"Our football coach at Wesleyan paid me a visit and had an interesting proposition," she said. "A former Cardinal grad had called from Florida and stated that his daughter was a promising collegiate player who had just helped her high school squad win the 6A state championship. My question was ‘Why in the world isn’t she going to play Division I?’. What I found out later that was although Molly was legitimate, she was an aspiring actress who was looking for a place where softball wasn’t going to be a job and she could focus on her acting career as well. After I saw films of her throwing a softball and I knew immediately I had a keeper."

From that moment forward, the marriage of softball pitcher and liberal arts university has a been a perfect union. The once downtrodden women’s program has been uplifted by the sensational performances of the freshman and Gaebe has the great balance of athletics and acting.

Gaebe’s numbers so far this season have been nothing less than spectacular. In the past eight days, she’s given up only seven hits in 18.2 innings with 28 strikeouts. She now has 108 K’s on the year in 78 innings with a remarkable 0.45 ERA.

Opponents are hitting a meager .115 against her.

"The one attrn 8-6 record.

"The one attribute that Molly has that doesn’t show in the stats is her competitiveness," Shea said. "She hates to lose. She’s had the winning experiences from her days in Florida and she brings that with her. She takes losing personally."

The fire with which Gaebe plays was in evidence last Saturday in a doubleheader against Hamilton College. In the first game, Gaebe was virtually unhittable. She went the distance allowing a lone single in seven innings. She struck out 13 batters on her way to a 3-0 shutout.

In the second game, Wesleyan starter Allison Zoromski was knocked around for six runs and six hits over 2.1 innings. The Hamilton crew figured her out immediately and led after three innings, 6-0. Enter the rubber-armed Gaebe.

"Molly is simply awesome," She said. "She makes my job a lot easier. Our offense is not anywhere near where I want it to be but she’s been holding things together. Our pitching is our strong suit right now. The NESCAC is up in the air right now. Anyone can win it. I’m just glad Molly’s playing for us instead of against us."