Junior shortstop Abbie Statham-Ball is as trustworthy as it gets for Shepard.
When a base stealer takes off from first, Madison Scapardine trusts her so much that …
“I don’t even look before I throw,” said Scapardine, a standout junior catcher for the Astros. “I know she’s going to be there to make the play.”
Statham-Ball did that and more Monday afternoon for Shepard in a 5-1 South Suburban Red victory over host Reavis in Burbank.
Lexy Stergiopoulos homered and added an RBI single for the Astros (14-5, 10-1). Statham-Ball contributed a pair of doubles, while junior right-hander Kailey Selvage struck out nine.
Lily Fish hit a home run for Reavis (7-13, 6-6).
Statham-Ball is in her second season on the varsity. Her 2-for-3 effort boosted her batting average to .479. She has 19 runs and 13 RBIs.
Her trademark is making things happen, according to teammate Juliann Radz.
“She always somehow makes contact,” Radz said of Statham-Ball. “It doesn’t matter where the ball is, she’ll make contact. She has good eye contact and a little bit of power behind it.”
In the second inning Monday, Statham-Ball’s at-bat against Reavis was quite an adventure.
Radz was on first base with one out when Statham-Ball tomahawked a ball down the left field line. It went all the way to the fence. Statham-Ball — with a little help from the Rams’ defense — didn’t stop running until she had circled the bases.
“As I was running, I always knew it was going to at least be a double,” she said. “Once I saw that the ball was thrown home, I immediately took action to third. When I saw that they missed the ball, I took that as my chance to get home.”
Screams to stop? Go? She didn’t hear any of them.
“Haha… I was in a zone,” Statham-Ball said, laughing. “I was locked in on where I was going to go.”
She was also locked in with Scapardine in the bottom of the first inning, when they executed perfectly a strike-them out, throw-them out double play.
“I saw that the girl at first was taking off,” Statham-Ball said. “I immediately took a spot at second. It’s hard to steal when Madison is behind the plate.”
Their shortstop-catcher bond is quite deep.
“When there is a runner at first, I always look toward Madison,” Statham-Ball said. “We kind of look at each other so that we have the best approach toward the situation.”
You could almost call it psychic.
“We just have a certain connection, almost like reading each other’s minds,” Scapardine said. “In order to handle a steal, she has to know where I’m going with it, how to tag it.
“She always gets the tag down. I feel like we just trust each other. She trusts that I’m going to get the throw there and I trust that she’s going to be there to get it.”
Along with tagging out would-be base stealers at second, Statham-Ball is a steady presence at short. She has a .900 fielding percentage with 18 assists and 18 putouts.
She also is a “cool, calm and collected” customer for Astros coach Kelsey Clifford.
“Abbie is very even-tempered,” Clifford said. “She doesn’t get rattled. I’m sure her teachers would say the same thing about her. She is a smart kid with a very business mentality. She gets her classroom work done, and she does it well.”
On the field, she’s versatile.
“I have moved her around all throughout the offensive lineup,” Clifford said. “She has been our leadoff, in the two spot, in the five spot and at 7-8-9. And she does what she needs to do with, ‘OK, coach. No problem, coach.’
“Abbie has been huge for us. She’s humble. She’s a leader.”
Tony Baranek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
