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Heather Converse is a three-sport athlete at Woodstock Academy.
The senior was a key component of the defense for the Eastern Connecticut Conference champion girls’ soccer team.
She was the leading scorer and rebounder for the girls’ basketball team.
And now, she’s batting cleanup for the softball team this spring.
As the season has progressed, the senior’s bat has begun to heat up.
She went 4-for-9 last week, drove in five runs and helped the Centaurs to a three-win week including a 9-0 victory on the Woodstock Commons field Saturday over Lyman Memorial.
Converse started the season hitting further down in coach Jason Gerum’s lineup.
“Playing three sports, it’s hard to go from basketball to softball. I think I’ve started to get used to it and just getting more hits in,” Converse said.
In this era of specialization where high school athletes try to pick and concentrate on a sport in the hopes to earn a college scholarship, Converse is the increasingly rare all-around outstanding athlete.
“She is a great athlete, very smart and has played varsity for us for four years,” Gerum said. “Heather has some catching up to do, sometimes, because she doesn’t play year-round. She plays a bazillion other sports and she hasn’t seen a lot of softball pitches. Sometimes, early in the season, just getting back to seeing the ball and speed of the ball is an adjustment. Once she gets rolling, she starts hitting well. We were on a little roller coaster last week with our hitting so I shook the lineup up, I looked at her numbers and how she was getting her hands on the ball and moved her up. She’s been getting it done.”
Converse, after the win over the Bulldogs, is now hitting .360, third-best on the team, and leads the Centaurs with 10 runs batted in this season.
Woodstock Academy, for a change, had it easy against Lyman Memorial.
Five of the nine games the Centaurs have played this season have been determined by one run, two of those ended in the win column.
“It was nice and in our league (the Eastern Connecticut Conference), it doesn’t happen often. A game against Lyman isn’t usually a shoe-in like that. (Lyman coach Ron Vigue) does a great job, but this is a transition year for them, they lost a lot of players from last year. Usually, even Lyman is a big fight. To win three in a row and finish the week where you are in control of the game is nice,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs (5-4) struck for three runs with two outs in the third inning.
Cami Corrado walked, Hannah Burgess singled to right and Julianna Nuttall added an infield single to load the bases. Corrado was forced out at the plate but Converse drew a bases-loaded walk to put Woodstock Academy on the board.
Winning pitcher Megan Preston followed with a two-run single to right to give herself all the cushion she needed.
Preston pitched a six-hitter with four strikeouts and got out of jams in both the first and second innings.
“She seemed to get a little stronger toward the end of the game (Saturday) which I like to see,” Gerum said. “The end of the games against some of the better teams we’ve played, she has looked a little tired, which I can understand. Now, we’re going two or three weeks in and I think she’s building some arm strength.”
Preston was pressed into full-time service in the circle when Mackenzie Leveille suffered a sprained ankle sliding across home plate in a spring break game versus Fryeburg, Maine.
“Mackenzie is walking around, swinging the bat a little; she has got the OK to start trying to do stuff. We will see because pushing off and pitching is a whole ‘nother animal, but we’re going to hope to work her in a little this week,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs sealed the deal against Lyman in the fifth inning when they sent 11 batters to the plate.
Burgess walked to lead off the inning and scored. She also drove in a run with a single in her second trip to the plate. The Woodstock Academy shortstop is now hitting .687 with 22 hits in 32 trips to the plate.
Nuttall, Preston and Maria Scandalito also added RBI singles but the highlight was Converse’s two-run triple to straightaway center field.
The Centaurs were coming off a 7-4 win over Tolland April 25.
While that may seem easy, it wasn’t.
The Eagles just missed a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth when a Charlotte Gerow rip to left field just went foul.
“It hit the top of the fence and the left side of the foul pole, pretty much at the same time, and it was only about 4-to-6 inches away from being a grand slam and tying it up,” Gerum said.
Burgess (3 hits) and Nuttall both drove in two runs in the win.
Scandalito added two hits and two runs scored.
Amanda Bond drove in Nuttall in the top of the seventh with a single to give Woodstock Academy a 3-0 lead over Killingly earlier in the week.
The Centaurs needed that as the Redgals scored two runs in the bottom of the inning but fell short in a 3-2 win for Woodstock Academy.
Maia Corrado added three hits for the Centaurs.
Ashley Kaseck scored the first run for the Centaurs when she stole home on a double steal in the first inning.
The Centaurs added another run in the fourth when Converse (2-for-3) singled home a run.
Converse said it was nice to go 3-0 on the week and sneak above the .500 mark.
“We’ve been playing really good defense, little or no errors every game, which is really big. We’re starting to get our hits in, getting used to all the different pitchers. I think everyone is playing really great overall,” Converse said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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