PORTLAND, Ore. – Sidney Booth has a certain stoicism about her.

When you watch the 5-foot-4 left-hander line up 43 feet away, eyes locked sternly into focus as she prepares to deliver a devastating curveball, it’s all business.

No nerves. No deep breaths. No second-guessing. “For me in my brain, there is no other option than for us to win and succeed on this pitch,” Booth said describing her approach to pitching. “It’s just me and the catcher, and I’m just focused in my head.”

She doesn’t emphatically react after a strikeout – it’s almost as if that result has become her expectation. Her 784 career strikeouts – 228 more than anyone to ever pitch in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference – may have something to do with her calm demeanor. “She’s a little bit of everything,” said NNU head coach Rich Wagner. “She doesn’t throw the hardest, but when she’s right her ball moves more than just about anybody. She is just an ultimate competitor – those are the words that describe Sidney Booth perfectly.”

You see, Booth doesn’t take satisfaction in striking you out or completing a scoreless inning. Her M.O. is to win, and her team has done more of that than just about anybody in the NCAA West Region since her career began in 2020. During that span, Northwest Nazarene is 152-70 (.684) with only PacWest powerhouse Concordia Irvine winning more games (184). The numbers are even more daunting in games in which Booth pitched, with NNU going 94-36 (.723) when she toes the rubber.

The Nighthawks have won four straight GNAC regular-season titles from 2021-24, GNAC Championships tournament crowns in 2022 and 2023, and on Thursday will make their fourth consecutive appearance and fifth since 2018 in the NCAA West Region Championships.

Booth has gotten better as her career has progressed and so have the Nighthawks, who are ranked No. 14 in the NFCA top-25 as they prepare to host a four-team regional this weekend at Halle Field in Nampa, Idaho. After making early exits in the regional tournament in both 2021 and 2022, NNU advanced to the regional finals last season and came up just short of a trip to the super regionals with a 3-1 loss to Concordia Irvine.

Putting forth her best statistical season in 2024, Booth leads the GNAC with a 1.25 ERA, 181 strikeouts, 18 complete games and 11 shutouts. Her 24 victories this spring are the most she has had in her career, and the figure is tied for seventh-most wins in GNAC single-season history. The stellar 2024 season, which resulted in her GNAC-record third conference pitcher of the year accolade, has contributed to a career pitching stat line that includes a 1.75 ERA, 736 1/3 innings pitched, a record of 79-30, 83 complete games and 33 shutouts. “This is the best I have ever been as a pitcher because of all the experience under my belt,” said Booth, who is in line to make the 111th start of her career on Thursday against Saint Martin’s at 4 p.m. (MT) on her home field. “What has helped is that we have gone further each year. Our first year going to regionals there were definitely some nerves – now we have been there, played and beaten ranked teams.”

It’s not surprising that Booth gets even better in the postseason. In 21 career playoff appearances (including the GNAC Championships and NCAA Championships), Booth has 126 strikeouts in 126 1/3 innings pitched, a 13-5 record, 16 complete games, seven shutouts and an ERA of exactly 1.00. The most recent of her two-career no-hitters came in the postseason, when she dialed up a 12-0 blanking of Saint Martin’s on May 5, 2023 at the GNAC Championships.

Now that we are more than 500 words into this piece, I figured it would be a good time to begin talking about Sidney Booth’s hitting. (Spoiler – she’s really good at that too.)

In 221 career games at the plate, Booth holds a slash line of .319/.432/.508 with 26 home runs and more career walks drawn (112) than strikeouts (87). Booth is tied for sixth in GNAC history with 164 career RBIs and on the final day of the regular season against Western Oregon on April 20 she picked up her 200th career base hit. A right-hand batting glove that is falling apart at its seams is evidence that Booth isn’t just a standout pitcher who gets a few occasional at-bats here and there. She hits third in the lineup of a Nighthawk team that has equaled last year’s program record win total going 39-10 thus far. 

It's easy to marvel in the Nighthawks’ recent success, which has heavily been driven by Booth’s historic career. But the journey to the top has been a long and sometimes painful one for Wagner, who finally has his NNU crew where he always thought it could be. “I am a firm believer in the school I work at and the community we are in,” said Wagner. “We really love on people here, and that is what our culture has turned into.”

BUILDING A WINNER

On April 27, 2013 Wagner leaned anxiously against the fence inside the third-base dugout in Lacey, Wash. It was the final day of the regular season, and the Nighthawks were actually going to win a game. They were up 4-1 after six innings, and were three outs away from snapping a 32-game losing streak and ending their coach’s first season in charge on a positive note. “It was the bottom of the seventh inning and we were going to end the season with a win,” Wagner said with a wince. “They scored four runs to beat us, and I just remember them (Saint Martin’s) celebrating so much. I was thinking to myself, ‘we haven’t won in 30 games.’ That was it.”

The regular-season champion Saints had five consecutive batters reach base to win that game, with the walk-off hit being delivered by GNAC Pitcher of the Year Sam Munger (more on her coming up). The difference between the conference’s top team, which found a way to overcome a three-run deficit and win, and its worst team couldn’t have been more glaring.

