Slapper, slugger all in one

Coaches groom versatile swings

Roughly once per game, sometimes more, Milford High softball coach Brian Macchi will throw a sign to his senior captain. On the next pitch, Alex Murray will lean forward, cross her back foot, and try to slap the ball into a gap while running out of the batter's box.

A natural lefty hitter, Murray can swing for the fences. But this season, the Scarlet Hawks' leadoff hitter has added to her arsenal by developing her skills as a slap hitter.

Alternating between a standard swing and the slap, she effectively plays cat-and-mouse with shifting infields, and is considered one of the area's more dangerous hitters.

"You definitely need to work at it at all stages," Murray said of her new swing. "You can't just pick it up."

According to a number of area coaches, it typically takes the average high school player two years to synchronize the appropriate movement, contact and explosiveness out of the box necessary to be a successful slap hitter. Murray, who has the requisite speed for the role, said she'd been working on it "a couple years, but had trouble with the footwork."

Hitting once a week and orchestrating captain's practices at the Baseball Coaches Academy, an indoor facility in Ashland, Murray worked hard over the winter and finally felt comfortable enough to try out her new skill. So far this spring, she's batting above .400 while placing balls into the gaps, and had the Scarlet Hawks off to a 7-0 start.

"She's definitely our catalyst, the way she gets on base," Macchi said. "She's a big bonus for our offense."

A number of the area's best programs feature quality slap hitters. Defending Division 2 state champ Hudson High School, for instance, has three effective slappers in its lineup. The Hawks have been slugging it out with big extra-base hits by sisters Laura and Kristen Bowen - leading to five mercy-rule wins - but the offensive wave starts with its slappers getting on base.

"You've got to be able to throw different things at different teams," coach Russ Davis said. "The more you make them think and the more they get away from their comfort zone, the better you are."

Newton North High's squad, 3-3 as of last week, utilizes two slap hitters: Tiffany Hammond and Jess Fugazzatto. North coach Lauren Baugher said they both "picked it up quick, actually.

"I think a lot of it depends on hand-eye coordination, and the confidence to come up to the plate and do it," Baugher said.

At Ashland High, coach Steve O'Neill has taken a natural righty - Sarah Jeffrey - and shifted her to the other side of the plate. Jeffrey only started taking lessons last winter, but O'Neill says she has caught on in a short time.

"She's a very good right-handed hitter, just interested in adding something to her repertoire," O'Neill said. Many times during practice sessions, he said, "she'll punch out 10 in a row, making solid contact. Her strength is hand-eye coordination."

But therein lies one of the most common dilemmas in developing a slap hitter: how much of a risk is it to bring a solid-hitting righty to the other side of the plate?

"We've tried to develop a couple, but both of those girls happen to be better as natural right-handed hitters," Hopkinton coach Steve Simoes said. "We kind of put an end to the experiment early on."

But if it works out right, as Murray shows, the end result can be fun - if not deceitful.

Neil Burke has seen just about everything in his two decades at the helm of Algonquin Regional's baseball team. But on April 17, his ace, junior right-hander John McKenna, managed to make an indelible mark on the program's history, striking out 11 Leominster batters en route to a perfect game and a 2-0 win.

McKenna's feat also showed his improved control on the mound.

"He throws fairly well. When you don't walk anybody it helps out greatly," Burke said. "It's a very unique kind of thing to watch. I'd never seen it, " he said, and neither had Leominster's coach, Emil Johnson. "It's a fun thing to watch."

That said, the celebration didn't last too long.

In his next outing, Monday against Worcester's Doherty Memorial High, McKenna gave up four runs in the fourth inning of a 10-5 loss for Algonquin Regional.

Even after the shaky outing, McKenna's earned-run average for the season sat at a laudable 2.25.

Brendan Hall can be reached at bhall59@hotmail.com.