ADAMS TWP — Opposing hitter beware.

Monica Glomb is even better this season.

Not that she was all that shabby last year. As a sophomore in 2005, the Mars High School softball pitcher posted a 0.78 earned run average and struck out 134 batters in 116 innings.

Those are stats any pitcher worth her weight in sunflower seeds would gladly take.

But that wasn't good enough for Glomb.

"I wanted to get better," said Glomb, now a junior for the Planets. "I've worked really hard to do that."

Four pitches, including a 59 mph fastball that would equate to mid-80s heat on the baseball diamond, wasn't good enough for her, either. So, she spent the off-season devising a fifth pitch to further confound hitters.

What is this fifth pitch? Glomb and her coach, Michele Goodworth, aren't telling.

They'd prefer area hitters flail away at it for themselves.

"Now I have a secret weapon, I guess," Glomb said. "I spent a long time working on it."

With five pitches in her ever-expanding arsenal, hitters are even more at the right-hander's mercy.

"(The hitters) have no idea what's coming," Glomb said. "And that's a great feeling."

She had that great feeling against Butler.

Glomb fired her first career perfect game against the Golden Tornado Thursday afternoon, striking out 13.

In addition to her strikeouts, she fielded four bunts and caught a pop-up. Glomb had her hand in all but three of the outs in the contest.

As the game was going on, Glomb said she felt like all of her pitches were working, but had no idea she on the path to perfection.

It wasn't until after the game when a teammate told her she didn't give up a hit or issue a walk that she found out what she had accomplished.

That doesn't surprise her coach.

"That's just the way she is," Goodworth said. "I've asked her what she's thinking when she's out there, and she tells me, 'Coach, I'm not thinking.'

"I don't want to say she's like a robot, but she's a machine out there."

The season didn't start out the way Glomb had planned this season, however.

A rather nasty upper resperatory infection sidelined her for the first two games of the year.

Mars lost both games by one run.

All the while, Glomb was on the bench watching — and itching to get back into the pitching circle.

"It was very tough to watch," Glomb said.

In her first game back against Pine-Richland, she struck out 10 and walked only one batter in a 4-3 win.

In that game, she was involved in 17 of the 21 outs recorded.

Her next outing was her gem against Butler.

Glomb has found early this season that the opposition is trying to do anything they can to get on base.

That includes bunting — a lot.

"That's what I had to deal with the whole first three innings (against Butler)," Glomb said.

That puts extra pressure on her to field her position.

"I've had to adjust to that," she said. "It doesn't bother me."

Glomb is also blessed to have an experienced battery mate in Brie Berkopec.

The two have played softball together for years and have developed a special pitcher-catcher bond.

"She knows what I throw and if I'm throwing something well or not," Glomb said. "We just know each other so well that it just works."

Glomb has some pretty lofty goals for her team as well this season. She figures she can do her part by keeping the opponent off the scoreboard.

"I want to win the section," Glomb said. "And then, hopefully, we can beat Ambridge."