Sophomore Paytience Holman relies on confidence in herself to pitch for the SEMO softball team. In her 3 seasons pitching for SEMO, Holman has always correlated her success with her confidence.

After putting together a 7-7 record with a 3.02 earned run average (ERA) in 2021, Holman started her 2022 campaign by posting a 1.05 in her first three games on the mound.

Holman said her mindset and confidence have helped her have success at the collegiate level.

“My big thing is confidence,” Holman said. “You have to believe in yourself. Softball is a failing sport, so you have to have confidence in yourself, your team, your coach, and you have to trust people are going to have your back. So the mindset I walk in with is, be relaxed, do your thing, and have a whole hell of a lot of confidence.”

Not only is having confidence in one's self important to succeed, but trusting your teammates is just as important as trusting your own abilities. For a pitcher, they must rely on their connection with their teammate behind the plate, the catcher.

Sophomore catcher Kat Sackett said a pitcher and catcher’s relationship is different for everyone, but they all follow one similar trait.

“My relationship with every pitcher is very different,” Sackett said. “But I think that the most important factor that a pitcher and catcher can have is just trusting one another, and knowing that if one of us makes a mistake, then the other one is going to have their back.”

Sackett said Holman’s confidence in herself helps the players around her have confidence in one another.

Although Holman’s confidence helps her perform well at the collegiate level, she said she is not worried about statistics; instead, she takes it one game at a time.

“I don’t really like to look at the stats,” Holman said. “It’s never really how I function as a pitcher. I feel like if you get too caught up in the numbers, whether it’s too high or too low, then you won’t be able to live in the moment.”

Holman is currently sitting at a 3.21 ERA through nine appearances as of March 28th.

Holman and the rest of the Redhawks’ softball team look to bounce back from their 3-game losing streak as they travel to Carbondale, Illinois to face off against Southern Illinois. The game will be held on March 30, and the game begins at 3 p.m.