ANDERSON TOWNSHIP

St. Charles in charge for McNicholas softball squad

Mark D. Motz

MT. WASHINGTON – Sometimes it’s not what you know, but who you know.

McNicholas High School junior catcher Katie St. Charles knows exactly who controls the softball field.

“I’ve had umpires tell me where to go for a strike,” she said. “That’s kind of surprising, but you have to make them your friends. I’ll never argue with an umpire.”

Officials aside, St. Charles controls the Rockets.

“Most of it is in her hitting,” McNick head coach Terry Doyle said. “She’s patient. She has a tremendous technique. She doesn’t drop her shoulders or any of the other bad habits. She has a textbook swing for softball. If anything she’s a little bit ahead of the ball, especially against some of the slower pitchers. It’s hard to wait on some of the pitches and she’s very aggressive at the plate.”

She’s batting .476 with 20 hits in 42 at-bats to lead the Rockets, who were 9-4 through April 24. St. Charles has three home runs - second in the Girls Greater Catholic League Coed - to go with 10 RBI and 15 runs scored.

“When I bat, I clear my mind,” St. Charles said. “I just zone in when I get ready to hit. I turn off all the voices on the field, on the bench, in the stands. I get really focused. When you hit it perfectly there’s not a better feeling.”

St. Charles began playing t-ball at age 4 and was in slow-pitch softball at 6. By the time the Anderson Township resident turned 11, slow pitch was too slow for her taste.

“I wanted more of an upbeat, faster game and more of a challenge,” St. Charles said. “Slow pitch was kind of boring after a while. Fast pitch, there’s a lot more action.”

She’s always played a year or two up with the Cincinnati Cyclones club team coached by dad, Tony St. Charles; the 17 year old will play on the U18 level this summer.

Doyle said she’s more than an offensive asset. He lets her call the game herself, trusting her to handle a young pitching staff staff that includes freshmen Alessia Accordino and Jaclyn Geygan.

“I try to keep them calm,” she said. “Inning by inning, just knowing what they should throw to certain hitters in certain situations is the most important thing. Sometimes you have to get creative about calling the pitches.”

St. Charles’ prowess as a soothing agent showed during a 5-1 home win over Roger Bacon April 21, avenging a 9-7 road loss to the Spartans 10 days earlier.

McNick led 4-1 in the top of the sixth inning, but Bacon loaded the bases with nobody out. But Accordino settled down to induce a grounder to short and a throw home for the first out, struck out the next batter for the second and St. Charles picked a runner of first base for the third to end the threat.

“She was pretty calm,” Doyle said. “I was not. That was scary, but they got it done.”