MARION — When Madison Hill was a freshman, she looked up to Elgin senior softball pitcher Alyvia Roth. Knowing Hill would inherit the pitching circle after she graduated, Roth was a mentor to her.
“To learn from such a prestigious athlete who grinded day-in and day-out and wanted to get better and was always striving for something more, it really made me have a better outlook on softball,” Hill said of Roth who plays NCAA Division I softball at Bowling Green State University.
Roth led a largely underclassman roster to 17 wins and a Northwest Central Conference softball championship in 2023. Four years later, Hill was the lone player from that freshman class still playing as a senior.
“It was honestly challenging,” Hill said of being the only senior on the team. “My other seniors chose to adventure and do other dreams instead of playing high school softball and kudos to them. But it was really hard because I had to step into a different role.”
And with just one junior behind her in Gracelyn Edmonstone, Hill was the team’s pitcher and sometimes its nanny.
“I’ve always been somewhat of a leader, but I had to sit back and be patient and understand that I may be at a different level than them. I have to teach them how to become at my level and understand this is game that is fun, but it’s hard,” Hill said. “You have to learn and everything will be put into place in the end.”
While sometimes challenging playing with peers so much younger and inexperienced than herself, Hill quickly relished her spot.
“I feel like they really fed off me,” Hill said. “It made me a better teammate and a better person. They would come and ask me questions, and it really made me feel good. I was someone they could rely on no matter what.”
Hill leads on the field
It wasn’t just dugout talk and practice help. Hill was the team’s most productive player in 2026.
For the season, she batted .485 with 32 hits, 27 runs, 17 RBIs, six doubles, a triple and five stolen bases. She had a .521 on-base percentage and a .606 slugging percentage, striking out only twice all year.
As a pitcher, Hill worked 82 innings, winning six games, striking out 94, walking 27 and allowing a .272 batting average against. Her ERA was 4.18.
“It’s big shoes to fill there. Big bat and just a solid player all around,” Elgin coach Wendy Muselin said of her after the tournament loss at Grandview Heights. “She teaches the kids, too. She helps guide them on the field. It’s going to be a tough role to fill.”
While the Comets were 8-10 overall, they finished third in the NWCC with two losses and advanced to the Division VI district tournament.
“I really enjoyed every single process that softball has given me. That’s why I truly fell in love with it,” Hill said.
Hill finds success in softball
Hill played girls basketball, but her first love was always softball.
“Since day 1 when I played, it was an escape from reality,” she said. “It was something I enjoyed doing. It was something I could rely on no matter what. Even the good and the bad, it always brought something to me. I really enjoyed that, and it made me look at things a different way.”
She found success on the sandlots, especially as a senior in high school when she had specific personal goals.
“I had a T chart,” Hill explained. “It was realistic goals and dreams and unrealistic goals with a question mark. My realistic goals were to get first team and player of the year in the NWCC, which I achieved. My unrealistic goals were win the Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month, so it’s really great to sit here and talk to you about how I achieved that goal that was a dream and I never thought I’d be able to achieve.”
Indeed, she was named the NWCC Player of the Year by the conference’s coaches, and she was the April winner of the Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month Award among Marion County girls.
Hill’s Fahey Bank plaque will be among Elgin sports royalty in perpetuity.
“It’s one of the most prestigious awards that I got in the past four years that I’ve played softball,” she said. “I really appreciate it and am grateful. All the people who supported me through it, I can’t thank them enough.”
As for the conference player of the year award, even though she thought it was achievable, she was still surprised when she found out.
“I didn’t know if I could do it because there are so many other great athletes that were in our conference and performed at great levels,” she said. “It was hard to think I was at the same caliber when I competed with them.”
Hill’s softball career is over, although she kicked around the idea of playing in college. Instead, she will go to Marion Technical College to study nursing, but she will always have her memories of playing.
“It was a game and it was fun. I got to meet better people. I got to go so many places with travel ball,” she said. “I would do it again.”
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Fahey Bank Athlete of the Month
This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Elgin’s Madison Hill earns personal awards in 2026 softball season
Reporting by Rob McCurdy, Marion Star / Marion Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
