Photo by SPORTSINK.COM

Black Tiger pitcher Amber Myers is the SportsInk.com Athlete of the Week.

This week's SportsInk.com Athlete of the Week is star pitcher for the Cuyahoga Falls softball team senior Amber Myers.

“She is a team leader and a very caring person for her teammates,” said Cuyahoga Falls softball coach Kim Applegarth.

“I love my team and my teammates,” Myers said.

When you sit down with Myers you realize that she is about much more than being a high school pitching sensation for the Black Tigers. She loves her family, her heritage, school, classmates, and softball.

“I have been playing since I was 7 years old and that is when my dad asked me if I wanted to pitch and I gave it a try,” said Myers. Her “try” has taken her to great heights in the circle for Cuyahoga Falls. This season she is 9-3 with an ERA of 0.76.

“When we hand her the ball you know you’re going to get her very best,” Applegarth said.

Myers has a simple approach: Expose her opponent’s weakness. “I look at the batter's stance and how they react to a pitch and try to keep them off balance,” she said. Myers also plays first base and is the team's leadoff hitter, batting .590.

Myers as a junior hurt her knee and struggled with her health, but it did not show on the field as she registered an impressive 16-3 record. “I still get pain after a game but not during; I’m fine this year,” she said.

Pitching is not easy, and Myers has attended many camps and clinics over the years to work on her speed and durability. “I have had many coaches through the years, but Dave Peterson has really done a great job for me as has Amy Kyler,” Myers said. She went on to say that she has always had the accuracy, but needed speed, and that is where Peterson, Kyler and others have been invaluable for her.

“She has used her off speed pitch more this year as an out pitch and it has worked very well,” Applegarth said. Last weekend in the Rock N Fire tournament at Firestone stadium, Myers pitched three of the four games for the Black Tigers and picked up three wins. Her wins included a no-hitter and an impressive one-hitter against Kent Roosevelt.

She says her all-time best performance was when she pitched Cuyahoga Falls to a 17-inning victory over Stow as a freshman. “My worst outing was this year against Hudson; I just didn’t have it.”

Myers is a 3.1 student and will take her pitching talent to Rio Grande College, where she intends to pursue a career in nursing.

Amber Myers

TV Show:  Grey's Anatomy

Movie:  A League of Their Own

Hobbies:  Swimming and basketball

IPod:  All I Do Is Win

Pizza:  Pepperoni

Bucket List:  Travel to Italy and meet my family