Every time Hailey Zirpoli walks to the pitcher’s circle or on to the field she looks down at her arm with a small tattoo of the sun and the date 4-7-22, then up at the sky, and sings softly to herself.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

Grandma Gloria Hausman is watching.

Hausman, whose daughter is Hailey’s mom, died during Hailey’s freshman softball season and taught her granddaughter that song, written in part by country legend Jimmie Davis, who rode it all the way to the Louisiana Statehouse as a two-term Governor.

“She used to sing it to me all the time,” said Zirpoli, who learned to play it on the ukelele, guitar and piano as well as sing it. “I loved her so much and she was my biggest fan.

Waldwick coach Mike Kilgallen marvels at his ace’s composure and what he calls the “can’t-tell attitude” that it is mantra of the Warrior team that got off to a 9-0 start.

“She has the mental toughness and that stoic-and-steady manner that can calm a team down in the circle, and then she takes it to the batters box and into the field when she isn’t pitching,” Kilgallen said. “We have a true mix of veterans (six seniors) and youngsters (four freshmen) in the starting lineup and she is the leader.”

She also trusts her teammates and in turn they believe in her. Kilgallen tells the story of earlier this year when Waldwick, which had been knocked out of the state tournament by Hawthorne the year before, drew the Bears in the home opener.

After pitching Zirpoli nearly every inning a year ago, the Warriors have four pitchers that Kilgallen believes in this year. Zirpoli was leading 6-3 going to the final inning but went to the coach and said that she was about to start a third time around the order and that freshman Abby Buser was ready to make her pitching debut.

“She had the self-awareness to realize that Hawthorne had seen a lot of her and went to Abby and gave her the confidence and belief that it was Abby’s turn,” Kilgallen said.

Buser struck out the side.

“Being part of a team like this is all about trust,” said Zirpoli, who also plays basketball for the Warriors and admits that even with all her activities, she likes to get to the gym and work out every day. “The connection with a team is more about just playing a sport.”

Despite her long love of softball, she’s prepared for life without the sport at the University of South Carolina next year. She would like to play on the club team, though, which won the National Club Softball Association South Atlantic North league and is playing in the Regionals in Valdosta, Georgia this weekend.

“My years of playing softball have been the best but I’m ready for some new challenges,” she said.

Maybe, she and future roommate Lucia Mastellone of Ridgewood might try and help start a flag football program at South Carolina. “We talk about it all the time,” said Zirpoli, who will major in biology and pre-med at the Columbia-based school. “Ideally, I’d be a quarterback.”

Whatever she does next, Grandma Hausman will be watching. And it’s likely she’ll be very proud.