BCC Softball Sluggers Drive Team’s Success
By Space Coast Daily // March 12, 2013
Two Players Ranked In National Categories
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Hitting a rising, dropping, curving, swerving — not to mention scorching — softball might not be the easiest thing to do in sports.
But right now Brevard Community College sophomore softball players Kat Ammons and Cassie Boggs are doing just that, and more.
Consider these numbers:
• Ammons is leading the nation in runs batted in with 65 in 39 games and Boggs is tied for second with 50.
• Boggs is tied for lead-in hits with 71 in 39 games and Ammons is second with 63.
• Ammons is tied for 12th with 11.
• Boggs is third in runs scored with 44. Teammate Nichole Mills is fourth with 42.
The efforts of the left-handed hitters are a big reason why BCC has managed to be above .500 for the season at 20-19 despite being wracked with injuries and playing a demanding schedule.
Also, they are a big part of BCC being ranked third nationally in runs scored with 231; ranking second in hits with 352; and ranking third in runs batted in with 226.
BCC also is ranked second in walks with 103.
Ammons, an infielder from Bishop Kenny High in Jacksonville, FL, and Boggs, an outfielder from Lyman High School in Longwood, FL and a 2012 NJCAA Division I first-team All-American, attribute their lofty statistics to the immersive hitting instruction from head coach Ed Yanes.
And, a bit of homespun wisdom from Ammons: “You can’t have good mechanics on bad pitches,” she said.
For both it comes down to channeling their off-the-field personas of being “medium” patient to be completely patient at the plate.
“If you know what your approach is and you have a plan when you step in the box and you follow your plan,” Ammons said.
Added Boggs: “You have to be patient and you have to wait for your pitch. You can’t go in there chasing everything, expecting to hit everything.
“Sometimes when you are too anxious it gets the best of you.”
But even then the most patient hitter could be stymied by bad swings and that’s where Yanes’ program has paid so many dividends.
“He’s helped the both of us come a long way,” Boggs said. “Without him I don’t think I would be where I am today.”
Ammons agreed.
“He is really focused on the mechanics,” Boggs said. “If you have a better swing, you cut the ball more.”
Added Ammons: “You get more power behind it. You hit it on the nose like you are supposed to.”
Ammons’ and Boggs’ contributions — and those of their teammates — will be even more vital now since BCC is into the games that really matter, those in the Florida College System Activities Association Southern Conference. It’s the outcome of those matchups that will determine whether the Titans advance once again to the postseason.
BCC is 1-1 in the conference and begins its final run of 14 conference games on Saturday at Broward College.
“As far as their importance, they have 115 runs batted in between them,” BCC assistant coach Bob Yanczewski said. “Obviously that is very important and crucial for our success.
