Gemma Mulhollen starring for the Lady Sailors despite dealing with lingering injury throughout the season

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - This week’s ABC7 Athlete of the Week is Gemma Mulhollen. She’s a junior and one of their standout pitchers on the mound.

She’s apart of a rotation that is spearheading a 16-4 campaign for a team that’s looking to get back to the state semifinals and this time complete the job. Mulhollen has the confidence that they can do it.

“A lot of us were on the team that to States last year,” Mulhollen said. “We want to experience that again. We feel like that maybe we can win it this year. We’ve been pretty successful so far. We only have four losses, which came from both of our tournaments. Other than that, we’re on a winning streak right now.”

There’s nothing that Mulhollen will not do to help this team. She recently threw a no-hitter in one of her games. “It meant a lot to me,” Mulhollen said. “We sat down with my coaches at the beginning of the year. My preseason goal was to throw a no-hitter.”

What makes this even more amazing is that she’s fighting through a back injury that has been lingering throughout the season. “I’m basically at doctor’s appointments everyday,” Mulhollen said. “Either it’s like getting treatment, acupuncture, x-rays. I’m just trying to do whatever I can to get back on the field.”

Her coach, Andrew Jensen, says Mulhollen’s perseverance does not go unnoticed by him, his staff or any of her teammates.

“She does not ever want to come out of the game, which is a big problem,” Jensen said. “When she’s not pitching, she’s always wanted to look for opportunities to play out in the outfield. She’s just a great teammate.”

Mulhollen is willing to fight through the pain because it’s all about one goal. “First is to win Districts,” Mulhollen said. “We couldn’t do that last year. The road back to States would also be very nice.”

Mulhollen and the Lady Sailors have a few games remaining on the regular season, and then it’s on to the playoffs.

And then it’s on to the playoffs…