As Adrienne Stucker and nearly every softball pitcher can attest, there have been some close calls in the circle.
From the moment a fastball leaves the hands of a pitcher and comes off the bat, there's a lingering fear among the game's hurlers that a 60-mph heater can come screaming back as a 100-mph line drive. These sharp line drives, or comebackers, happen all too often in fastpitch softball and leave pitchers standing 43 feet from the batter with less than a second to react.
"They happen more often than you think. There have been plenty of times where I've had one come right back at me and I have no time to react," Stucker said. "I've just gotten lucky."
Stucker, the reigning SEMO Conference Pitcher of the Year, has never been hit by a ball off the bat or worn a protective face mask in any game she's pitched at Poplar Bluff High School. In two weeks, all high school pitchers in Missouri will be required to face masks under a new rule passed by the Missouri State High School Activities Association.
"I've never worn one before and tonight's practice when we scrimmage will be the first time," Poplar Bluff pitcher Shelby Sievers said Monday. "It'll be an adjustment but it's not worth the risk."
Shannon England has coached softball for 19 seasons, the last 18 of them as the head coach at Clearwater. England, also the athletic director, serves on MSHSAA's softball advisory committee. The group of coaches from around the state voted last October to make masks a requirement for all pitchers.
"The only factor we really were looking at was the safety concern," England said. "We discussed who should wear them and the pitcher was definitely the most important since they're standing only about 40 feet from the batter and she's not in a good fielding position there.
"We thought if we could save somebody from a serious injury and/or possible death, that we should take advantage from that. From what I remember it was a unanimous decision."
There is no national standard for defensive face masks under the National Federation of State High School Associations, apart from a long-standing rule for masks on helmets.
High school athletic associations in Kentucky and Iowa considered implementing defensive mask mandates in 2014, but ultimately did not enact a rule. Missouri is the first state to require high school softball pitchers to wear protective masks.
The MSHSAA softball manual for the 2016-2017 season states, in full: "Beginning in the Fall of 2017 it will be required for the Pitcher to wear a protective mask. The softball advisory committee also strongly urges the first and third basemen to do the same."
Many infielders already wear masks -- including three of Poplar Bluff's four starters last season.
"We all agreed that pretty much all the infielders need to wear them but we didn't want to mandate that they had to, we were going to leave that up to the coaches players and parents," England said. "I don't know that will happen unless we see it come down from the upper levels like college and stuff -- and they don't even mandate it for pitchers --but we wanted to set the trend here."
England has not required his players, who compete in the spring, to wear masks in previous years but said the incoming rule motivated more of them to protect themselves last year.
"I sat them down one day, talked them through the change and it was almost a strength in numbers thing at that point," he said.
England added the committee did not base the decision on statistics or compare the dangers softball pitchers face with the potential risk that their baseball counterparts face.
A baseball pitcher's mound is 60-feet, 6-inches from home plate, but a high school softball pitcher throws from a circle 43 feet from home plate.
Softball's field dimensions are smaller, the ball is 12 inches in circumference and the technology that goes into manufacturing softball bats is different as well.
"The bats are just so much hotter than what they used to be and hitting is more advanced than the pitching," Poplar Bluff coach Lisa Boyer said of fastpitch softball. "I used to pitch and the way some of the balls comes off these bats now, I'd be the first to grab a face mask."
Neelyville coach Aaron Burton agrees with Boyer. The 43-foot window creates a potentially dangerous environment for softball pitchers.
Burton said he supports the mask requirement for pitchers 100 percent and has already been requiring players, including infielders, to wear masks, beginning last year.
"For most of them it was a done deal, they were doing it on their own, but then about halfway through I told them 'you're just going to have to start wearing it,'" Burton said. "Most of us have at least one hitter that can do damage to a ball so it's a no-brainer to me."
The Lady Tigers are already proving the rule is effective. Burton said he has never coached in a game where a pitcher was struck, but has experienced it as recently as Wednesday's practice.
"We've had two situations already and we haven't even played a game yet," Burton said. "One was just the ball taking a bad hop and the other one was a bad throw. Luckily both had their masks on and kept it from being real bad."
Likewise, Sievers has never been hit with a ball but recounted several near personal hits and those she's seen on TV.
"I think it's a smart idea because even in Division I you're seeing girls almost get killed by a ball," Sievers said. "The risk isn't worth it and I don't want to experience that."