Breanna Riley, sophomore pitcher on the UNA Lions softball team, has been named GSC Pitcher of the Week twice this year.

Riley is second in the GSC with a 1.84 ERA and leads the conference in strikeouts (127) and wins (17).

“Bri has done a great job for us,” said Jason Anderson, head coach. “She had a great fall for us, as well, so we knew coming into the season that if she was to throw the way she did in the offseason that she could be a big time player for us.”

Riley is from Hartselle and has been playing softball since she was a child.

“I started when I was about 5 years old,” Riley said. “One of my best friends at the time, she played. I was too young to play, so I would go out there and watch her and that is what got me playing.”

She has been pitching since she was 10 and her parents have been supporting her for her entire career.

“They have been with me the whole time,” she said. “My dad would catch for me when I was younger, and when I go home sometimes, we still go into the backyard and he catches for me. My mom would sit there and chart pitches.”

Anderson said the pitcher is the most important position and has the ability to take over a game, unlike any other position in softball.

“The pitcher is involved in every play,” he said. “They can single-handedly have the ability to shut the other team down.”

Anderson said that ability can determine who wins and who loses a ball game.

“In softball, it starts in the circle,” he said. “If you put a solid pitcher in there, you always have a chance to win a ball game. And that is why she has been so important to us.”

Riley said she believes confidence is the most important part of being a great pitcher.

“As a pitcher, you have to go out there and block everything out,” she said. “There are people in the dugout and the stands yelling at you. If you go up there and you have no confidence in yourself, then one hit off of you and you are just down on yourself. And then it is downhill from there.”

Riley is an industrial hygiene major who holds a 3.22 GPA.

“She takes care of business in the classroom, and we never have problems out of her,” Anderson said. “In our eyes, she is a great kid.”

The one area that both Anderson and Riley agree can be improved on is her ability to field her position.

“With fielding her position, I would say Bri has a mental thing,” Anderson said. “When a ground ball comes back to her, it is the throw to first that really gets her.”

Riley said that she has struggled with overhand throw to second since her sophomore year in high school.

“I guess I have a mental block with throwing the ball overhand,” she said. “Fielding my position is probably the one thing I can improve on. But I have found ways to cope with it.”

Riley is the type of player who leads by action instead of words.

“I would say she is one of the team leaders, but I think she leads more by the way she goes out and does things,” Anderson said.

Riley sees everyone on the team as leaders.

“I pretty much look up to every girl on the team,” she said.

The Lions will lean on Riley when it comes to the conference and national tournaments.

“We need her to do well if we have a chance to really make a run at this thing, to win the conference and try to advance in the postseason,” Anderson said.