Even with all the camps, clinics, exposure tournaments and wall-to-wall club events, it is possible for a top-tier Division 1 softball prospect to get lost in the shuffle.

She may be playing on a local club team that is getting her regional exposure to smaller programs or she may be playing on a more well-know club, but slips through the cracks and therefore minimizes exposure to coaches.

Either way, both situations can result in a promising talent being overlooked well into the player’s club career.

That scenario is exactly what has happened to Megan Robertson, a 2018 uncommitted pitcher from Pensacola, Fla. who only recently found her home with the Birmingham Thunderbolts 99 team.

Home very well may be a fluid term for Robertson.

Born into a military family–her father is in the Navy–Robertson spent the first five years of her life in Italy. Wanting to be closer to family, Robertson’s dad managed to switch his assignment to Indiana when Robertson was eight.

Like any good Hoosier, Robertson immediately picked up basketball as well as softball.

She continued as a multi-sport athlete for several years, until she recounts, “My pitching really started to shine around the time when I was 12. We moved to Florida when I was 13, and by the time I turned 14, I gave up basketball for fear of injury. I also recently picked up golf.”

The right-handed hurler isn’t too concerned with her golf swing interfering with her softball swing.

“I know it’s really weird for softball players to play golf, but I really enjoy it and our team went to state last year!”

While her talent as a golfer may still be in question, there is no doubting her talent and future career as a pitcher.

As a freshman during the 2014-2015 season for the 6A Milton High Panthers, Robertson threw almost every game of the season, leading her team to the program’s first ever playoff win and advancing them to the Florida Region 1-6A semifinal.

The then-freshman ended the season with a 1.42 ERA and 86 strikeouts while batting .360 with nine doubles, three triples, and a home run.

Her success in high school landed her a spot on a strong local club team, West Florida Elite 18U, at the beginning of the summer.

While playing on an 18U team as a freshman is certainly an impressive feat, it didn’t provide Megan the exposure she needed, largely because most top-tier Division 1 schools no longer were heavily recruiting at the 18U level.

Robertson did receive plenty of attention from smaller Div. 1 schools in the Sunshine State while playing for West Florida Elite, but her goal is to play for a major program.

“I want to play at a top D1 school,” Robertson explained. “I knew I needed to be on a more nationally recognized club team if I wanted to get recruited, so my parents and I actively began looking at the Tampa Mustangs, Birmingham Thunderbolts and Atlanta Vipers.”

Robertson’s persistence paid off when Birmingham Thunderbolts 99 head coach Jay Roberson invited her to work out at his facility.

“He originally thought I’d be a better fit with their second team, but after 25 minutes of seeing me pitch, he wanted me,” Robertson revealed.

Coach Roberson’s decision to add Robertson to his team paid off quickly. Premiering for the Bolts at one of the top fastpitch events of the summer, the Atlanta Legacy Showcase, Robertson threw two no-hitters, instantly garnering her recruitment interest from programs ranging from the SEC to Ivy league.

Most recently at the PGF 16U Premier National Championships, Robertson threw a one-hitter against the Minnesota Renegades and four scoreless innings against Texas Glory-Naudin.

What’s more remarkable than her immediate success in the two short months she has been with the Bolts is that Robertson is battling a fairly serious gallbladder condition in which only 15 percent of the organ functions properly.

The recent diagnosis came as a surprise to Robertson, who lost 18 pounds in a month and a half.

“I thought I was just losing weight because I had cleaned up my diet and was running more,” explained Robertson. “But then I started having pain and stomach aches. I went to the doctor and he said I probably need it [the gallbladder] removed, but he doesn’t want to operate right now because I’m so young.”

Not having the surgery means Robertson is left to manage her constant pain with an excessive amount of medication and limit her fat intake drastically. But the 15-year-old isn’t letting her condition slow her down.

“It hasn’t really been much of an issue with playing,” she admitted.

When asked about Robertson, Coach Roberson has nothing but praise for his newly-found ace.

“Megan has fallen under the radar,” he believes. “She has control of all six pitches and has a working speed around 63 mph. She’s good, she’s a competitor and is tough as nails. And Megan scored a 22 on her ACT as an eighth grader.”

With the summer complete, Robertson will begin a conditioning and weighted ball pitching program, which she credits with adding three to four miles per hour to her pitches every year she has completed the program.