Poteau’s Dill set for Tulsa softball
Poteau’s Annika Dill had her signing ceremony on Tuesday as she prepares to play softball at the University of Tulsa.
“I’m just excited to get there. It’s the perfect distance for me. I can come home on the weekend if I want. It’s enough to stay up there and be alone for a little while and be on my own,” Dill said.
Dill committed to Tulsa during her junior year while recovering from an ACL tear and came back from the injury strong. Having missed her junior fast-pitch season, she hit .540 with a .586 on-base percentage, a 1.53 onbase-plus slugging clip, 20 doubles, four triples, six home runs, 52 runs batted in and nine stolen bases without a strikeout in 134 plate appearances. She also had a .954 fielding percentage at third base.
“I committed my junior year, and I still had expectations to uphold because for a school to have that much confidence in me not even playing since I tore my ACL,” she said. “I got a lot faster than I was before I tore my ACL. I think that, in the end, it came out better for me than before I tore my ACL.”
Dill came back in better shape from her ACL tear and continued to care for her knee.
“I had great physical therapists. I was in there for nine months. I had a lot of help from my family,” she said of her recovery. “I’ve been doing a lot of squats — occasionally, my ACL still hurts. I still stretch it a lot. There are a lot of things that I do on my right knee that I don’t do on my left, like band stretches. I’ve definitely been taking care of my body and paying attention to the small things like stretching and recovering.”
Her father, Poteau head coach Ryan Dill, said her comeback serves as a reminder that players can recover and succeed.
Annika Dill helped Poteau win its first LeFlore County Fast-Pitch Tournament since 2016, getting the go-ahead hit against Pocola in the final, and reach its first state tournament since 2005.
“My senior year was everything I asked and better. My goal was to make it to state. We won [the LeFlore] County [Tournament], and no one thought we would win county,” said Dill, who was selected for the Middle East Fast-Pitch All-State team.
Dill said she will probably start by playing in the outfield.
“I’ve never played much outfield, so it’ll be new for me. I’m confident in my range. I just need to work on my arm strength,” she said, adding that she has worked with her father on reading balls from the outfield.
She said playing third base as a senior helped increase her strength throwing the ball.
“It helped me throw harder and stronger,” said Dill, who threw 63 strikeouts in 78.2 innings pitched this past fall.
She said she will work on gaining strength during the summer and taking advantage of hitting against high-level pitchers in travel softball.
Tulsa, an NCAA Division I program that competes in the American Athletic Conference, is 29-22 this season and has had winning seasons in six of the last eight years.
“I’m going to have to fill some shoes. They have eight seniors graduating, so I think I’m going to play some next year,” she said. She hopes to play in an NCAA regional.
Coach Dill said Annika will keep getting better.
“She hasn’t even scratched the surface of what she’s going to do when she gets to Tulsa and gets with the strength and conditioning coach and all the coaches there,” he said.