Prep Softball the Art of Slapping Softest Hitters Can Be Toughest to Get Out

Morgan Stamm doesn't wait for her pitch.

She attacks her pitch.

Not just with her bat. With her body and feet, too.

The NUIC'due south leading hitter, you see, isn't actually a hitter. She's a slapper. That means she is running up the first base line before she ever hits the ball.

In a skill unique to fastpitch softball, slappers can be the most dangerous hitters in a lineup, even if most of them rarely hitting the ball out of the infield. They force infielders — and outfielders — to play far closer to the plate, and the all-time of them tin likewise hit it over the head of a fielder cheating in.

"It'southward the hardest out in the lineup," said Kurt Head, who coached Hononegah to 7 direct NIC-10 titles before falling to fifth this year. "We don't have a slapper this year, the first yr I haven't had one, but I would take nine slappers if I could."

"It's lethal," said Brad Grenoble, who coached Milledgeville to the Class 1A state title iii years ago. "Speed, left-handed and slap. They change the game."

But enquire anyone who has faced Stamm, who is hit .602 this twelvemonth and has stolen more than 140 bases in her career for Orangeville, which finished 32-three this yr after getting upset past Lena-Winslow in the Aquin Grade 1A Regional.

"She's a game-changer," Orangeville coach Lon Scheuerell said. "She can bunt. She can slap. And if teams come in also far on her, she volition stand in there and swing.

"It's not bad to have a slapper in the lineup at all times."

The making of a slapper

Slappers aren't built-in; they are fabricated.

All slappers bat left-handed. And all slappers are fast. Many of them are former calorie-free-hit correct-handed batters, just are switched to batting lefty because of their speed.

"That gets them iv anxiety closer to first base of operations," said Freeport coach Republic of chad Hersey, who has iii slappers in his lineup. "And sometimes it's even more than that. If you are right-handed and swing, your momentum is conveying you lot toward third base. A left-handed batter running up the line, that might make you lot six feet closer to the bag."

But it's not exactly a natural hitting stroke.

"When y'all are slapping, you are starting at the back of the batter'due south box and running," Hersey said. "That adds a whole other degree of difficulty to them, but we're trying to put them in situations where nosotros can utilise their speed."

Once players become slappers, they aren't even referred to every bit hitters anymore. Similar Katelynn Wingren, the just slapper for Belvidere, which is second in the NIC-10 this year.

"We converted her from a right-handed hitter terminal year," double-decker Danielle Johnson said. "She wanted to do both, but we said, 'Do you want to striking or exercise you want to slap?' You have to focus on i to be really good. It's a hard transition to make."

Hitting on the run isn't easy. Fifty-fifty if you lot are the fastest histrion on your team.

"You have to accept a lot of confidence, and know the strike zone, when you are running toward the pitcher," sais Jade Grenoble, Milledgeville's leadoff hitter.

A slapper's dilemma

Slapper's cause so many problems considering there are so many different things they tin can do.

At least the very best slappers can.

"In that location are different kinds of them," Orangeville'southward Scheuerell said. "Some of them can barely striking it out of the infield, but others have power."

The dazzler of slapping is fifty-fifty the ones who can barely hit it out of the infield turn into tough outs.

"Some kids can bunt but can't slap, and some kids can slap just cant bunt," Milledgeville's Brad Grenoble said. "But if they tin practice both, they are lethal. If the defenders scoot in, then you slap. If they scoot them back, so you have them bunt."

And even if you play them right, there is never a routine play.

"The ball slides off their bat weird," Grenoble said. "They are running toward first as they are slapping, and that makes the brawl spin. The infielders are coming up fast. They are already panicking, and then the ball has extra spin on it. Fifty-fifty a slap hitter with an average of .250 can exist on base at a .500 clip because of all the errors."

Slappers know they brand fielders nervous. And they love information technology.

"The ones I hitting to second base are the ones they panic on the virtually," Jade Grenoble, Brad'southward daughter, said. "They run into me running toward them, so they panic and just film their throw, and it goes off target."

Slapper's pick

Pure slappers do three things: bunt, soft slap and difficult slap.

The goal of a soft slap is to hit a two-hopper to the shortstop or make the shortstop take ane step to either side. "That will get you on every single fourth dimension," said Harlem'south Emily Guske, who has missed her senior year with an injury but increased her average from .330 every bit a sophomore to .553 every bit a junior when she converted from a right-handed slugger to a lefty slapper.

Those would be easy outs for most batters, just slappers are also quick. Guske, for example, got to start base in an average of 2.7 seconds last year.

If the infielders come in besides much, a hard slap bloops the ball over their head. Outfielders oft play on the border of the infield to have that abroad, but the best slappers and then slap a little extra-harder and what would be a short fly brawl under normal circumstances turns into a double or triple.

"Information technology's all about reading defenses, knowing when to slap, when to bunt, when to swing away," Orangeville's Stamm said. "It gets to be like a math problem. If that doesn't equal that, then you decrease something and narrow downward your options."

"Information technology turns into a chess lucifer," Dakota coach Jeff Kinney said. "If you bring your outfield in, they tin ability it past them. And if you lot leave it deep, they volition bunt, slap or striking information technology between the infield and outfield."

No easy answers

And even playing the perfect defense against a slapper can open up other problems. In baseball, speedy hitters with little power are best when the bases are empty; it does no practiced to be able to vanquish a throw to first base if fielders can get a force out on a slower runner ahead of you. But defending slappers means switching to exotic defenses, which leaves other holes.

"Slappers are and then troublesome," Orangeville'due south Scheuerell said. "Nosotros have stolen so many bases when Morgan (Stamm) is upwards to bat because teams endeavour to defend her with some kind of alignment and that leaves bases open up.

"Teams are sure going to be glad when Morgan graduates. She has been a pest to every other team in the NUIC."

Slapping isn't easy. Fifty-fifty for players with all the natural skills of a slapper. Stamm, a three-fourth dimension All-Stater, switched from batting correct to slapping lefty at age 12, merely didn't commencement slapping consistently in games for three more than years.

"Slapping is a whole new world," she said. "People think slap hitters are switch hitters, but you take to break everything downward. I was on the tee for hours. That's how I learned to bunt and run at the same time, and then to hard slap and soft slap. Slapping was the hardest. Bunting is still bunting, merely with a couple more steps, just difficult slapping, you are actually swinging while running."

Merely now that Stamm has it downwards, it's even harder on defenders. Much harder.

"I tin run into their anger and frustration," Stamm said. "I'll bunt in one case, and so they will play in and I'll hard slap it. They get very panicked and frustrated when I get up to bat. It gets into their heads."

— Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge

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Source: https://www.rrstar.com/story/sports/high-school/softball/2016/05/23/prep-softball-art-slapping-softest/28838011007/

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