Howard University pitcher Ameenah Ballenger learned to embrace being uncomfortable in a new role. Under the tutelage of Bison head softball coach Tori Tyson, Ballenger, a graduate transfer from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, spent this season fine-tuning her pitching mechanics and getting adjusted to being a part of a new program.
Ballenger finally had her softball moment for the Bison in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) tournament championship. Her prowess on the mound last Saturday helped Howard to a 6-1 victory over South Carolina State to win the team’s first conference tournament championship since 2022, and earning Ballenger Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.
“I caught myself mid-championship game like, ‘Wow, you weren’t like this before,’ Ballenger told Andscape. “But it was really just a blessing. Every aspect of [Tyson’s] coaching was a blessing for me this season.”
Ballenger and the Howard Bison (31-18-0) will face the No.14 Duke Blue Devils (38-16-0) Friday at noon in the opening game of the Durham Regional of the NCAA Softball Tournament bracket. The Georgia Bulldogs will face the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at 2:30 p.m. The NCAA Regional bracket is double elimination, as teams would have to lose twice to be eliminated from tournament play.
Prior to transferring to Howard, Ballenger was a first team All-MEAC selection at the University of Maryland Eastern Shores (UMES). She said she transferred to Howard to develop as a pitcher under Tyson and to compete for a conference championship.
While at UMES, Ballenger and the Hawks never finished top 3 in the conference standings. Last season, the Hawks (11-35, 5-13 MEAC) finished next to last in the league.
“She had a vision and a plan for herself, and she believed I could do it. It just felt organic,” Tyson said of Ballenger transferring to Howard. “The recruiting process was kind of simple. I thought that she could make our program better. We needed a finisher. We needed a killer. [Ameenah] was someone that didn’t have that fear, so I knew that she was the missing piece for this roster.”
At UMES, Ballenger was accustomed to being the Hawks’ go-to pitcher and also pitching frequently. At Howard, she didn’t have the burden of pitching every game because the Bison had another proven pitcher in Mia Gonzales, who was also a first team All-MEAC selection.
With two capable pitchers, Tyson wanted one to excel at pitching to lineups with mostly right-handed batters, the other excelling at pitching to left-handed batters. Not having to pitch every game allowed Ballenger to feel less pressure, she said. But the new role required a mental adjustment.
“At first, it was a little difficult because I’m like ‘All right, well, I’m not really feeling like you guys need me for real’,” Ballenger said. “I kind of just had to look in the mirror and figure out what my role was [and], what I brought to the table. I was trying to just see it from [Coach’s] perspective. I feel like mentally it was a little rough because this being my last year. I mentally just kind of had to take a step back and just look at the bigger picture. We did what we came here to do. I just mentally had to be more confident in myself.”
Yusuf Abdullah
Catcher Alyssa Vasquez, a four-year senior with the Bison, built a bond with Ballenger, helping her get acclimated to the culture and coaching expectations at Howard.
“She wasn’t used to the structure and how we have it here,” Vasquez said. “Playing under Coach Tyson it’s difficult. It comes with highs and lows, but there’s always going to be a lot at the end of the tunnel. Our culture is not for everybody. We are very family oriented. We make sure that we are a sisterly bond.
“So Ameenah, she came in very mature, and she also helped me grow. So, with that growth between both of us, it just helped her understand like what our culture is and how we are here at Howard.”
A turning point during the season for Ballenger was Howard’s midseason matchup against South Carolina State. The Bison earned a 9-8 victory, but Ballenger struggled from the mound. Tyson challenged Ballenger to improve her mechanics.
“When I was pitching that game, I just remember being like, ‘Wow, I never want to feel like this again.’” Ballenger said. “I felt like I had no control, or even when I feel like I’m doing my best, it’s not enough. So, I really would just describe it as a blessing to be able to have a coach be able to see that I could get there.
” It just gave me even more confidence that she saw something in me that I couldn’t see, which allowed me to trust in myself.”
Ballenger’s favorite pitch was her curveball, but during this season Tyson and the coaching staff prioritized adding more pitches to her arsenal, like a backdoor curve and a changeup. As her catcher, Vasquez was encouraging Ballenger daily in practice.
“The competitive mindset that Ameenah has is so crazy, because she just wants to be good. It doesn’t matter if she’s learning something new, she just wants to be good at it instantly,” Vasquez said. “I let her know that she’s actually learning something new, and she has to give herself grace while she’s learning it.”
After several weeks of working on her pitching, Ballenger’s hard work was rewarded with two conference pitcher of the week honors during the season. Against Coppin State, Ballenger recorded her best outing in a Bison uniform with her first no-hitter for Howard. In a rematch against South Carolina State in the championship game, Tyson believes Ballenger’s success was a byproduct of her hard work and late-season perseverance.
“Ameenah leaned into being uncomfortable. We did a crazy week and a half of training before the tournament,” Tyson said. “I saw her tap into something we hadn’t seen her do yet. So, I give her a lot of credit for leaning into it, and I’m just proud of her to know that baby girl went through so much behind closed doors and had to push herself.
“She went through moments of wanting to break and she didn’t. She got to experience and get her flowers at the end.”
In the days leading up to Friday’s game in Durham, Ballenger’s been journaling to help release jitters and emotions that come with playing in her first NCAA tournament. In addition to journaling, she has also relied on more senior teammates like Vasquez to talk about expectations. Despite the earlier season matchup against Duke, in which the Bison fell 13-1 in five innings, Ballenger knows her team has experienced growth since that lopsided loss.
“We want to just come out running, aggressive, [and] come out scoring. I think we’re right now just getting into the mindset of how to beat them, because when we played them the first time we beat ourselves,” Ballenger said. “We’re playing way better softball now than we did in the beginning. I think it’s not as stressful as it was before. We’re confident in our work and how we prepare for things like that. So we’re excited. We’re definitely ready to go.”
Tyson knows it will take a team effort to play a well-rounded game and to advance in the NCAA tournament. Tyson and the coaching staff have prepared Ballenger and her teammates for the first-round matchup, and she believes her team’s grueling schedule has prepared it to end a two-decade HBCU drought.
In 2005, Bethune-Cookman won the Gainesville, Florida Regional after victories against Florida (3-2) and South Florida (8-4, 5-2).
“There hasn’t been an HBCU postseason win for softball since 2005, so it is on the back of our head that we want to find a way to get a win and make history,” Tyson said. “I know that the girls are excited about doing that as well. I think that our preseason allows us to really feel like we can go there and we can be present.”