Strike Out Queen
High School softball pitcher Madilynn Boyce focused on helping her team win games. If she reached a landmark number along the way, that was cool too.
The Lions, Middletown High School North’s softball team, took the field to play their Senior Day game (the last home game of the season) on May 6 against Manasquan. The sun was shining, the temperature hung in the mid-70s and everyone knew the Lions’ pitcher, senior Madilynn Boyce, had a chance to make history.
On the final out of the second inning, Boyce recorded her 1,000th strikeout—a number reached by only 25 other high school players in New Jersey ever. She’s also the second person from Middletown High School North to achieve that distinction. In 2019, when Boyce was in sixth grade, she sat in the crowd and cheered as Malori Bell (whom Boyce describes as a mentor) hit the same milestone—also on her Senior Day. It was a perfect, full-circle ending to Boyce’s season, and to her career in high school softball.
Now 17, Boyce started playing softball when she was 4. “Growing up, I watched my uncle play baseball,” she recalls. “He was a pitcher, and I looked up to him. I found a travel team and just never stopped playing.” (A travel team exists outside the school system, plays other travel teams and tends to draw the attention of college and pro scouts. Boyce plays travel ball with NJ’s Cheetahs’ Gonzalez under-18 team, but her strikeout total comes strictly from her games played with the Middletown North Lions.) When not playing softball, Boyce says she spends most of her time with her parents, siblings and boyfriend.
Lions coach Chris Hoffman says that watching Boyce develop on and off the field was something special. “Madilynn came into the program with natural talent,” he remembers. “Even as a freshman she had velocity, movement and a competitive edge. But what’s most impressive is how she’s matured mentally. She’s developed into a complete pitcher— someone who can read hitters, make adjustments and stay composed under pressure. Early on, she’d get frustrated if things didn’t go perfectly. Now she’s calm, focused and in control no matter what’s happening.”
As her junior year ended, Boyce had about 500 strikeouts. “Five hundred in three years,” she says. “I really wasn’t sure I was going to hit 1,000 with one more year. But then I kept striking people out.”
Says Hoffman: “We had a pretty good idea coming into the season that 1,000 was within reach, looking at where she finished last year. We knew she’d have to stay healthy and consistent but, knowing Madilynn, we were confident she would. After the first few games, when she was already racking up double-digit strikeouts, it started to feel like this could really happen.”
Boyce describes the race toward the magic number as “nerve-wracking. I didn’t want to think, ‘Oh, I’m not going to hit it’ and back down. I let it motivate me to pitch my best.”
Hoffman praises “the way she carried herself. She never got caught up in the numbers. She stayed focused on helping the team win.”
But it would be idle to suggest that the 1,000 mark wasn’t on her mind—and on everyone else’s minds too. “We were all quietly keeping track,” says Hoffman. “Watching her chase it, game by game, was thrilling. Every game became a bit more special.”
Coming into the Senior Day game, Boyce needed only six strikeouts to reach 1,000. In the first inning she struck out the first three batters. Then she stuck out the first two in the second inning. “When I struck out that fifth person, and I kept looking at my fielders and my friends,” she recalls. “I was getting nervous. I needed to calm myself down.” There were even shouts from the opposing bench—two players on Manasquan’s squad were also on Boyce’s travel team, and knew she was going for 1,000 in that game.
According to Boyce, the batter first tried bunting, but failed on her first two attempts. Then she had two strikes—and no choice but to swing.
Boyce threw the third strike for the inning’s final out—and her 1,000th strikeout. Everyone—teammates, coaches, friends, family— ran out onto the field and mobbed her. “It was such an awesome moment,” says Boyce.
Says Hoffman: “The emotion on her face said it all. It was a moment we’ll all remember.”
In the crowd congratulating her was Malori Bell. “Coach Hoffman introduced us when I was a freshman,” says Boyce. “She was always one call away if I needed help with pitching. It’s so amazing to have two girls from one school hit this number.”
Amazing? Hoffman calls it “almost surreal,” explaining that “it takes more than talent to hit 1,000—it takes grit. They both share a certain drive that you can’t coach. They hate to lose.”
Boyce’s numbers, he adds, speak for themselves. “But what you don’t always see on the stat sheet is the example she sets. She supports her teammates. She’s the first one to pick someone up after an error and the first to credit her defense after a big win. That humility and team-first mentality make her truly special.”
What’s next for Boyce? She’s committed to Seton Hall University in the fall, where she will, of course, play softball. “I always loved the idea of playing in college,” she says, “but I never thought I would play Division 1.”
