Jet Sports Training Female Athlete of the Month: Willcox LL All-Star pitcher Hattie Macumber

Willcox Little League All-Star pitcher Hattie Macumber has been a force this summer in the circle who has generated energy in her team to the point of it advancing all the way to the Little League World Series at Greenville, N.C., on Sunday.

Macumber, whose pitching coach is CDO coaching legend Kelly Fowler, mother of Dorado and Arizona great Kenzie Fowler, is not a future star. She already is a star.

In last week’s West Regional at San Bernardino, Calif., Macumber went 4-0 with a 0.24 ERA. She allowed 13 hits and three runs (only one of them earned) in 25 innings. She struck out 37 and walked six.

For her performance all month, including championships earned in the District 8 and state tournaments, Macumber is the Jet Sports Training Female Athlete of the Month for July.

She is young, entering the eighth grade, but Macumber, managed by her father Patrick with the Willcox team, is mature beyond her years because of her background of competition. She has played in the Willcox Little League organization and Ballerz club of Marana the last four years.

“I guess just never stop working; we have practices every day,” Hattie said about keeping a level head in the midst of widespread media attention. “Just to keep our minds on softball and not let our minds go to something else. Not distract us.”

Willcox opens the Little League World Series 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.

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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 five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.