WINFIELD — At age 7, Maci Knowles stood in the outfield all by herself and cried.
Time and time again.
"When my mom first signed me up, I hated it so much," Knowles said of her initiation into softball.
Knowles managed to battle through those first-year emotions thanks to a little bribery.
One of the assistants on the coach-pitch first-grade team offered Knowles a dollar every time she completed a game with no tears.
It took until the final three contests of the season before Knowles finally got the hint.
And some spending money as well.
"She went out and bought candy," said her mom, Kelli. "At least it stopped her from crying."
Those days are long gone.
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In fact, the shoe is now on the other foot.
Knowles, a hard-throwing junior pitcher at Winfield High, is the one handing out the disappointment.
The right-hander helped the Warriors to the state tournament last fall for the first time in 29 years with a 12-4 record. She struck out 160 batters in 103 innings as the Lincoln County school finished fourth in Class 3.
Now, with Knowles back for an encore, Winfield is a solid threat to get back to the final four again.
"We definitely rode her to state last season and she caught fire at the right time," Winfield coach Nathan Bruns said.
Knowles used a deadly six-pitch arsenal to flummox hitters across the state. She fanned a career-high 19 batters Sept. 25 in a 2-1 8-inning win over St. Dominic. In mid-October, Knowles fanned 15 and 14 batters in a pair of wins over Lutheran St. Charles during a 10-day span.
Most importantly, she came up big at the right time with a gutsy six-strikeout effort in a win over Hallsville in the quarterfinal round. Knowles took a line drive to stomach early in that contest but would not come out with the season on the line.
"She had the right mindset," Bruns said. "She was ready to attack and she was ready to be challenged head on."
Knowles has come a long way since those early days when she felt uncomfortable on the field.
Yet she still remembers those early little league struggles and even wears uniform No. 7 to remind her of the sad times at that age.
"It was bad, it was really bad," Knowles said. "I cried and cried, but I never thought about quitting.
"I always wanted to go back."
Eventually, Knowles reach a comfort level on the field. She more than held her own as an outfielder and first baseman before moving into the pitching circle as a fourth grader.
"I starting having fun and I realized that I didn't want to cry any more," Knowles said. "I started making friends and really enjoying myself."
Knowles not only had an affinity for pitching, but it helped her fall in love with the sport as well.
Now softball is a huge part of her life. She spent the summer playing for the Louisville Sluggers club team, bouncing around to tournaments across the country.
More success on that level has Knowles on the path to a potential college career.
"She's a special person, both off the field and on the field," Bruns said. "I've known her since she was in the seventh grade. She's always been a light within the room."
Knowles, who stands 5-foot-11, helped keep the mood light during crunch time moments last season. Her ability to calm her teammates played a key role in the stretch drive.
"She's definitely a goofball, she likes to have fun, she likes to laugh," senior teammate Riley Havican said. "But she's serious when she needs to be."
Knowles made a big splash early in her freshman season with a complete-game effort in a 4-2 win over Fatima at an early-season tournament in the Springfield area. Fatima went on to win the Class 3 state crown with a 33-3 record that year.
Bruns had a cache of four pitchers in 2022 and Knowles was part of the rotation.
But he saw the rapid improvement between her freshman and sophomore years and smartly made her the team's ace heading into last season.
"She got stronger," Bruns said. "She definitely worked on perfecting her pitches and hitting her spots. Then, it all came together and she truly developed into a pitcher."
Knowles was ready for the challenge.
"For the longest time, I struggled with my confidence," Knowles said. "In the middle of last year, I started believing in the things I could do."
That new-found belief has helped Knowles become one of the top Class 3 pitchers in the state.
A straight-A student, Knowles and her current teammates have helped put Winfield softball on the map.
And there could be more success around the corner.
"We sort of felt like last year, we were just happy to get to state and we sort of stopped there," Knowles said. "That experience has taught us that we need to be better prepared if we're going to get it done at that level."
Read about some of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ area's top high school fall softball players as the season gets under way.