By Mike Hogan, Staff Writer
When Allie Deal showed up on campus three years ago, nobody expected her to even be on the St. Bonaventure softball team.
Today, the junior walk-on is one of the leaders of the team and is currently second in hitting with a .360 batting average, .442 on-base percentage, .560 slugging, 27 hits, 5 doubles, 5 triples, 10 runs batted in and just 4 strikeouts.
The junior catcher/outfielder has made great strides over the last three years where she only had 14 hits in a limited role, and her current rise to a bigger role is no surprise to St. Bonaventure softball’s head coach Mike Threehouse.
“Allie helps this team improve everyday,” said Threehouse. “Allie is a leader, and the one thing about her is that she’s a walk on. We had walk on tryouts, and she came down and tried out. I kept her because of the attitude she has, she’s smiling all of the time, playing hard all of the time and she loves the game. If I had 20 more girls that acted like her and played like her, we might be doing a little better record wise.”
While Threehouse admits that the last few seasons haven’t been terrific in terms of wins, Deal has been a huge bright spot for him and her teammates to watch her progress over the last few years.
“This is what you hope a player does, especially at a small school like St. Bonaventure,” said Threehouse. “When you bring kids in, you hope that they progress from freshman to senior year, and obviously Allie has taken some big steps. Ninety-nine percent of that has to do with her work ethic and the way she goes about preparing herself for games and things like that. She loves playing the game, and she’s really good at it.”
Although Deal had a relatively quiet first two seasons as a Bonnie, she has now earned a bigger role and has earned the trust of her teammates and coaches, which has established her as one of the leaders of this season’s St. Bonaventure softball team.
“Freshman year I basically just caught bullpens and ran the bases, and then last year I played a little bit more at catcher,” said Deal. “They also changed me into a slap hitter last year, and I am continuing that this year. The trust from my teammates and coaches just came from me being able to get my job done.”
As Deal is continuing her incredible season-long performance at the plate, she has a simple plan in mind to keep it going
“Just keep swinging, I guess,” Deal says with a laugh. “That’s really all I do. I just go up there and look for a good pitch to hit. Don’t take any good pitches.”
Although Deal admits her progress since freshman year is impressive, her focus on helping to improve a struggling Bonnies team this year is more important than anything.
“We just have to stay positive,” said Deal. “Even though we’re struggling overall, there are still a lot of individuals doing well. As long as individuals keep doing well, and encourage others who may be struggling this season to keep playing through it, that will help a lot.”
Threehouse along with Deal share a common goal for the end of the season, and that is to end up in the postseason.
“Well every teams goal is to qualify for the Atlantic 10 tournament,” said Deal. “It’s still early with Atlantic 10 play, and we have a big weekend coming up with a lot of home games ahead. We want to win as many Atlantic 10 games as possible.”
Threehouse also shares his vision for the rest of the season and what his team can do to improve.
“Our goal is to win as many games as we possibly can,” said Threehouse. “And if we do that, we’ll reach our goal of the Atlantic 10 postseason. That’s our goal every year. The everyday goal is to just see if we can win a game and improve every day.
“So far we have improved in some categories, but we also have some areas where we still need improvement. We’ve just go to find the right crew that is going to play hard every day, and Allie helps us do that.”
