Nickles is Sun-Star Softball Player of Year

Bart McAfee may need to dive into a thesaurus to find new ways to describe Madilyn Nickles.

The Merced High School softball coach is running out of words to describe the talented junior.

“She’s awesome, I don’t know what else to say,” McAfee said. “She’s on the very short list of the best players to play at Merced High. When she’s done, she could be the best.”

Nickles was named the Central California Conference Pitcher of the Year after leading Merced to a fifth consecutive conference championship.

For the third consecutive year, Nickles is also the Sun-Star Player of the Year.

“It was a very enjoyable season,” Nickles said. “I felt our team wanted to go for it, and we wanted to win a section title. We went further than we did last year. I think it’s fun when everyone wants to win.”

The list of Nickles’ accomplishments this year is staggering.

The Bears’ ace pitched in 29 of Merced’s 31 games, finishing with a 22-6 record and a 1.18 ERA. She also hit .526 with eight home runs and 46 RBIs.

She was named to the all-USA second team by USA Today.

Nickles threw five no-hitters and 11 shutouts.

Her 287 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings ranked ninth in the state.

As a 16-year old, Nickles was the youngest player to earn a spot on the ASA/USA Junior Women’s National Softball Team.

“After the season she wanted to take ground balls, so we were out there taking ground balls so she could get ready for Team USA,” McAfee said. “She’s always working to get better.”

Nickles was at her best in the playoffs, helping Merced make a deep run. She had hits in her first seven postseason at-bats, including two home runs. Nickles finished the playoffs 11 for 18 with six runs and 10 RBIs in five games.

“I think just seeing other teams with players that I played with got me fired up,” Nickles said. “That first playoff game I knew one of the players, who is going to Arizona State. I knew it was a big opportunity for our team.

“It was fun. Winning is fun. Doing stuff to help your team is fun. You don’t feel any stress when things are going good.”

Nickles changed her approach in the circle this season after switching to a new pitching coach, and it paid off with her best season.

“I stayed away from speed and focused more on movement,” Nickles said. “It was more location with movement. I wanted to make hitters swing at nasty pitches instead of trying to blow it past them.”

Nickles is currently training with the junior national team. After training in Oklahoma, Texas and Ohio, the team will play in the World Cup of Softball X from June 29-July 5 in Irvine and then will travel to Oklahoma City later this summer to compete in the International Softball Federation Junior Women’s World Championships from Aug. 9-15.

“It’s an honor,” Nickles said. “I think everyone wants to play for your country. I know it was a dream for me. I can’t wait to have USA across my chest. Going away for the summer will help prepare me a lot for college. I’m going to be on my own and have to do things on my own.”

Nickles, who also has a 4.067 GPA, is set to play at UCLA after high school.

“I feel just the other day I was a little freshman playing for the first time with the upperclassmen,” Nickles said. “It’s pretty crazy to think I’m going to be a senior. I’m looking forward to it.”

McAfee has another year to think of different things to say about his star player.

“What coach wouldn’t want this? She still has another year,” McAfee said. “She meant so much to us. We counted on her to go to the mound every game. There were only a couple games she didn’t pitch. She put everything on her shoulders and came through.”

This story was originally published June 19, 2015 at 5:09 PM with the headline "Nickles is Sun-Star Softball Player of Year."