ORANGE — Mahar softball’s Jordyn Berry is hitting 8-for-14 (.571) with five walks, four runs and one RBI within the last two weeks for the varsity softball team.
“That’s pretty good,” said Berry upon finding out about her stat-line. “But we’ve been working on hitting, which is helpful for me specifically because I felt like I needed to work on it, but (hitting) is really, take a deep breathe and go for it.”
Berry is hitting .415 this season in 41 at-bats with a .520 on-base percentage. She has scored 10 runs and knocked in five more. Her success moved her up to the fifth spot in the batting order. She has also spent time in the two-spot after starting the year in the bottom portion of the Senators’ lineup.
Berry contributed some of her recent success to “loading” in the batter’s box. Loading is a term used for when a batter shifts their weight and hands back in an attempt to gain momentum when they shift their weight forward when swinging at a pitch. Loading allows a hitter to make better and harder contact with the pitch.
“That has helped me a lot. When you start here,” said Berry, putting her hands back in a batting motion. “You get ready to swing and just stepping and timing really helps.”
Berry has also shown good plate discipline in the past two weeks. Five of her eight walks this season have come in this timespan. Berry attributed her discipline development playing every day. This allows a player to establish an awareness of the strike zone and figure out when to swing at a pitch off the plate.
“I’ve been on varsity for three years, so you kind of know where the strike zone is after a while,” said Berry. “It’s really just knowing where (the strike zone) is.”
Berry is often over-shadowed by other hitters such as Skylar Dodge, who is hitting .522 on the year with a .629 on-base percentage and a 1.00 slugging percentage, and Sarah Graeff, who is hitting .407 with a .492 on-base percentage and .574 slugging percentage. The two create a combo in the middle of the Senators’ lineup that has combined for 46 hits, 10 doubles and seven home runs along with 24 runs scored and 37 RBIs.
As a team, the Senators are hitting .311 on the year with a .432 on-base percentage. Hitters like Berry, Lani DeDiego and even pitcher Megan Rich, who juniors or younger, have created the team’s success at the plate just as much as players like Graeff and Dodge.
“The team chemistry is phenomenal,” said coach Jerry Duguay. “The girls love each other, they love playing with one another. There’s no animosity.”
The Senators have been in a bit of a slide recently, losing their past six games after starting the season 7-6. The team has one more home game on Tuesday against Springfield High School of Science and Technology and one more away game against Palmer High School, which will not count toward the team’s overall record as the Senators will have played 20 games — the greatest number allowed to count toward a team’s record — by the time the team faces Palmer.
A win against Springfield Science Tech. will give the Senators the most wins the team has had in a season in the past 10 years. The team has not won more than seven games in a season since 2008. The Senators are currently 7-12.