Senior pitcher dominates in final season

Bald Knob senior Autumn Humes is a two-time Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year for softball after she led the Lady Bulldogs to an undefeated record and a third straight state championship.
Bald Knob senior Autumn Humes is a two-time Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year for softball after she led the Lady Bulldogs to an undefeated record and a third straight state championship.

Autumn Humes continues to rake in the accolades.

Humes, who is the two-time All-Arkansas softball player, chosen by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, is also the two-time Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year after she led the Bald Knob Lady Bulldogs to a 36-0 record and a third consecutive Class 3A state championship this season.

Humes, who signed in the fall signing period with NCAA Division II Harding University in Searcy, was humble about her accomplishments.

“It was definitely a feeling that is hard to describe,” Humes said of the 2016 season. “It’s like you can’t really believe it. I definitely feel blessed to be able experience something like this throughout my high school career. Not many teams go three out of the four times to the state championship. The fact that we won it three times is definitely something we’re going to keep in our hearts forever and stick with us for the rest of our lives.

“It’s really impacted us as a team. For me, personally, it’s something that I’ll never forget.”

Humes said her team played a tough schedule and that helped them all season.

“Each game, we knew that we were beatable,” she said. “We also knew that if we played the game like we knew how, that everything was going to be just fine. We knew we could be unstoppable if we played like Bald Knob knows how.”

Humes said it was about mid-season when she and her teammates knew they had a chance to go undefeated.

“I guess that is when we realized that,” she said.

Humes, who is the best pitcher for her team, went 30-0 with only nine earned runs and a 0.34 earned run average. She struck out 295 batters in 185 innings.

Offensively, Humes was just as good, if not better.

She batted .518 with 17 doubles, three triples and 11 home runs in 110 at-bats. She only struck out seven times.

“I do like hitting better than pitching,” she said. “I ask myself sometimes if I was hitting against me pitching, who would win. I don’t know who would win. Would it be the better hitter of me? Or would it be the better pitcher of me? I don’t know.

“I like hitting because I feel so powerful up in the box.”

Humes said the Lady Bulldogs practiced every day in getting ready for the season under new coach Todd Finley.

“We got close and that is what helped us become undefeated because we became so close,” she said. “We shared a bond that not many teams can say that they share.”

Finley said Humes is probably the “best person I’ve ever coached.”

“She’s a great player but she’s a better person,” Finley said. “A lot of people don’t see that from her because they don’t know her and she’s not boisterous. Matter of fact, she gets mad at me because I talk trash to my buddies. She’s just such a good person that you wouldn’t know that she is as good of an athlete or as good of a softball player as she is if you didn’t know her.”

Humes said she signed with Harding because of her faith in her lord and savior Jesus Christ.

“Harding is a great school,” she said. “It’s a great Christian school. I can continue my walk with God there. Coach [Phil] Berry is a great guy. I know the girls who are on the team right now. I can definitely see myself bringing success with them. I just think it was the right move for me, personally.”

Humes said she received some interested from Division I schools.

“I had an offer from Abilene Christian University, a Division I school,” she said. “They offered me a chunk of money to go down there, nine hours away but it was way too far for me.

“I got several letters from D-1 schools but I never did get offered from them. But I was committed to Harding by my 10th-grade year.”

Humes said she plans to major in exercise science at Harding in hopes of becoming a physician assistant.

Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events