The determination of Hannah Heacox is easy to see. Stillwater’s senior pitcher spends most of her free moments chirping encouragement at teammates. Before each game, she dances around the edge of the dugout, eager to get started. And she’s often the first on the field in between innings.

Then there’s everything she has achieved in the middle of the circle, amid high expectations for the defending Class 3A state champions. A 12-2 record, 0.56 ERA and 171 strikeouts in the regular season led the Ponies into and through sections to another shot at a state title that she helped win last year.

Those impressive statistics and ability to lead were enough reasons to crown her the Star Tribune’s 2013 Metro Player of the Year.

However, her senior season was exceptional for more than Heacox’s rise ball, acute accuracy and unrelenting endurance.

On May 15, Heacox’s father, Greg G. Heacox, died from chronic lung disease. She has been playing for something more ever since.

“She’s been an incredible inspiration, not just to this team, but the softball community in Stillwater. As well as the high school community,” said Bob Beedle, Stillwater’s veteran coach. “It’s just a special situation, a special kid. I’ll tell you what … Hannah Heacox is the real deal.”

Greg Heacox, a top workers’ compensation attorney, always preferred baseball to softball until he saw how well his daughter threw the bigger neon ball. He was among the most excited when Stillwater shocked Section 5 a year ago to claim its state tournament berth. He was, by all accounts, beside himself when his daughter led the Ponies to a state championship.

That’s why one of his last wishes was to make sure she kept playing.

On the day her father died, Hannah, not particularly wanting to leave his side, struck out 15 batters and gave up just one hit for a complete-game shutout against Mounds View. Each strikeout she tallied that afternoon didn’t mean as much to her as it would have to her father, which is why she was able to stay composed, she said.

He died later that evening.

“I knew he would have wanted it,’’ Hannah said of leaving him to play the game. “It meant a lot to just talk to him to tell him, ‘I did this, I did that,’ and ‘I knew you’d want me to do this.’

“I was definitely pitching for him, and I still am.”

Since that day, a glance at the bottom of her left wrist or the red ribbon in her hair relays that message. The initials “GG” and “GGH” can be found in both spots, as well as on the ribbons of Heacox’s teammates.

Hannah is convinced her father is part of the reason the Ponies will be back in North Mankato on Thursday, launching their title defense. She admitted to being tired for last Thursday’s Section 4 championship game, “a five out of 10 [10 being exhausted], but not too bad,” she said.

But with her dad in mind, she said, nothing seems too much to overcome.

The Ponies helped Heacox get through two rough innings in the section final and her offense provided plenty of runs.

Catcher Morgan Conley said the team looks to Heacox in tough situations. She’s never let them down, Conley said, though it would have been easy to in the weeks after the death of her dad.

“That would have been extremely tough, but she kept herself very collected,” Conley said. “The day of, the day after, and the days after [Greg’s passing] she was just pitching great and phenomenal, and that kind of brought the whole team together to see she could get through that and we could help her.”

Jason Gonzalez • 612-673-4494 Twitter @JGonStrib