Photo illustration by Travis Rosenau New Ulm High School senior pitcher Ramsey Hopp was unanimously named the 2025 All-Journal Softball Player of the Year on Thursday.

By Ari Selvey

aselvey@nujournal.com

NEW ULM — New Ulm’s Ramsey Hopp has certainly left an impact on the Eagles softball program.

Over the past four years, Hopp has helped lead New Ulm to a 73-26 record, including 59 wins in the circle. The Eagles made four consecutive section tournament championship games, and Hopp has been All-Conference and All-Section in all four years as well.

Hopp recorded 614 career strikeouts in 553.6 innings pitcher, averaging 1.109 strikeouts per inning in her time as an Eagle. Hopp played in 101 career games in five years, throwing shutouts in 27 of them and collecting nine no-hitters and earning an All-State selection in each of the past two seasons.

This year, Hopp posted a 2.02 ERA with 142 strikeouts in 114 innings of work. Hopp was 18-5 in the circle and earned six shutouts, a no-hitter and a Section Team All-State selection, Hopp has been long respected as one of the top pitchers in the area. On top of that, Hopp batted .410 at the plate with a .521 slugging percentage, recording five doubles and 19 RBIs as New Ulm’s cleanup hitter.

For her play this season, Hopp has been unanimously selected, for the second time, as the All-Journal Softball Player of the Year as voted on by The Journal’s sports staff.

“It means a lot, obviously,” Hopp said. “To be recognized, it makes you feel like all you’re hard work has paid off. But at the same time, it’s not just you. You have a whole team around you. If you’re not winning games and you’re not playing good teams, you’re not going to be as likely to be recognized if you’re not a winning club with people behind you.”

Hopp has had a large hand in New Ulm’s team success over the past four years, with the team winning 73.3% of its games during that time span, and Hopp recognizes how much her team has helped her as well.

“The program means everything to me,” Hopp said. “We’ve fallen short four times, but not many people can say they’ve made it to that many section championships either. And to do it and experience that playoff atmosphere with the people that you’ve grown up with is really cool. And it was really hard when we lost, because I knew that I’d never get to do that again with my best friends that I’ve grown up with my whole life.”

On the mound, Hopp feels she continued to improve her control this season, placing pitches where she intended with more consistency.

“I feel like commanding my pitches, being able to know when I wanted a strike on the corner and when I wanted to get them to chase and throw it a ball off,” she said. “I feel like I had more control this year.”

While Hopp is most recognized for her work in the circle, she contributed plenty at the plate as well. Hopp said that being a two-way player gave her more chances to impact team winning in a given game.

“Being the pitcher and the hitter, being a two-way player, I look at it as two opportunities to contribute,” Hopp said. “If I’m having a really bad day at the plate, I would have an opportunity to fix it on the mound, and vice-versa, if I’m pitching terribly one day, I can do it with my bat. Not all positions on the field can get that chance, but as a pitcher you always have two opportunities to contribute.”

One thing that Hopp feels has led her to become the softball player she is to day is learning to overcome failure.

“I think I learned that you have to fail before you succeed,” Hopp said. “The game of softball is a lot of failures. A good batting average is getting three hits out of 10, so you’re failing seven times and succeeding three times. The whole sport is focused around failing, and you have to learn to overcome that and overcome the adversity that softball throws at you.”

Hopp has done plenty of work for New Ulm on the field, but Hopp hopes to leave behind more than just her career numbers for the Eagles softball program.

“Every time I was on the mound, I just thought that a bunch of little girls are watching,” she said. “Getting excited to take my spot one day and be that person in the circle. I knew there were always little kids watching, and I wanted them to see what a leader looks like and how you can take care of your teammates and show them that you’ve got them and playing the game the right way, really.”

The next step for Hopp is to continue playing softball at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, where she hopes to continue her two-way play.

“I’m willing to play other positions on the field, too, not just a pitcher,” Hopp said. “I’m excited to see where my next steps take me, whether it’s as a pitcher or wherever they put me. Being able to contribute in other ways other than just pitching.”

Hopp looks to continue to improve as a pitcher and a batter in her time at college.

“Pitching, just getting more spin and being able to produce more strikeouts and groundouts and stuff like that,” Hopp said. “Then hitting, you can always improve on hitting. You can never be perfect at hitting, nobody can hit 1.000, so just working on my swing and trying to make more contact and trying to find more gaps.”