WARNER ROBINS — Sierra Stella is a rock star.

She usually wears rock-star glasses on the field, even when it’s not all that bright. Now, she might as well wear them all the time.

Because she has become a Little League softball rock star.

OK, she’s a second baseman and a leadoff hitter, and she is all of 55 inches tall and about 68 pounds. Like most softball players, her ponytail bounces around and flies behind her when she runs.

But see, her glove literally covers more than her head. You half expect it to tilt her off to the left side and to the ground, because compared to the rest of her, it’s so big.

Figuratively and literally, and that’s why on a ridiculously humid Sunday evening, Stella became a rock star.

Throughout the Little League Softball Southeastern Region Tournament, as well as district and state play, Stella has fielded her position fairly flawlessly. Routine plays are routine plays, and that’s the exception more than rule on this age level.

Spectacular plays are almost unheard of.

Stella has turned heads by turning in a few just such plays. And Sunday evening, she kept doing it.

Warner Robins led 6-3 through four innings of the tournament semifinal. There was a sense of control, but certainly no sense that it was over. West Virginia was making contact, keeping pressure on Warner Robins.

The big mistake for West Virginia was hitting the ball anywhere to the right side of the infield. In fact, even somewhat up the middle wasn’t safe.

Twice in the fifth inning, West Virginia hitters sent shots through the pitcher’s circle, and Ashley Killebrew did her best to stop them, but could only get a hair of leather on both, slightly altering their direction to the right defensive side.

No matter.

Both times, Stella bolted to her right, dove and backhanded the grounders, then wheeled and threw out both runners by a step.

It was, considering the age level and all, a pair of absurdly good plays.

The first time was enough, drawing the capacity crowd to its feet for an extended ovation.

“That first one was crazy good,” said Roger Stella, her manager and father. “The first one was huge.”

It saved at least a run.

The second one did the same, and thus the crowd reaction was longer and louder and almost rowdy, so jazzed were Warner Robins fans.

“Oh man, yeah,” Roger Stella said of hearing that roar despite being in the middle of a game. “How can you not?”

Energized, Warner Robins came to the plate and dealt the knockout punch with five runs for an 11-4 win and berth in the region championship.

“I’m gonna have to trade my pin in for a Sierra pin,” one dazzled fan said. Offered another: “That’s (68) pounds of athlete.”

For her part, Sierra Stella was still pretty excited after the game.

“I’ve done that once or twice, but very rare,” she said. “The first one, it seemed like I dived in slow motion. The second one, it was coming pretty fast.”

The reaction of the fans surprised her and made her a little nervous.

”It did,” she said. “All that cheering because I made that one play?”

Well, she made one play but made it twice, a play that doesn’t get made very often on the youth level.

Killebrew wasn’t all that fazed.

”I knew she’d be there,” Killebrew said. “We’ve got great players on our team.”

First baseman Avery Lamb knew better than to assume the ball would roll through to center.

“She knows how to dive and get a ball,” Lamb said. “She has quick reactions. I knew if she could get the ball, we would have a good chance of getting (the batter) out.”

Stella counters her size with almost effortless athleticism with boundless energy. Whether she’s catching a popup, tracking a routine grounder or diving and sliding into the hole for plays worthy of ESPN’s web gems, well, it’s clear that she’s got game.

Which, of course, Dad instilled in her, right?

”Nope, her momma,” Roger Stella said of his wife Stacy, the former Stacy Burke who played some of her own, at catcher, at Warner Robins. “Her momma was a player.”

Like mother, like daughter.

Thanks to two plays that will have the folks who were there talking about them for a long time, however, the daughter became something of a softball rock star on a stifling Sunday evening.

And with a trip to the World Series and the chance to defend that title on the line, an encore performance tonight would be no surprise.

Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com