Name: Hannah Wulf

School: St. Charles East, senior

Sport: Softball

What she did: Across 13 innings pitched, Wulf allowed six hits and zero runs while striking out 27 batters, including a season-high 14 in the DuKane Conference finale against Geneva.

Wulf was selected as the Athlete of the Week based on the results of an online vote.

Here is her Q&A with sports reporter Joel Boenitz.

How do you feel you performed last week?

Wulf: I think it came out pretty good. We’re just looking into the future a lot this week, but also taking in how great of a preseason we had this year and I think it went pretty well.

How did it feel to close out DuKane Conference play with consecutive wins?

Wulf: It felt great. That second loss to St. Charles North wasn’t fun, but they’re also a great team and earned that win. But I think just for our team, ending season with two really good wins for us under our belt going into postseason just brings our whole team morale up. I can admit, after the St Charles North game we were down on ourselves, but we came back the next day and practiced really hard and we felt really good for the rest of the weekend.

You had 14 strikeouts in a six-inning win against Geneva. What was the feeling of tying your season-high in the win?

Wulf: As a pitcher I really work for my defense and I work for my teammates, so I really just came in there wanting to have a really solid game for my teammates to bring us back up into our like positive mindset. So I kind of went in there with my catcher and we just really focused on getting ahead of the count and attacking each pitch as best as you possibly can and I kind of wanted to go with a fresh mind of like I need to beat this team like every single inning.

You were also named the co-Pitcher of the Year in the DuKane Conference. What’s the feeling of earning the award?

Wulf: It’s so great, and I’m honestly so blessed to be sharing it alongside (St. Charles North’s) Abby Zawadzki. I’ve known her for a really long time and she’s such a talented player and a great athlete, and I’m so grateful to share it with her.

You transferred to East from Wheaton North. What’s the season been like with the team?

Wulf: It’s been incredible, I’m so happy with my decision to come here. I’ve been playing with Hayden (Sujack) on and off for five years through club and she truly knows me inside and out as a pitcher, and it’s just so great to know I have someone behind the plate that knows me as a player and as a person. I can without a doubt say she’s a cause for most of my success for this season, because she really works for me and the rest of my team.

You and Sujack will also be playing at South Carolina together. How excited are you to continue to be teammates in the future?

Wulf: It’s incredible to be working alongside her as a senior on the team. While I was looking at schools in college, we kind of had the idea in our head that we would be splitting up for college and be going our separate ways because we had different ideas of where we wanted to go for college. And then we decided we were going to the same place and it was just incredible. We weren’t expecting it to happen, but it was absolutely great and I’m so excited for the future.

Any superstitions?

Wulf: Me and Hayden have a specific throwing routine we do before every game and if we mess it up we have to do it over again. And I always do two bubbles in a low pony tail for every game.