The Nighthawks were bad. Through their first 12 seasons as members of the GNAC, NNU went a combined 111-447 (.199) and had never sniffed a .500 season with the closest being a 23-28 mark in 2006. Wagner’s team finished the 2013 season 5-39, a figure that would have defeated many coaches in their first year in charge.

Instead, Wagner got to work recruiting.

NNU nearly tripled its win total with a 13-34 record the very next season in 2014, equaled its record for wins with a 23-27 year in 2017 and in 2018 NNU had its first winning season at 31-23. The Nighthawks had back-to-back GNAC Freshman of the Year winners in Brittany Genuardi (2017) and Jordan Adams (2018), who would go on to win GNAC Player of the Year and GNAC Pitcher of the Year, respectively.

A 28-24 record and fourth-place finish in the 2019 GNAC standings hinted that NNU was close to sustained success, but didn’t quite have all of the pieces yet. That all changed in the fall of 2019 when Booth arrived.

A NATURAL

Booth was in sixth grade when the Nighthawks lost their 33rd consecutive game in 2013, and that’s when pitching started to click for her. “My parents guided me toward the position and right around 14U is when I started thinking about pursuing it in college,” the Puyallup, Wash., native said on her aspirations of a softball career. “If I am doing something, I want to be the best that I can at it. I chose softball and wanted to go all the way to college.”

Booth’s athletic DNA comes from her father Mark’s background as a swimmer and her mother Michelle’s experience playing soccer and softball. “They didn’t go super far with sports, but they wanted to put me into that environment and see what I did with it,” Booth said. “I first started pitching probably around fourth grade, and I loved how much there was to learn. I wanted to figure out how to get better at it. In games I felt success coming on when people finally started swinging and missing.”

Booth credits her first pitching coach Al Wells with getting her started in the fourth grade, and she honed her craft with Acers Fastpitch coach Mark Anderton. By high school she was competing with the Washington Ladyhawks and began garnering recognition from collegiate coaches. “Around my sophomore year it was just a different environment,” Booth said on her progression. “I learned little bits about pitching from lots of different coaches. NNU was all-in and they were my first offer, so I just accepted it. I had a few other offers but I didn’t want to go too far away. I had played with Brittany Genuardi on the Acers and Ladyhawks, and she told me she loved it at NNU.”

While Booth’s recruiting stock was raised by being a left-handed pitcher, Wagner was originally after a middle-order hitter. He needed to replace Kylie Orr, who hit .368 and led the GNAC with 45 RBIs in 2018. “I saw Sid play for the Washington Ladyhawks, and we really liked her,” Wagner said on discovering Booth. “We invited her to a camp and that’s where it took off. Originally I needed to replace a left-handed first baseman, and we didn’t necessarily recruit her as a pitcher. We knew she was going to hit for us, and if the pitching worked out then great.”

THREE DIFFERENT SEASONS

The Nighthawks quickly realized they had much more than an upside hitter on their hands, when Genuardi, who is now an assistant on Wagner’s staff, caught Booth during the 2019 fall season. “That first fall she was just missing bats, and it happened really quick,” Wagner said. “Brittany was catching for her, and she told me that Sid’s ball was just moving everywhere. She has turned out to be who she is because of her work ethic, and she has done everything we have asked of her.”

Booth was far from dominant in her first spring however, posting a 5.12 ERA in 27 1/3 innings across nine appearances in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign. She’d have to wait until her sophomore season on Feb. 24, 2021 to claim her first collegiate victory, and from there things took off. Booth went 16-4 with a 2.31 ERA and 176 strikeouts on her way to being named the 2021 GNAC Pitcher of the Year. At the plate, she hit .364 with a career-high nine home runs and a .659 slugging percentage, helping deliver the Nighthawks’ second regular-season title. “You can be a crazy ridiculous competitor, but you have to harness it in the right way,” Wagner said on Booth’s progression over her first two collegiate seasons. “You have to allow your teammates to be there for you. The cool thing about Sid is she has gotten to a point now where she is not as excited for herself as she is for her teammates. Over the last two seasons, she has cared more about not letting her teammates down than she does about any accolade.”

As a junior in 2022, Booth delivered the fourth-most strikeouts in GNAC single-season history with 218, and held a 2.19 ERA. She earned GNAC Pitcher of the Year again and was named MVP of the GNAC Championships as she pitched NNU to victory over Saint Martin’s. She followed that up with a similarly impressive 2023 campaign, racking up 177 strikeouts in 194 1/3 innings pitched and tossing eight shutouts to go along with a 2.22 ERA and 21 victories. Booth broke the GNAC career strikeout record on April 28, 2023, amid a one-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in a victory over Western Oregon. She followed that with a second straight GNAC Championships MVP performance, before leading NNU to its best-ever regional finish in reaching the title game. “It takes a lot of hard work, and coach always says that it is like we have three different seasons,” Booth said explaining how the team separates the non-conference, conference and postseason portions of the schedule. “Each one is a milestone. It’s really hard to get to the postseason, but it is really rewarding.”

