May 8, 2009

Story courtesy of Freed-Hardeman Sports Information Office 

HENDERSON, Tenn. - When Todd Humphry, then in his fifth year as the head softball coach at Freed-Hardeman, got a verbal commitment from Tarrah Tucker in the spring of 2005, he had a pretty good idea that she would make an impact on his improving squad.

"We knew right away that she'd be a major contributor to our program," Humphry said.  "We knew she had talent, but we didn't know how things would go on the field."

Things ended up going as well as, and possibly better, than Humphry or anyone else could have imagined.

When Tucker graduates from FHU in May, she will leave with a degree in Kinesiology.  She'll also leave with her name beside every pitching record in program history.  Entering the 2009 season, the left-hander already had claim to nine school records and added the remaining four (career wins, career ERA, career innings pitched, and career complete games) this year and bested three of her own records set in previous seasons.

Her college career, however, didn't start off with that sort of dominance.

Tucker struggled early in her freshman season, losing four straight decisions to open the year.  In those four games, her ERA was an un-Tucker-like 4.80 with 25 hits allowed and 16 walks.  Opponents had scored a total of 26 runs off her in 23.1 innings.

She did show some flashes of the brilliance that was to come, including a 3-2 win over eventual conference champion Trevecca Nazarene (Tenn.) and eventual conference pitcher of the year Brittiany Johnson on April 4, 2006.  But the rough outings didn't go away, and Tucker finished her first season with a 6-13 record and a 3.96 ERA.

Humphry, though, began to notice a change in her approach toward the end of the season, a sign that Tucker might be learning how to adjust to the college game.

"In high school, she was good enough to just throw it by people," he said.  "In college, she had to learn how to pitch.  She became a pitcher instead of a thrower. ... When she came back her sophomore year, it was a night-and-day difference."

Indeed it was, as Tucker set a new school record for single-season ERA (a record she broke this year) at 0.99 while working as part of a three-pitcher rotation with senior Adrienne Gann and freshman Britney Caldwell.  That season, the Lady Lions won more than 30 games for just the second time in school history and finished runner-up in the TranSouth Conference tournament.

The rest, as they say, is history.

In addition to all the records, Tucker threw the first perfect game in school history on April 26, 2007, against Crichton (Tenn.) College.  She also threw no-hitters against Crichton on March 6, 2008, and Union (Tenn.) University on April 23, 2009.

Her career at Freed-Hardeman finally came to a close in a somewhat disappointing fashion, as the Lady Lions lost out on a bid to the NAIA National Tournament thanks in part to the TranSouth Conference's tournament being cut short due to excessive amounts of rain.  FHU won its first two games before losing what turned out to be the championship game - though no one knew it at the time - to Bethel (Tenn.), 2-1.

Tucker was saddled with the loss in that game, only her third of the year, despite allowing no earned runs in seven innings of work.

But the unexpected and heartbreaking end to the team's season does not for one moment take away from everything the Lyles, Tenn., native accomplished in the circle in her four years at Freed-Hardeman.

"We've become a top 25 program in large part because of her," said Humphry.  "Being able to be successful against top-level teams has helped us get publicity, and that helps with recruiting."