Has Courtney Mirabella pitched her last
game for Braden River?
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| photo by Tiffany Tompkins-Condie. |
The heralded pitcher is only a junior, but North Carolina
State has been trying to persuade the right hander to graduate school early and
join the Wolftpack softball team.
Her father, Tony Mirabella, says the
family is discussing the matter and it is a possibility that his daughter will give
up her senior season of high school and enroll at North Carolina State next
winter.
If she does it will be a big loss for the Pirates. She
was the Bradenton Herald Player of The Year last season when she led Braden
River to the State Final Four and continued her strong pitching this past
season.
Mirabella finished her junior year racking up an astonishing
241 strikeouts in 123.2 innings while compiling a 1.08 ERA and a 16-3 record
with two saves. She walked only 19 and had a 0.70 WHIP. Offensively, she was
second on the team with a .373 batting average.
It’s becoming more popular for high school football
players to leave after the first semester of their senior year to be on their
college campus and ready for spring practice. Now, it appears athletes in other
sports are also looking to leave early.
N.C. State has one solid pitcher returning next year in
freshman Emily Weiman, who is 14-18 with a 2.69 ERA. Its other regular pitcher
Morgan Peeler is a senior.
Tony Mirabella said the N.C. State coaching staff wants
his daughter to come in and take over the other spot in the rotation so the
program will have two solid young pitchers to groom.
"We are thinking about it as a family and right now we
are not sure. Courtney could take the offer and leave early. It’s something
that we will decide this summer,” Tony Mirabella said.
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