Since turning the corner the Nighthawks have gone 211-117 (.643) over the last seven seasons, have won 30 or more games five times and have taken home eight combined GNAC regular-season and tournament trophies. “He has helped me a ton, mentally and mechanically,” Booth said on Wagner’s guidance over the last five years. “I used to be very emotional during games because I was so competitive. Sometimes that came out in a negative way. He helped me reign that in and realize that my goal is to be a leader on this team and to be there for my teammates.”

THE BEST THE GNAC HAS EVER SEEN

There have been 1,221 players to record a plate appearance since the Great Northwest Athletic Conference was founded in 2002. Among them, there is truly only one comp to Booth in former Saint Martin’s two-way star Sam Munger. (Remember her, the Saints’ walk-off hero from 2013? How fitting.)

Munger is the conference’s all-time leader in pitching appearances with 143, while ranking second in wins (83), starts (117), complete games (100), innings pitched (778 2/3) and fifth in shutouts. She held a 2.46 ERA and struck out 412 batters (12th-most in GNAC history). At the plate, Munger ranks 10th in GNAC history with a .406 batting average, while recording the second-most hits (294), fifth-most doubles (58), sixth-most total bases (396) and sixth-most runs scored (168). Munger was named the GNAC Pitcher of the year in 2013 and 2015, and the GNAC co-Player of the Year in 2015 as she is the only player in conference history to claim both major awards. She led the Saints to GNAC regular-season titles in 2013 and 2015, to the GNAC Championships title in 2013 and to NCAA regionals in both 2013 and 2015.

As of Wednesday, Booth is tied with Munger for sixth on the GNAC all-time list with 164 RBIs while ranking third in GNAC history in both walks drawn (112) and sacrifice flies (11). Booth ranks in the top-10 in GNAC history in 13 different pitching categories, including first in strikeouts (784), second in shutouts (33), third in innings pitched (736 1/3), wins (79) and starts (110), and fourth in opponents batting average (.201), hits allowed per 7 innings (5.15) and appearances (130).

It’s worth mentioning that Booth’s “5-year” career included the COVID-impacted 2020 and 2021 seasons and is insignificant in comparing the two stars. NNU has played 222 games in Booth’s career and Saint Martin’s played 219 games in Munger’s, nullifying the argument that Booth had an extra season’s worth of games to accumulate her statistics. Let’s put it this way: Booth’s 603 career strikeouts at the end of 2023 were already the GNAC all-time record, before she even threw a pitch this spring. “It means everything to me,” Wagner said regarding Booth’s achievements. “This year I have watched her be one of the best teammates I have ever seen, and I know how much she loves the program and her teammates. She could’ve transferred, but she wanted to be part of this program and make it one of the best in Division II. I couldn’t be any prouder of the kid with the culture she has helped create.”

Munger had the better offensive numbers and Booth has a more dominant pitching resume, but one thing for certain is there have only been two players in the history of the conference who are even in the same “two-way player” stratosphere.

CULTURE WINS

It’s a simple two-word slogan visible in sharp red lettering on the Nighthawks’ black warmup shirts, its meaning derived from more than a decade of fine-tuning that has led Wagner and the Nighthawks to their current perch as a perennial top-ranked team. “What it means to me is how far we have come as a program,” Booth said. “It is crazy how much we all love each other and enjoy each other’s company. We have created a culture of accountability, and that helps create teams that win.”

Booth has one more chapter to write in her collegiate career, as NNU strives to surpass last year’s regional finals appearance and advance to the super regionals and world series. When Booth is finished baffling hitters, she plans to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy. Booth has had to battle through countless arm and knee injuries throughout her career, thankfully never missing a college season along the way. “I have a family friend who is a PT, and I always thought it was so cool to be able to do that,” said Booth, who is a four-time academic all-conference award winner. “That is my goal, partly because what I have been through with injuries.”

Nothing helped Booth realize the magnitude of life outside of softball more than her teammate and best friend Abigail Gagnon’s recent battle with epilepsy. Another fifth-year senior and Booth’s roommate, Gagnon has relied on the strength of her teammates to persevere through an incredibly trying and brave spring battling seizures. “I have learned that it is not just about softball, and the current situation with Abby has helped me realize that,” Booth said on providing constant support for Gagnon as her friend, roommate and teammate. “We all try to be supportive of each other in our lives outside of softball. I have learned a lot specifically from Abby, and she is so selfless and giving.”

Anyone who has had the chance to watch Booth pitch over the last five years, whether they knew it or not, was witnessing a piece of GNAC softball history. “I one hundred percent believe that Sidney Booth is the exact reflection of what this program has become,” said Wagner. “All the kids who have come through this program – the Kylie Orrs, the Ivy Hommels, the Maia McNicolls, the Tori Hensleys – they are all the same way. They fully embraced that you get better when you do your lonely work. I don’t think anyone would have bet on Sid to do what she has done. But she bet on herself.”

Undoubtedly on Thursday afternoon when the umpire yells, ‘play ball,’ to signal the start of the NCAA Championships, Booth will be at her best.

She won’t hear the words herself though. They’ll be lost amid her laser focus doing what she has done best: Winning the next pitch.