SEARCY — Following her perfect game against Ouachita Baptist University on March 13, one of the first people Harding University freshman softball pitcher Autumn Humes called was her mom.
“She is so crazy,” Humes said. “The first thing she said to me was, ‘Did you make sure they put out the fire before you got on the bus?’ … My parents said they were just really proud of me and wanted me to keep working hard.”
Humes’ parents, Chris and Amy Humes, were watching the game on the mobile scoring app from their house in Texas as their daughter threw a five-inning perfect game, the first in Harding softball history. She improves to 9-1 on the season, striking out eight of the 15 batters she faced.
“I remember the last batter I faced, I’m pretty sure I got a 3-2 count on her, and all I could think was, ‘Don’t walk this girl, because then I did all this work for nothing,” Autumn Humes said. “I had to relax and pitch the ball like I pitched every ball in the game.”
Humes, who graduated from Bald Knob High School in 2016, struck out the final batter to clinch the perfect game. It was also the first perfect game in Great American Conference play.
“I tried not to think about that stuff during the game because it will mess me up, because when I start thinking about that stuff, like ‘Oh, I have to be perfect if I want a perfect game,’ then it messes with my head,” Humes said.
“But you know, I can’t think like that because no one is perfect,” she said.
Her dad, Chris, coached Autumn most of her life until she was in high school.
“It has been interesting at times because being the coach’s daughter is not easy,” Humes said. “For me, I constantly looked for his approval, and his approval meant the most to me.
“He always knew how to push me the right ways. I think that is one of the things that drew me to Harding because coach [Phil] Berry is very similar to get the most out of me.”
For her actions against OBU, Humes was named the GAC Softball Co-Pitcher of the Week, sharing the title with Henderson State junior pitcher Michelle Sorensen.
“I think that is pretty cool, considering I was standing beside the other pitcher that won,” Humes said. “She pitched a lot of innings, so I was honored to receive that title as well.
“I thought it was pretty cool.”
Sorensen recently picked up the 3-2 win in the third longest game in Division II history, a 19-inning contest against Arkansas Tech University. She went the full 19 innings and struck out 21 batters.
Harding head coach Phil Berry said the realization that Humes might throw a perfect game came at the top of the fifth.
“We were kind of rolling along in the third inning, and our first baseman Amanda Berry made a nice backhand play on a hard-hit ball that saved a hit, but you don’t think a lot about it,” Berry said. “We got to the fourth inning, and it kind of clicked that no one had reached base.
“Then we erupted for a bunch of runs in the top of the fifth. All of a sudden, we are put into a run-rule situation. All of sudden, you are going into the bottom of the fifth, and if you get three outs, you have a perfect game.”
Berry said Humes, who contributed to her own cause with a three-run home run, threw two balls to the first batter of the fifth inning.
“I’m over there scratching my head — ‘OK, don’t mess this up by calling a bad pitch,’” Berry said. “Fortunately, she came back and got that batter out.”
Humes said she couldn’t have done it without the help of her defense.
“The defense was phenomenal,” Humes said. “My shortstop, Alexus [Lawellin], she probably stopped two or three balls that probably should have been hits and said to me after the game, ‘I was thinking of you when I was making those plays because I wanted you to have this.’”
Lawellin, a sophomore from Batesville, said that at the beginning of the game, she wasn’t really thinking much about it and was just making the plays to get outs.
“[In the last inning], the ball was hit between me and Amanda Berdon at third, and I was thinking about it and was like, ‘Not one person has been on base this game,’” Lawellin said. “So I went and got the ball, and I threw it, and Autumn looked at me and was like, ‘Yes!’”
Lawellin said being in that situation allowed her to make the harder plays.
“You see the behind-the-scenes things that everybody else doesn’t,” Lawellin said. “I see Autumn throwing in the bullpens, and you think to yourself, my pitcher has worked hard, so I am going to work hard for her.”
Humes said her defense works hard no matter the situation.
“I think they are going to try to back me 100 percent, no matter the circumstances,” Humes said. “But I think they had me in the back of their minds when that scenario was going on.
“But I hope they are going 100 percent even when that is not the case.”
Humes said she threw a couple of perfect games in high school, but said this game meant more because there are better hitters in college.
“We were right in the middle of their lineup, and the last hitter is a kid who hits doubles everywhere,” Berry said of the final out. “She can hit it in and hit away; she is a really tough out. She battled pretty hard, and we finished up with a dropped ball inside that she swung at and missed.
“We were fortunate to get out of it.”
Berry said no one mentioned the perfect game in the dugout until there were two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
“Nobody had really said anything up to that point,” Berry said. “And when they did, some of the other players were hollering at her to be quiet and not jinx it.
“We were hoping we didn’t mess it up with the bad karma.”
Humes must have not have heard her because she said the words “perfect game” never came out of anyone’s mouth.
“It is not necessarily a curse, but you just don’t talk about it,” Humes said. “You are just trying to do what you always do, and I did not want to mess it up by thinking about it.”
Berry said the 1-2 punch of having Humes and senior Hannah Johnson has proven to be a successful combination for the Lady Bisons.
“Anytime you throw a perfect game, that is a special moment,” Berry said, “because those don’t come along every day.
“Autumn has gotten off to a great start, along with Hannah Johnson. We’ve got a senior who is 11-1 right now and doing great things herself.
“Our 1-2 punch in the circle has been awfully good.”
Berry said Johnson has been a mentor to Humes and the two other freshmen pitchers.
“[Johnson] has taken on the role as a leader and mentor,” Berry said. “She talks to them about how to prepare for a full college season, because no matter what you tell anybody, they aren’t prepared for the stress and the depth of the competition and how tough the batting orders are versus what they faced in high school or even travel ball.
“She has done a great job talking to them every day, counseling them on how to prepare or how to recover from the bad moments and not get too high when you have the good moments.”
The Lady Bisons are currently 21-3 on the season and 11-1 in the GAC but are scheduled to wrap up a four-game series with Oklahoma Baptist University with a double header today, beginning at 1 p.m at home.
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.