Submitted photo Fitch senior pitcher Lydia Spalding signed her National Letter of Intent last month to attend and play at Penn State. She had verbally committed to the Nittany Lions while in eighth grade.

AUSTINTOWN — The Mahoning Valley has had a knack for producing Big Ten softball pitchers over the last few years. Those include Addy Jarvis, who played in high school at Mathews and Hubbard and is now at Illinois after transferring from Youngstown State, along with Champion’s Allison Smith at Ohio State.

Another name has joined those ranks as Fitch ace Lydia Spalding officially signed her letter of intent to join the Penn State softball program.

Spalding, a pitcher and occasional outfielder, has been committed to the Nittany Lions for four years now, but made it official in November on National Signing Day.

Spalding was a part of the last class that was permitted to be recruited out of middle school. The following year, the NCAA instituted a rule barring Division I college coaches from contacting players until their junior year of high school. While kids obviously grow and change over the four years of high school, Spalding remained confident in her selection, staying with the Nittany Lions.

“I definitely had a lot of conversation with my parents when I was in eighth grade, but honestly, at that time I really knew I wanted to play college softball and that was one of the very best opportunities that I feel like I was going to get,” Spalding said. “Looking back at that I’m really really amazed because of how often that doesn’t happen.

“Honestly, I really didn’t know what was going on to fully understand it and now I’m really realizing I was so blessed to receive that at that time.”

The fortunate thing is Spalding already is acquainted with some of her Nittany Lion teammates. As a part of her travel team, PA Strikers 18U, Spalding is actually playing with her future roommate at Penn State, shortstop Courtney Eyler. Getting to play with a future teammate was a draw for Spalding to play with PA Strikers.

“I’m excited to play with her this summer,” Spalding said. “Honestly, one of the factors that drove me to come to that team was because ‘Oh, I’m going to be playing with a future teammate that’s in my class which is exciting.”

As part of the Falcons, Spalding helped guide the team to back-to-back sectional titles in 2018 and 2019, setting the school freshman and sophomore strikeout records. She was named the team MVP both seasons.

In addition to all the on-field accomplishments she’s had, Fitch coach Steven Ward made sure to talk about how important a player she’s been off the field as well.

“Lydia for us is just a program changer,” Ward said. “When you have your strongest athlete be your hardest working athlete and also be the athlete that’s willing to work with anyone on your team. She’ll sit there after practice and work with kids that are brand new freshmen that have never played before, and if they’re willing to work with her and learn, she’s going to stay out there and do that.

“When you have a player like that, everyone else in your program takes notice.”

Being a player like that usually thrusts pressure upon an athlete. However, pressure hasn’t fazed Spalding, which can only help as she prepares for her next step moving into the Division I college ranks.

“I’ve learned to deal with pressure really, really well because, as a pitcher, you can’t let that affect you,” she said. “You have to just use it to your benefit. Make it let you get hungry for more. My mom has taught me to deal with that really well, so for me, pressure is not a problem and I use it to fuel me for more.”

The Falcons, who were expecting to have a good season in 2020 before getting derailed by COVID-19, are eager to hit the field in the spring.

“It was flat-out heartbreaking to see what we could have been last year,” Ward said. “We felt we had a very strong team going into the season last spring and we would’ve had a lot of younger players that would’ve gotten that year of experience and then come back this year even stronger. … We’ll get our opportunity again and when we do we’re going to take full advantage of it.”

When the time comes, the team is ready to make the most of the opportunity. The season off made Spalding all the more ready to get back at it.

“They canceled right at the very beginning of our softball season,” Spalding said. “We were about to start scrimmages and I felt so ready at that point. I was devastated. I was so sad because I really wanted to do my best. I just wanted to use that (as motivation) to keep getting better, keep getting stronger. What do you want the difference to be between your sophomore year and senior year? I used that to really push me to get the best that I can out of my senior season.”

Spalding’s senior campaign is set to kick off in March.