re lucky to get that once, if ever, and it was a great experience.
“We took advantage of our strengths, and we just had a chemistry. She trusted me, I trusted her. It was a just a great relationship, and it worked. It was magic, and I miss it every day.”
The former batterymates are still close friends, and that friendship played a role in the special chemistry they shared.
“I think the key to calling a game is knowing your pitcher inside and out and just mixing it up and trying to get inside the batter’s head and always try and catch her off guard,” Burrell said. “It’s knowing your pitcher, knowing what she likes to throw, knowing the batters as well as you can, and communication is a big factor.”
Burrell, who has been part of the travel circuit since her 10U days with the Harleysville Thunderbirds, got her first taste of life behind the plate when she was 12 years old.
“It was kind of because we needed a catcher,” the former outfielder said. “It was the best thing ever to happen to me.
“I love my position. It’s the best position on the field. It fits me perfectly. I get to be a leader and I get to be involved in every pitch. I love that about my position.”
Burrell learned her craft by attending clinics, and she was the bat girl for the Philly Force professional softball team and was the ‘little sister’ of catcher Ryan Realmuto in the team’s big sister-little sister program.
“She was a real mentor to me,” Burrell said of the four-time All- Big 12 catcher from Oklahoma State. “I watched her catch, and I just loved being around the sport. That’s when I really became serious about catching.”
Burrell was looking forward to leading the team from behind the plate this season, but she had an inkling something was wrong as the season wound down last year.
“Going into states, my shoulder was a pretty big issue, but you can’t sit out during states,” Burrell said. “Your junior year is big, and I had to get recruited. I played through it.”
And Burrell was good enough to catch the attention of several college coaches, including Philadelphia University coach Joe Long. In April, she signed a letter of intent to play softball at PhilaU, a late entry that won out over York College and Muhlenburg to land Burrell’s talents.
That, however, didn’t make it any easier to sit out almost her entire senior season.
“It was too tough to describe,” Burrell said. “It’s hard to be a senior and a leader and a captain and watch your team struggle because it’s hard not to put the blame on yourself.
“I would rather have seen them succeed and say, ‘I’m not needed. This team is good enough without me,’ rather than watch them struggle and say – what if I was able to play, what if I was up to bat in that situation? You can’t say what if.”
Burrell filled the role of designated player later in the season and even had a few innings behind the plate.
“It hurt her that she couldn’t be helping the team when we were struggling with things,” Hughes said. “She’s a leader, and she’s been a leader the past couple of years that kids looked to her and said, ‘I want to be more like her’ and emulate the things she does. The kids respect so much of what she does.
“She’s one that will hold people accountable, and to me, she was almost like a second coach. She’s very bright, and she works hard at everything she does.”
Playing softball is just a piece of Burrell’s very busy life. She also is a member of National Honor Society, Future Business Leaders of America, Students Against Violating the Earth (SAVE) and Student Council. She wrote for the school newspaper for several years and works on Red Alert, the school’s weekly television show. She is a member of LINK Crew, a freshman orientation program, and she played and enjoyed field hockey as a member of her high school team through her junior year.
Burrell places a high value on academics, and she has taken a steady diet of honors classes, including several AP classes.
“The way it worked in my house – if you don’t get your homework done, you can’t go to practice,” she said. “The two always went hand-in-hand. We had an understanding that school came first, and as much as I dreamed about it, I’m not going to be a professional softball player.
“I have to find a more realistic career and strive for that as well.”
Burrell plans to major in health sciences but is uncertain about her career choice.
“I’m thinking of physician’s assistant or physical therapy,” she said. “My dad is an optometrist so that’s in the mix as well.”
It’s a safe bet softball will be an important part of the mix as well for an athlete who understands that there’s a whole lot more to being a good catcher than meets the eye.
