Freshman Feature: Addison Purvis

STARKVILLE – Addison Purvis' earliest softball memory comes with some tears. Not her own, but plenty from the girl she hit with a pitch.

It's part of the game. Even at the highest levels, batters get plunked. For younger pitchers it's even more common, so the fact that she had hit another kid with the ball wasn't the problem. The problem was how hard she'd hit her.

"I hit this girl right in the ribs, and this dude yelled at my dad because I shouldn't have been playing town league," Purvis said. "He said I was throwing too hard for them. It was just funny."

From a young age, Purvis has stood out on the diamond. Whether it was throwing harder than the rest of the league or her performance at the plate, she made a name for herself. It would be hard for some to believe that at first, her father, who coached her on every team she'd ever played on prior to college, had his doubts.

"He thought I was never going to play softball," she said. "He went to my mom, and he was like, 'Oh my gosh, she can't hit the ball,' because he put me on the right-handed side first."

After flipping to a left-handed swing, Purvis' talents began to shine. She's naturally right-handed and still throws with her dominant hand, but there are a few activities where the left side just feels right.

"It was tough sometimes. My dad was the one that pushed me very hard to do stuff."

"It was tough sometimes. My dad was the one that pushed me very hard to do stuff."

"Sometimes bowling and sometimes golfing," she said. "It's kind of weird. I don't know. My right-handed side was terrible, and I was like, 'Okay maybe this is the same thing as hitting.' So I tried my left-handed side, and it was so much better."

Purvis' athletic journey has taken some unique twists along the way. Her softball prowess is known. It's led her to Mississippi State and earned her a spot on STLToday's All-Decade team in Missouri this summer. As she mentioned, she also golfs and bowls, but she started competing in something a little different almost as soon as she could walk.

The Sullivan, Missouri, native grew up on a farm, raising championship show goats. From the age of two, she was showing goats and winning titles like the Illinois State Championship Buck and multiple showmanship buckles. And getting in a little exercise with the animals between feeding and watering them.

"Oh yeah! I tackled them!"

Back on the softball field, Purvis developed a very close relationship with her father after having him in the dugout for every game. Having her family involved made softball more enjoyable for her.

"It's like knowing that there's somebody else out there other than myself that's there for me," she said. "Plus, my team is behind me, so it's really like three families put into one sport."

She committed to MSU early on and felt like she was becoming a part of the Bulldog family as well. When State went through a coaching change and elevated Samantha Ricketts to lead the program, the familiarity brought comfort.

"I liked Ricketts a lot, so I wasn't going to change," Purvis said. "Then, I met [pitching coach] Josh [Johnson]. He was good at first, and then I got to know him more and was more comfortable."

When the Bulldogs played their Fall World Series in October, Purvis was forced to trust Johnson in a game situation for the first time. It was strange for her to have someone new calling her pitches, and it was the first game she'd ever played without her dad.

"It was kind of nerve racking," she said of putting on an MSU jersey. "But I was like, 'Okay this is literally just another game that I've played my whole lifetime.'"

"It has met my expectations, but there were some weird parts where I just had to say, 'Oh this is what they want.' You have to change your mindset sometimes, but it's not a big change from what I came from."

"It has met my expectations, but there were some weird parts where I just had to say, 'Oh this is what they want.' You have to change your mindset sometimes, but it's not a big change from what I came from."

As she settled in, she leaned on the work she'd put in with Johnson throughout the fall. She credits open lines of communication and the way Johnson explains why he calls certain pitches for what helped her adjust.

"I feel like we get along very well with each other," Purvis said. "We can tell each other what we're feeling. I feel like just talking with each other is making us closer."

Her first semester has been a bit different than she imagined. The fall was filled with online classes as she begins studying animal and dairy sciences. But for now, Purvis' eyes are set on the spring and her first season of collegiate competition.

"I'm looking forward to just being around the girls all the time and getting some playing time," she said. "I want to feel what the college world of playing softball is like against other teams."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Freshman Feature: Addison Purvis

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