West Greene’s Lampe plays all the angles
McKenna Lampe’s speed in center field allows West Greene softball coach Bill Simms to take chances defensively.
Freshman McKenna Lampe has a .610 batting average for West Greene and is 32-for-32 in stolen-base attempts.
Typically, most high school softball players are either slap hitters or they swing conventionally, trying to drive the ball.
Few are equally adept at bunting, slapping and driving the ball.
That’s what makes West Greene freshman leadoff batter McKenna Lampe so dangerous.
Need a bunt base hit to lead off an inning?
Lampe’s your girl.
Need a slap hit through the infield to keep an inning going or advance a baserunner?
Lampe’s your girl.
How about some power?
Lampe can do that as well, as her two home runs in the WPIAL championship game suggest.
“She’s hitting .600 for a reason,” said West Greene head coach Bill Simms. “She’s not afraid to go deep in the count. She has a speed game. She has a power game. She just gives pitchers problems.”
Lampe is a big reason the Pioneers will be playing unbeaten DuBois Central Catholic Monday at North Allegheny High School in the PIAA Class A softball semifinals. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Lampe, however, is quick to credit the rest of the Pioneers’ batting order, which includes her twin sister, Madison, who bats second in the lineup, for her success.
The Pioneers are batting .424 as a team and a walk to the speedy lefty at the top of the order is never a good idea for opposing pitchers. Lampe sees plenty of strikes. And more often than not, she makes opponents pay for them.
“I just have to get on base and start things up,” said Lampe, who has scored a team-best 54 runs in 26 games and has a video game-like .610 batting average and .689 on-base percentage.
“When I get on base, everything happens, especially when I have hitters behind me like we have who can hit me in.”
But it’s taken a lot of hard work.
Lampe has done so much work with her batting skills she should already have an A in geometry. She works the angles like a master builder.
“I’ve always got to work on my angles when I bunt. I have to notice things. Is the third baseman playing up and the first baseman playing back?” Lampe said. “Then I bunt it down first. I work those angles.”
And once the infielders start creeping in on her, it’s time to drive the ball.
In West Greene’s 4-1 win over Saegertown in the PIAA quarterfinals Thursday at Slippery Rock University, Lampe showed off her skills. She bunted for hits. She slapped the ball through the infield. With runners on base, she drove the ball up the middle.
By game’s end, she had three hits in three at-bats, also walking once and driving in a run.
“The deeper she goes in the count, the more collected she is,” Simms said. “Early (in counts) she doesn’t know whether she wants to hit for power or slap. I like her better with two strikes on her, if that sounds stupid enough.”
And once she’s on base, Lampe is just biding her time before she ends up on second base. Lampe is 32-for-32 on stolen-base attempts, accounting for half of the Pioneers’ total.
It’s all part of the plan.
“The first time I’m up, I usually bunt and get on, steal second and Madison hits me in,” Lampe said of her approach. “The second time, they’re playing me up, so I just hit away.”
Lampe also a key member of the team’s defense. The left-hander gives Simms plenty of options in the outfield with her speed and ability to cover ground in center field.
Against Saegertown, she reached a ball that was hit up the middle with a runner on second base and two outs. Lampe was able to get to the ball and throw it to home plate so quickly the Panthers were forced to stop the runner at third base. Two pitches later, Madison Lampe made a nice stop at third base to get the Pioneers out of the inning to preserve a 2-1 lead.
“From pole to pole, we can cover the field,” Simms said. “McKenna, she gives us the flexibility. (Right fielder) Mackenzie Carpenter and (left fielder) Linzee Stover, we can play them in a cheat position because she gives us a lot of options.”
And as any coach will tell you, the more options you have the better.
It’s not often that all those options come in the form of one player.
“Especially at our school, it’s very rare, I think,” Simms said. “She’s one of a kind. We wish we had 14 or 15 of her, but we have one of her. Though they’re twins, McKenna offers a totally different game than what her sister does. (Madison) is blazingly fast, too. But Madison’s more of a power girl. She’s a well-rounded player. McKenna gives us a lot of options.”