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Bison softball go-getter takes the MCC diamond offer
Mo.
Or as opposing pitchers likely said this fall:
Oh no.
It’s Mo.
Every McCook Bison softball player, coach and fan know what these two letters have signaled during the past four seasons.
Forget the nice-girl smile and those two dimpled cheeks.
If Mo suddenly appears in your diamond visitor, everything including cheeks better look out for...
“Chaos,” coach Easton Gillen observed about McCook senior Malia Hilker. “She caused chaos on the basepaths for opposing teams. Not only does Mo bring a ton of speed, but she had great awareness of when to take that extra base. She was the spark on offense we needed quite often.”
Mo was clearly short for MOnster during the most recent Class B-4 district finals.
Consider the chaos Hilker delivered in just three games: eight hits including three triples, nine runs batted in, three runs scored and a .667 batting average.
Her final high school games capped a MOmentous senior season hitting .444 with a .505 on-base percentage, 14 extra-base hits and 44 RBI — 44 being McCook High’s No. 3 best RBI season total ever.
“Nah, I didn’t keep track of that...it was pretty cool when I found out though,” she said.
“I never think about hitting home runs or anything like that. I just try to hit (line drive) hard.”
Hilker’s batting MOjo put her into the clean-up spot for a 26-win, Southwest Conference champ and Class B Top 10-rated team.
Yet that’s not even touching her Tasmanian Devil-like talents that carried into center field.
MO was never slow to occasionally run through a “flimsy” outfield softball fence or dive all-out to make that just above the grass tips MOh-my-goodness catch!
“That pads behind the basket kind of hurt,” Mo admitted Thursday afternoon in reference to also go-go-MO! Bison basketball career.
Of course you know, Mo, that’s a brick wall behind those basketball pads.
Mo just laughed.
“She made a ton of great plays out in center field,” coach Gillen recalled during Thursday’s gather of many Mo fans.
Because on Thursday, Mo calmly finalized her future plans to go full MO for the McCook Community College softball starting in 2025.
She’s happily joining Bison record-hitting great Brooklynn Gillen, the shortstop who hit an insane all-time Bison best .583 during this super 26-8 fall season.
Yet Mo’s also looking forward to the new MCC Indian teammates who won 34 games last spring (34-21 record).
In fact, the Indians have won 107 games through these past three years while Mo, Brooklyn and their Bison were winning Class B subdistrict tourney titles.
“Coach Mendenhall is putting together a real good team, and I think I can fit right in,” Mo proclaimed on Thursday. “I love my girls here, but I’m excited to meet some new ones. And all the ones I’ve met have been super amazing to talk with.”
“I had some other schools to look at, but I can’t imagine going anywhere else.”
Mo’s willing to go elsewhere than center field which she covered throughout these Bison days.
“I might be fun to have a foul line nearby,” she said.
Foul will become a more prominent word now that it’s high school basketball time.
And before she starts her quest for a potential career in applied sciences, expect some more full-MO fun with this Bison senior guard.
“We’re definitely going to be running,” Mo concluded about winter hoops. “Because we’re real fast.”