Hattie Macumber’s softball journey with many pivotal and meaningful stops already at her young age will take her next to Greenville, N.C., for the Little League World Series with her Willcox Little League All-Stars teammates and her dad Patrick, the team’s manager.
One of her continuous destinations is the Oro Valley and Marana area, a nearly 4-hour drive roundtrip from her home in the Mount Graham area, about 30 miles north of Willcox.
She travels northwest of Tucson because her pitching coach is legendary Kelly Fowler, who has coached CDO to three state titles and is the mom of former Dorado and Arizona ace Kenzie Fowler.
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Hattie also plays for the Marana-based club team Ballerz along with her Willcox batterymate and best friend Jayleen Aguirre.
“It’s amazing,” Hattie said in the latest All Sports Tucson podcast about Kelly Fowler being her pitching coach. “I love how she focuses on different pitches. I’ve learned half of my pitches from her. She’s been amazing. She’s so sweet. I feel like she helps me understand my body better and how to use my body better.”
The Macumbers and Willcox are reaping the benefits of all those long drives to improve her skills. The trips with the Little League team and the club team to play in district and regional competition are bringing out the best in Hattie and her teammates.
Now, it’s off to Greenville, N.C., to play against teams from all over the nation and the globe in the Little League World Series. They open against the Mid-Atlantic champions (West Point Little League of Greensburg, Pa.) on Sunday at 7 a.m., Tucson time. The game will be on ESPN-Plus.
Patrick and Hattie packed on Tuesday night for their flight Wednesday morning from Tucson for the trip to North Carolina.
The Macumbers and members of Willcox’s team have become media darlings as the first team from Southern Arizona to advance to the Little League World Series since 2013, when Sunnyside won the championship. Television news reports of their exploits have been broadcast in Tucson and even Phoenix.
And it’s a total team development, not a case of getting this far solely on Hattie’s arm.
At different times during the West Regionals, various players in the lineup stepped up with a big hit and that includes Aguirre, Julie Larson, Kassandra Ramirez, Daylin Medrano, Stephany Aguilar, Lily Williams and Josey Benavides, to name a few.
Coming from Willcox with a population of 3,206 and a town that has one main street, a couple of traffic lights and a high school, the widespread attention could be a distraction. Willcox is embracing the moment, however, rather than being overcome by it, thanks to the down-to-earth Patrick Macumber and his staff.
“I’ve got great coaches that coach with me,” Patrick said. “There’s been a lot of phone calls, text messages, a lot of back and forth I’ve had with with the different media outlets and people. Everyone’s really excited for these girls.
“My assistant coaches have been fantastic. They see something happen, they just jump right in where I am at and they take over. We don’t skip a beat.”
Hattie said she handles playing in the spotlight by maintaining a hard-work mentality.
“I guess just never stop working; we have practices every day,” she said. “Just to keep our minds on softball and not let our minds go to something else. Not distract us.”
HATTIE MACUMBER
Pitches Willcox to the Little League Softball World Series.
Southern Arizona’s first team to make it there since Sunnyside won the 2013 LL World Series title.
Willcox beat Northern California 5-0 to win the LL West Region title.
Macumber is hugging her dad… pic.twitter.com/2M0349K5EZ— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 27, 2024
To Patrick Macumber’s credit, he is not overbearing when he coaches his daughter. He allows her to be herself, and that’s a significant reason why Willcox is so successful. The team stays loose and is firmly connected because of that – quite the oxymoron, but it’s true.
“She’s got a lot of passion for the game,” Patrick said of his daugther. “She’s really excited. Anyone that watches the game can see that that she she puts herself into it. It matters to her and she gives it everything she has. She’s loved and hated. You can imagine some of these other teams, they’re not huge Hattie McCumber fans.”
She enjoys being expressive when striking out of a batter with a yell toward Aguirre behind the plate. She does this while stomping on the ground and clinching her fists by her side. It’s the type of celebration normally seen among college softball pitchers, including her idols Jordy Bahl and NiJaree Canady.
Patrick told the story of an opposing coach telling him during the West Regional at San Bernardino, Calif., last week that Hattie is “kind of like the Dennis Rodman of youth softball because her team loves her and some of the other teams don’t care much for her.”
“I feel like (being expressive) just makes me more comfortable,” Hattie said of her style in the circle. “Like when I’m not expressing myself or I have to keep it down or just kind of act cool, I feel like I don’t play like myself. Myself is the competitive Hattie not the chilled, laid back, quiet Hattie.”
With that competitive nature, she went 4-0 with a 0.24 ERA in the West Regionals. She allowed 13 hits in 25 innings with only three runs, just one of them earned. She struck out 37 and walked six.
Two-time U.S. Olympian and ESPN analyst Natasha Watley said about Willcox ace Hattie Macumber, who is entering the eighth grade: “I mean, what a rising star; we’ve got to keep that name on our minds because we’ll definitely see her down the road."
Macumber led Willcox to Southern… pic.twitter.com/bGe48DZOkE— Javier Morales (@JavierJMorales) July 27, 2024
After Willcox’s 5-0 win over Northern California in the West Regional championship, ESPN analyst Natasha Watley, a two-time U.S. Olympian, said, “Hattie Macumber, I mean, what a rising star; we’ve got to keep that name on our minds because we’ll definitely see her down the road.”
Hattie’s college recruitment has already been discussed by the Macumbers despite the fact she is only in the eighth grade.
The recruitment of Hattie’s brother Kash Macumber, a Class of 2024 Willcox High School football and wrestling standout, by the Wisconsin-Lacrosse wrestling program was helpful in the learning process.
“She’s laying the groundwork by herself, doing all this getting herself noticed,” Patrick said. “Her name is getting around. People know who she is. As we did with my son’s recruiting, we really lucked out where we just got around, talked to people, learned and met some good people. And he found a place that he really felt at home.
“And I think that’s going to happen with her, too.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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