Slap hitting is alive and well at Mason City Newman High School where the Knight’s softball has used the strategy to post a 14-5 record this season.
Newman coach Tom Dunn says more than one third of the players in the program are “slap hitters” and it has helped them averaged more than six and a half runs per game this season. He says they don’t have a lot of big girls and they call themselves the “munchkin squad.”
He says if they can bunt or slap the ball then they are already closer to first base, and if the other team throws the ball around, then they can really get the offense going.
Dunn says more conventional “power hitters” are sprinkled throughout the lineup to try and add scoring punch. “So we have 5 slappers in the lineup to go with the 4 girls who can hit the ball pretty hard, so it makes it pretty tough, especially on the smaller schools when they don’t know if we are going to bunt or hit,” Dunn says.
New returns to action tonight against C-W-L Corwith.