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One way or another, she's going to get hit.

There are games like earlier this week when University of Dayton pitchers not only walked the Wright State slugger three times in a softball doubleheader, but also hit her in the elbow, the forearm and once on the hand — three times in all — anything to back her off the plate and keep her from taking a good whack at the ball.

"You're frickin' right they were pitching me tight inside," said Jherica Williams, the Raiders senior outfielder/catcher. "I guess that's a sign of respect. They weren't gonna give me a thing, but I wasn't gonna let them back me off the plate either. In my mind, I own that inside corner."

This wasn't batter's box bluster — she is a person of few words, almost none used to toot her own horn — it was just fact.

Youngstown State pitched to her with the bases loaded, and she hit a grand slam, her second of the season.

At Morehead State, the pitcher tried to fool her with a changeup, said her mother, Lisa, who sat in a lawn chair alongside husband Jerry, just beyond the right field fence at the UD Softball Stadium:

"She had time to size up the pitch, rear back and let 'er rip. She knocked that ball over the fence and into the woods."

Then there was the Toledo game earlier this month. "She hit one over the scoreboard there," said WSU coach Mike Larabee. "Their coach said it's the farthest one they've ever seen hit there."

And it's times like that when she gets hit even harder than she was by UD.

"When I come around the bases, my coach (at third) shakes my hand, then hits me hard in the back," she laughed. "At home plate, all my teammates are there waiting, and they just smack the crap out of my helmet ... They hit it hard."

... And, these days, quite often.

Going into the game with visiting Valparaiso today, April 24, Williams has 13 home runs. She's obliterated the Raiders' single-season home run record of eight and began the week 26th nationally in home runs for Division I players.

She led the nation with 63 RBIs, was No. 2 in slugging percentage (.950) and No. 3 in batting average (.486).

"An amazing athlete," said Larabee, who's now saying what Lisa was seeing back when Jherica was in first grade and the family was living in New Mexico. Jerry was in the Air Force and Lisa — who grew up in Piqua enamored by The Big Red Machine — was playing fastpitch softball for a company team.

"I'd take her and her sister, Samantha, along to shag balls," Lisa said. "Jherica would creep in from the outfield to the infield to get more action. I remember once my buddy hit a high pop fly and there she was, just 6 years old, big mitt in her hand, tracking that ball all the way down, and she nearly caught it.

"Right then I knew I had a ballplayer."

Soon after, the family was back in Piqua, and Jherica pursued softball through the youth leagues and onto the Miami Valley Express Under-18 select team.

"She was absolutely the best athlete ever in our program," said Express director Richard Dunn. "She had a multitude of talent and that Pete Rose attitude. We were in Los Angeles, and she dove head first into home plate and everybody said, 'It's Pete Rose.' "

Listening to the story, Lisa grinned: "Charlie Hustle — that's my favorite player ... and hers, too."

Her senior season at Piqua High, Jherica was named the Greater Western Ohio Conference Player of the Year. To bolster her academics, she ended up at Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla., and twice won first-team all-conference honors. Last year — her first at WSU — she was named the Horizon League Newcomer of the Year and won first-team all-conference honors.

Yet nothing matches this season. While setting lifting records in the WSU weight room, she's worked with Cincinnati-area hitting coach Howard Carrier to become a bigger force at the plate.

Larabee said after the WSU season, the Akron Racers pro team plans to sign her. Until then, there are games like the one against UD where she came barreling full bore from right field, slid across gravel and into a fence to catch a foul ball.

"Earlier this year we were playing at the University of New Mexico, and she made one of the greatest catches I've ever seen by a male or female, major leagues or college softball," Larabee said. "She was going full speed down the right field line, laid out and crashed, head-first into the scoreboard. She made the catch."

When you're channeling Charlie Hustle, you not only get hit, but you're not shy about hitting something else, either.

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