A change of positions on the field hasn’t slowed junior Avery Simpson at the plate for the Elizabethtown High School softball team.
She’s having the best season of her varsity career and she already had a stellar resume when this season began.
“I’ll get messages from her all the time on days we’re off that she’s going to hit today, what do you want me to work on?” EHS head coach Jimmy Schmidt said. “And a lot of that is she is a purposeful worker and it shows, and it’s starting to show really well for her.”
Simpson, 17, is batting batting .527 with 19 runs batted in, two home runs and seven doubles.
She credits her season to putting in plenty of off-season work and taking that effort into games.
“During the off season, I put a lot of work in with weightlifting, hitting and just focusing on softball as a whole,” she said. “Then when I go to the plate I just look for my pitch; I don’t swing at the pitcher’s pitch. Even if it is a strike, I’ll let it go if it’s something that I don’t think I can produce with.”
She’s had at least one hit in 16 of Elizabethtown’s 18 games and eight times she’s had at least two hits in a game.
Last season as Elizabethtown won its first 5th Region Tournament title in fast-pitch softball, Simpson batted .386 and was second on the team with 40 runs batted in and belted three home runs.
As a sophomore, she hit .338 in 27 games.
“She’s been kind of a complementary player behind some of the kids we’ve had in the past,” Schmidt said. “Now she’s one of those that has to step into the 2-3-4 hole and hit for us and on the field be that middle infielder for us.”
She had been a first baseman all of her career, but in February made the switch to shortstop. She said it was a move she welcomed.
“I was open to it. I was a little nervous about it at first, but I was prepared to do whatever I needed to do to help and benefit the team,” she said. “It has been a big adjustment but I do like it and I feel like I’ve adapted to the position well. It’s completely different from first and I have to cover more ground, but it’s been a good transition and I feel like I’ve handled it well.”
She said learning to play shortstop came down to plenty of repetition in the field and being taught the fundamentals of the position.
Schmidt said Simpson’s a coachable player, which makes it easier when there’s a position change and she has a “cannon” for a throwing arm.
But it’s more than that.
“Her attention to details and she just works,” he said. “…Probably not the most athletic, probably not the most talented, but she just works, works, works.”
Schmidt said he was pleased to see that the position switch didn’t hurt her offensive productivity.
“…She’s been a joy to coach,” he said.
Simpson also has taken on a greater leadership role this season on a roster that has nine players among the 16-player roster as freshmen or below. The Panthers have just one senior — Kylie McKinney.
“It’s important with us being so young to make sure the younger kids feel welcomed,” Simpson said. “It’s always good to have a leader on the team and somebody that’s going to step up, even though things might not go our way to still be supportive.”
She said it’s also important that younger players understand the roles players take in making up a team and the program expectations.
“They understand the standards that you need to have and that it’s a team sport and not all about you,” she said.
With her big offensive numbers comes a good eye at the plate, too. In 65 official at-bats this season, she has struck out just five times.
She’s also been on an offensive tear over the last six games, going 14-for-22 with eight runs batted in.
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