Kid Cudi raps thump through a pair of white Beats by Dre headphones nestled in sophomore left fielder Hannah Stirton’s ears, putting her into a state of Zen as she makes her way to the softball park.

“When I walk into the park, I have my earbuds in and I don’t talk,” Stirton said. “I just go.”

When her cleats touch the turf, she enters a state of mind that balances a calm focus with a sense of excited nervousness that began the night before.

As early as she can, she’ll go to bed and imagine the way the game will play out.

She’ll wake up the next morning, eat breakfast, go to class and treat the day like any other.

Her mindset doesn’t work for every athlete, but it keeps her focused in the outfield.

Stirton likened her approach

to the warnings her parents gave her when she turned 16 and began driving.

“They say don’t get too comfortable,” she said. “Because when you get comfortable is when you make a mistake.”

Her parents have always influenced the role sports plays in her life, as her father was a tennis player, while her mother played softball, basketball and cheered.

She first went to bat for her mother’s coed T-ball team, “The Maniacs,” at 4 years old.

“I’ve always been an athlete, even before 4 I always had a ball in my hand,” she said. “Even before

T-ball, I’d always be dribbling or my dad would make a softball out of socks, and I’d hit it with a rolled-up newspaper.”

Stirton said her parents have always been supportive of and involved in her athletics.

So far this season, her mother has driven from Tulsa to attend 15 of the first 18 games, and her father went out of his way on a business trip to watch her play at Louisiana State University.

The support from her family motivates her to continue playing softball.

“It’s cliché, but my parents really are my No. 1 fans,” she said.

She also received support from her mentors, coaches Kenny Myers and Danielle Olsen, while she attended Owasso High School in Oklahoma.

There she played both basketball and softball, and she competed on the Tulsa Fire and Oklahoma Diamond Girls competition softball teams.

Stirton said when she told Meyers and Olsen she wanted to play college softball, they pushed her and trained her to reach the necessary level to make her dreams a reality.

Now that she’s playing for UCA, she said she’s in a good place.

She said the softball team this year is great on the field, and the dynamic between her teammates makes it even better.

Stirton said she plays because she has fun and that it is what she wants to be doing.

Every year before the season begins, she asks herself whether she is still enjoying herself, and so far she’s been having too much fun to stop.

“The day that I say I’m not having fun anymore is the day I’m going to be done,” she said.

Stirton has started all 22 games this season, hitting .310 and getting on base at a .444 clip, and has a .414 slugging percentage.