BROOKFIELD—Cienna McNamara swung at two pitches all day long.
The first, the very first pitch of the game, was a foul ball. The second, however, was sent in the other direction, a screaming line drive that might have made it 15 feet off the ground yet carried more than 225 feet, over the fence for a lead-off home run in Wednesday’s big SWC test at Brookfield.
It was also the 100th career hit of McNamara’s already illustrious career, and she’s only a junior.
After that, Brookfield head coach Alyssa Lionetti wanted nothing more to do with McNamara, who was sent to first base three times, courtesy of three straight intentional walks, in Wednesday’s 6-5 Green Wave win over the host Bobcats.
It was, in hindsight, the ultimate sign of respect for a hitter who simply might be the most feared hitter in the State of Connecticut.
And I don’t say that carelessly.
Wednesday was the first time I had seen McNamara play. And I only watched her swing twice.
But I can see why teams are scared of her. I can see why the University of North Carolina wants her.
McNamara, who verbally committed as a junior to play for the Tar Heels after graduation, is hitting .692 this season (18-for-26) with 16 runs scored and 18 RBIs. She has seven home runs, three doubles and a triple.
All in just eight games.
Following the game, Lionetti summed up her strategy.
“You have to give respect where respect is deserved and the kid just hits,” the Brookfield coach said. “You’ve got to do it.”
Brookfield, let’s not forget, has one of the top pitchers in the entire state in Sidney Miller.
Miller is the Brown University-bound senior who has more than 600 career strikeouts on her resume, and she counts McNamara, a travel teammate with the Empire State Huskies, as a close personal friend.
The competitor in Miller? She wanted to pitch to McNamara, but fully understood her coach’s decision, too.
“Obviously I’m super competitive, so I don’t like it, but I know it’s just a lot of respect for her at the end of the day,” said Miller, who struck out 15 other Green Wave hitters on the day. “I know she’s a really good hitter. So I would love to beat her, but sometimes it’s just tip your hat and say like, ‘Hey, you get first base.’”
During her freshman season, McNamara played Brookfield twice. After going 1-for-5 with a walk and a run scored in their regular season matchup, the two teams met again in the SWC quarterfinals.
McNamara went off in that game to the tune of a 3-for-3 effort with two home runs and three RBIs.
Lionetti remembered that game so much that even after last year, when Miller owned McNamara (oh-for-six in two games with two K’s), she didn’t want to risk McNamara causing more damage.
“I know Sydney and I know the coaches, but I understand that” McNamara grudgingly admitted with a smile. “Just the feeling once you get that good at-bat, I’m like, oh, I want more, I want more. But I knew my teammates had my back, so no matter what, whatever happened, I knew they had my back.”
That they did.
In the third inning, after getting walked the first time, McNamara would come around and score when New Milford catcher Lily Fortier put a ball into play, leading to a Brookfield error. Lydia Rocky followed up that play with a two-run home run, giving the Green Wave a 5-0 lead.
In the fifth, McNamara was walked with one out and on a sacrifice bunt, she advanced all the way to third base where she was stranded.
And, in the seventh, a third intentional walk to McNamara helped load the bases, leading to Fortier’s RBI free pass later in the inning.
“That’s why she’s stacked the way we are in our lineup, right?” New Milford coach Robert Farmer said. “Because when we know other teams may intentionally walk Cienna, we got (O’Loughlin), we got Lily, we got Lydia (Rocky), we got bats that are like, ‘Hey, I got your back here,’ and I’m capable of producing and making them pay.”
The third intentional walk elicited loud boos from the New Milford faithful beyond the outfield fence, leading to some chuckles from the Brookfield dugout.
While Brookfield took the bat out of McNamara’s hands three times, the shortstop still found a way to impact the game defensively.
She threw out a runner at the plate. She made a high-leaping catch of a line-drive that stole a hit from the Bobcats in the top of the seventh when Brookfield was desperately trying to get the tying run on base.
On a huge hustle play elsewhere in the game, McNamara raced from her shortstop spot to third where she appeared to get a force out off a Bobcats runner (photographic proof on a bang-bang play), but the umpire saw things differently live and the runner was ruled safe.
In other words, even without a bat in her hand, McNamara can have a huge impact on the game.
But one other thing is for certain, as well.
Respect can be a four-letter word: W-A-L-K.
(From The Dugout is a regular column written by CT Softball Blog Publisher John Nash)
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