Published: May 19, 2008 12:02 am            

SOFTBALL: Players more than double HR production

Eastern softball player Brookelyn Smith knows when she puts a charge in a ball because she barely notices any disruption as she makes contact.

“I can definitely tell when one is going out,” said Smith, who has a Howard County-leading 10 homers through the regular season. “You can just feel it, and the sound of it. I feel it with the way it hits the bat — I barely feel it at all.”

Alisha Davenport can relate. The Western cleanup hitter is second in the county with eight homers.

“I can usually tell as soon as I make contact with the ball. You can feel when you make solid contact. It doesn’t hurt your hands,” she said, noting how much better that feels than balls that don’t hit on the sweet spot of the bat.

“It’s like nothing happened, you can barely feel anything because of the way you hit the ball.”

Smith and Davenport are leading the charge in an alarming power surge this season. Players in Howard County have hit 41 homers this season heading into today’s opening day of sectional play.

Last year, there were 16 homers with no player hitting more than two. The previous season, there were 14 and Taylor’s Trish Ling accounted for half of those. This season, 16 players have accounted for the 41 taters with three players — Smith, Davenport and Western’s Kristen Larrick — hitting five or more.

Smith, who hit one homer last season, admitted that she was caught off guard by her emergence as a power threat.

“If someone would have told me that I was going to hit 10 home runs this year, I would have thought they were crazy because I definitely wouldn’t think I’d do something like that,” she said.

Count Western coach Jim Clouse as another who marvels at what he’s seeing.

“Actually, one of the things we talked about with our pitchers at the beginning of the season was don’t walk people, there’s not going to be many home runs,” he said, noting how many were hit last season. “And [this year], it’s been like, wow! You look at Brookelyn Smith over at Eastern with 10 home runs and Alisha Davenport with eight. My first two years at Western we had a total of two. This year we’ve got 16. I think a lot of it has to do with the bats. The bats get more lively every year and some of the teams are maturing.

“It’s been a big surprise to me, a big surprise that there’s been home runs hit like they have been.”

Ask any of the five county coaches to explain the power surge and you’ll get a variety of different answers.

Northwestern’s Kerrie Kucholick noted how much more emphasis there is on weight training now at Northwestern compared to when she played for the Tigers earlier this decade. This year Northwestern has five homers on the season.

Kucholick said she was surprised at the homer total “because we don’t have a lot of big girls. I think it’s their muscle tone is just tremendous doing the weight program.”

Kokomo’s Lisa Tate noted that the bat technology has improved, and also has seen players more committed to working out with weights, or on their swings.

“I know kids are doing more weight training and training year around for their hitting,” Tate said. “They’re taking lessons in the wintertime. The hitters are starting to catch up with the pitchers and it’s making it more exciting.”

Smith and Davenport both noted off-season work as important in their power development. Smith, a sophomore, said that some of her power may come from being a year older and stronger, but that in addition, her off-season work with Jerry Haines and assistant Joe Breisch helped her refine her swing, see the ball and learn the strike zone better.

Davenport went into the season confident after a lot of work after her junior year.

“Basically, I just worked m butt off with my hitting over the summer,” the senior said. “My hitting coach [Western assistant] Lyle Snyder has helped me a lot.

“I’m seeing the ball a lot better this year. It’s not like I look for home runs, I just look for solid contact. I don’t go up there and change my swing, I just go for the contact.”

Smith is enjoying the show.

“I think it’s great that a lot of people are hitting the ball that hard,” she said. “I think a lot of people are putting a lot of time in and making better contact.”

Taylor coach Brian Weeks was a little surprised by this year’s power surge, but not much because he thinks it’s the outcome of players taking more time to work on their hitting game.

“Hitting is getting better,” he said. “They’re more aggressive, they’re getting better instruction and they’re getting able to utilize their power.”

Upon seeing 16 county players with at least one homer to their name this season, Eastern coach Jerry Haines thinks the upswing might be due to a higher caliber of athlete playing softball lately.

“I really think we’ve got some special kids that have the bat speed and the ability to hit the ball out,” he said. “Brookelyn Smith is a really good athlete. She’s got excellent bat speed. And Alisha Davenport, she’s got power, she’s strong.

“Usually you don’t have that many girls that can hit one out, they just aren’t capable of hitting the ball that far. The pitching obviously isn’t the factor. You’d like to say bats and balls aren’t the factor because they’re regulating those. Everybody’s maybe coaching hitting better. That’s maybe a little responsible, but I just think we’ve got better athletes.”

        

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