Maddie Griffin doesn’t try to hide the fact that she is a numbers person. It’s a big reason she decided to get her undergrad degree in accounting.
Only a junior at IUP, the Ligonier Valley grad, in fact, will wrap up the requirements for her bachelor’s degree in a couple of weeks.
But ask Griffin to rattle off her batting average, and chances are it’s a number she doesn’t know. She said she didn’t even know she was hitting over .400 this season until Crimson Hawks coach Shawna Bellaud told her.
Wait. Maddie Griffin the hitter?
Anyone who paid attention to Griffin’s high school career likely remembers her as a lights-out pitcher, one who threw seven perfect games and struck out hitters at video game rates. When she arrived at IUP last year after spending a season at Youngstown State — she pitched 6 2/3 innings over five appearances for the Penguins — Bellaud thought Griffin’s bat in the box and glove in the field could be more useful than confining her to the pitcher’s circle.
“Her bat and the way she plays the outfield is second to none,” said Bellaud, in her seventh season at IUP. “I’ve never seen anything like it here at IUP. She covers a lot of ground in the outfield. … She’s grabbing balls that I haven’t seen many athletes grab.”
Griffin finished the regular season hitting .413. Her batting average (seventh) and on-base percentage (ninth) rank in the top 10 in the PSAC, helping the Crimson Hawks finish 15-13 in the PSAC West and earn the division’s final playoff spot.
Her numbers are up across the board from last season when she, admittedly, was still knocking off some rust. After all, she hadn’t had a bat in her hands on a regular basis since her senior year at Ligonier Valley. She got one token at-bat at YSU.
One of the big factors that held her offense back last season was getting out of the box too quickly on slap attempts. That results in an out, and it’s something she has cut way back on this season. Plus, Bellaud has given her some freedom at the plate.
“I would say I’m comfortable doing something different every at-bat,” she said. “Most hitters come up to the plate, and they have the same sort of plan. I can hit. I can slap. I can bunt. I get to do whatever I want whenever I get up to the plate.”
Playing in the outfield — she is cemented in right field — also took some work. When she wasn’t pitching during her youth/high school/travel days, she typically was playing the infield.
As she got older, she said, her speed began to develop, which helped her cover ground in the outfield. She also has been helped by drills for agility and first-step quickness Bellaud has put her through.
Playing a position other than pitcher wasn’t on her radar when she moved to the college ranks, but it appears as though she has found her niche.
“Being a position player definitely opened up a few windows I never really had a chance to look into before because I’ve always been Maddie the pitcher, not Maddie the athlete,” she said. “It’s cool to show off the athleticism that’s always been there, too.
“I miss (pitching) every day. I just like controlling a game. I think that was my biggest thing.”
While Griffin might not keep track of her stats, there are two numbers she is keenly aware of: 100 and 0.
One hundred is the number of career hits she wants to achieve, which, barring injury, she will do some time early next season.
The zero? That’s the number of home runs she has hit in her college career. One will suffice.
“Man, I really want to hit a ball over the fence,” she said. “… But that’s not what my team really needs me to do.”