When Ana Lang was a kid in the Searsport recreation program, the softball players were asked who wanted to pitch.
“I went home and told my mom I wanted to do it,” recalled Lang. “She tried to talk me out of it for days. She asked me if I was sure I wanted to do it.
“I said I did and she ended up letting me do it. I just loved it from the start,” said Lang. “I never looked back. I didn’t want to do anything else.”
Searsport High School and Husson University in Bangor are glad Deandrea Moulton honored her daughter’s wishes.
Lang pitched Searsport to two state Class D softball championships and has been a key contributor in the circle for Husson, helping the Eagles capture their sixth and seventh consecutive North Atlantic Conference championships.
And she has led the Eagles to a 13-1 start and a current No. 22 ranking in the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s weekly Top 25 poll. It is their first national ranking since 2024.
The junior righthander has a 6-1 record and an 0.53 earned run average with 74 strikeouts in just 53 innings. She has allowed 30 hits, but just three extra-base hits with all of them being doubles. She has walked 18, hit two batters and limited opponents to a .157 batting average against her.
“This is the best I have ever seen her pitch,” said Husson third-year head coach Rick Roberts, who is also a pitching instructor and has worked with Lang since she was eight years old.
“She has been dominant,” said Roberts, who noted that the velocity has increased by five miles per hour on her riseball and other power pitches.
“I’m throwing harder than I ever have before,” said Lang. “I didn’t really expect it. I came into the season figuring at some point, everyone has to peak and that was kind of where I was at. But I guess not.”
She credits her velocity bump to weight-training.
“I have been lifting more than usual and lifting heavier weights which is a big key to it,” said the 5-foot-7 Lang. “I’ve also been more comfortable this year. I understand my role as the one who throws all the hard games. I have to perform in those moments.”
Lang was named the Maine College Baseball and Softball Association Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday thanks to her three-hit, shutout performances against two nationally-ranked teams, No. 11 Moravian University (Pa.), 5-0, and No. 16 Case Western Reserve University (Ohio), 6-0.
She allowed three hits and struck out 13 against Case Western and fanned nine against Moravian.
Lang was the ace of the staff as a freshman and was named the North Atlantic Conference Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year and was also chosen the MCBSA Pitcher of the Year among the state’s Division III schools. She was 19-3 with a 1.28 ERA and 190 strikeouts in 126 innings.
Last season, grad student Sky Johnson was the team’s No. 1 starter and earned MCBSA and NAC Pitcher of the Year honors.
Lang earned All-MCBSA and All-NAC honors, posting an 8-4 record and a 1.59 ERA with 107 strikeouts in 83 ⅔ innings.
“Last year was more of a growing year for me,” said Lang. “I had never before been on a team where I wasn’t the number one pitcher.”
Lang said she has learned how to spot her pitches better “and when to use them against certain batters or teams.”
In addition to her riseball, she also has a curveball, a screwball, a drop and a change-up and she mixes up her speeds well to keep hitters off-balance, according to Roberts.
The lure of pitching for her is the desire to be “in control on every play,” she said.
The Eagles have had a major turnover with four of their top five hitters and seven of their nine regulars, including NAC Player of the Year Julia Gregoire, having graduated or, in the case of Hermon’s Lyndsee Reed, being sidelined for the season after undergoing knee surgery.
But five seniors, a junior, a sophomore and two freshmen have been getting the job done for the Eagles at the plate and Lang has been complemented by two juniors and a freshman in the circle.
The only two returnees who had more than 42 at-bats for the 27-12 Eagles from a year ago are center fielder and lead-off hitter Camryn King, a junior from Corinna and Nokomis High in Newport, and senior shortstop and clear-up hitter Lydia Rice from Winthrop.
Both were All-NAC selections last year.
Rice, a .316 hitter last season, is hitting .351 with four RBIs and King is at .263 but leads the team in runs scored with 13, stolen bases with 12 and on-base percentage (.462). King hit .364 a year ago with a team-high 39 runs scored and 29 stolen bases.
Senior catcher Morgan Tainter, who had 42 at-bats last season, is leading the team with her .368 average and team-high 14 RBIs. Senior left fielder Tayler Watterson, who had 21 at-bats in 2025, is at .333 with four RBIs; sophomore RF Allie Casavant (17 at-bats) is at .265 with the team’s lone homer and nine RBIs.
Seniors Emily Dunbar, the first baseman from Canaan, and Morgan Curtis, the third baseman from Gray-New Gloucester, are hitting .258 and .250 with seven and five RBIs, respectively. Dunbar had 24 at-bats a year ago and Curtis has 16.
Two Bangor-area freshmen have been impactful in catcher-2B Sophia Lynch from Ellsworth, who played for Bangor High last year, and C-1B-DP Jetta Shook from Penobscot and Bucksport High. Lynch is hitting .320 and Shook is at .286.
Roberts said he has been “really pleased” with the hitting and said their 14 games in Florida and 13 wins against quality competition makes it the most successful spring trip they have had.
Juniors Sierra Yates (4-0, 0.61 ERA) and Jazmin Johnson (2-0, 0.64) have pitched well for the Eagles and Hermon freshman Braelynn Wilcox won her only start. Johnson is from Clinton.
Roberts has nine freshmen on the roster and they have been a welcome addition, according to the coach and Lang.
“They have fit right in. It was like they have been here forever,” said Lang. “That has definitely been helpful.”
Husson won’t play again until Tuesday, April 7, when it visits Bates College in Lewiston for a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.
