Aggie pitcher coming to terms with the end of her career — and an upstart bullpen

Noelle Johnson inhaled, ready to throw the curve ball she so loves. Her mind was completely clear.

Except for one thing.

“After this year, I have nothing left,” she told herself.

Noelle JohnsonIt’s long been Johnson’s routine to completely clear her mind while she’s preparing to throw her next pitch, but this season that’s been a harder task. For when the 2016 softball season ends, Johnson will have thrown her final pitch as a college softball player.

“It’s like every single game could potentially be my last,” Johnson said. “So I go out there and work my hardest and leave it all on the field.”

The senior pitcher from California pitched some 200 innings last year.

“She’s been through good wins and bad losses and she’s had to overcome things,” said pitching coach Windy Thees, adding that Johnson has proved herself as the top pitcher on the Aggies’ roster this season.

But this year things have been different. Adding to the pressure of these being her final outings in Aggie blue, the competition within the roster is stronger than it has ever been.

First-year transfer student April Brown and freshman Katie Schroeder have brought more depth to the Aggie bullpen.

Schroeder’s got a similar style and repertoire to Johnson. Brown is different from both of them in how she delivers from the mound.

Either way, the two younger pitchers are keeping Johnson on her toes.

“They make me work harder,” Johnson said. “It’s never like ‘you’re the number one this week,’ it could change the next day.”

Johnson said she knows her spot “could potentially be on the line at any point in the season.” And that means she can’t be sure when her last pitch will come.

Still, Johnson reasoned, it is comforting to know that if she is not having a good day on the mound there are several other pitchers who can back her up. And that’s exactly what Schroeder and Brown did in the first conference series at home on April 9 and 10, closing the last two games in which Johnson started.

“Being the senior leader on the team, I expect a lot more of myself than everybody else,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ve had that great of a season. I feel like I’ve had a few really good outings, but also a few where I’m frustrated with myself.”

It’s not just Johnson’s performance on the field that will affect the program after she’s gone.

“Noelle is a great role model on and off the field, she’s a great student and a great athlete,” Schroeder said. “I look up to her in everything. She’s taken me under her wing and she’s been a big part of me developing as a pitcher.”

“Senior leadership is key,” Thees said. “Noelle has really had a great career, and having a senior that works as hard as she does — in the gym, on the field, she’s always the first out there — has really helped the new pitchers. When she does go, it’s kind of like passing the gauntlet on.”

Johnson isn’t worried about the future of the program without her.

“In the last two years we’ve built so much with Utah State and I know they’re going to carry it on,” she said.

But she has another month of conference play before that reality really starts to settle in.

For now she’s just trying to keep breathing. To keep throwing the pitches she loves. And to keep that last inning out of her mind.