Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Abby McGill is an institution in the middle of the infield for the LaGrange High softball team. The junior shortstop just wrapped her penultimate season in blue and white.

“It feels sad that it’s over, but I’m already ready to get back out there,” McGill said. “The Grangers run in our family, and I can’t imagine playing anywhere else.”

It was a huge season for McGill, who really developed into one of the leaders for the Grangers this past season. She hit .475 with five home runs and 29 RBIs as a junior. But these gaudy statistics did not happen overnight.

“The preparation I did with coach Craig (Mobley), and my dad really prepared me to be a better hitter this year,” McGill said. “It was a lot of early mornings hitting and a lot of one-on-one time hitting.”

Her junior season was not always the one she wanted or expected, but she still came away satisfied. 

“I think the season went really well all things considered, and we really came together as a team towards the end of the season and kept fighting,” McGill said. “This just gets us hungrier for next year.”

Since Mobley took over prior to the 2022 season, McGill has noticed a change in the air around the softball program. She feels the program is more focused on building a team.

Building a team starts with camaraderie and the current Grangers squad has that in spades. The team had a large junior class that had bonded and grew up on the diamond together.

“It has been an honor to grow up playing with these girls,” she said. “The encouragement and the support system that we all bring for each other makes it feel like a family.”

She first met some of her fellow junior softball players at eight years old and has never looked back as they forged friendship and family together on the diamond.

Even though the Grangers came up just short in last week’s super regional championship, McGill believes the experience brought the team even closer.

“It definitely brought us closer together,” she said. “We were spending all day together, staying in the same hotel, it really just brought us closer.”

McGill has grown up on the diamond, where she found her one true love.

“Growing up, I played soccer a little and tennis with my grandfather, but softball is always where  my heart has been,” McGill said. “Ever since I first stepped on the field as a little girl it has been where my heart is and where I’m happy at”

It now feels bittersweet for McGill as she has just one season left with the Grangers. Next year could be her final season playing softball as she debates whether to focus entirely on academics in college or not.

“I’m not closed to playing in college just yet, but I wanted to get my medical degree started and get started down that path in my life,” she said. “I’m hoping to go to UGA and start my medical journey there.”

McGill still has plenty of time to plan out her future as she focuses on the here and now. Unfortunately for Granger fans, they will not get a chance to see her perform again until next August.