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1. She throws five pitches — fastball, curveball, changeup, riseball and dropball.

"My windup is all the same, and my releases. I don't try to change my arm in any way, so that they'll know what I'm going to throw. We mix it up a lot. I haven't been throwing my riseball as much. The other four I've mixing them up together. Every batter sees four of those pitches." — Ballinger

2. She is only 5-foot-4, but her fastball has been clocked at 60 mph. With the rubber just 40 feet from home plate, Ballinger's releasing the pitch from about 37 feet away.

"I know I am small, but over the years, I've been lifting and just pitching every day. It's more of not how strong or big you are, it's how much you pitch. We work at it to get better." — Ballinger

3. When she's not mowing down hitters in the circle, she also bats leadoff and plays left field. Through the weekend, Ballinger had a .310 on-base percentage, scored 16 runs and knocked in 14.

4. She's a fierce competitor.

"She doesn't like to get beat on any pitch. Yes, she likes to get strikeouts, but she wants the girls to hit pitches that are going to end up with outs. It's a feeling of competitiveness with the batter on every pitch." — East coach Steve Castner

5. She owns one of two perfect games in the 11-year history of East softball. In the season-opener on April 2, Ballinger faced the minimum of 15 batters in the Thunderhawks' 18-0 victory over Princeton. She struck out 13, while the other two outs were recorded via foul out and ground out.

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