What separates Wright City junior Brooklyn Moore from the average softball player? It took Ryan Ratermann a split second to think up an answer. Work ethic. “It’s second to none,” the …
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What separates Wright City junior Brooklyn Moore from the average softball player?
It took Ryan Ratermann a split second to think up an answer.
Work ethic.
“It’s second to none,” the Wildcats’ assistant softball coach said. “And I think that comes from the competitive softball she plays in the summer. She sees tons of competition and knows what it takes to compete at the highest level. That’s who she is as a softball player.”
Moore’s also a softball player who posted a .547 batting average and drove in 27 runs with nearly half of her hits (20 of 41) going for extra-bases, which includes 15 doubles, four triples and a home run, numbers that helped bestow her the highest of honors in 2018. Call it the quadruple crown if you will.
First team all-conference?
Check.
First team all-district?
Check
First team all-region?
Yes, sir.
First team all-state?
You bet.
But Moore had to work to earn those accolades and work hard.
The Wright City coaching staff still has blisters on their hands from hitting her gobs of grounders post-practice and sacrificed sore arms so that she could see more pitches at the plate.
“She always wants extra reps after practice, whether that’s hitting or fielding depending on what she did the game before,” Ratermann said. “If she struggled at the dish she’d want to take extra at-bats to work on what she felt she needed to do to make her swing better and the same in the infield. If she felt she had a weakness she would stay after and work on whatever was needed to be better for the next game.”
Moore didn’t show a lot of weaknesses though. She failed to reach base in just four of 24 games this season and had 11 multi-hit performances, including four four-hitters and three three-hitters.
Her plate approach is simple.
“I’m trying to make contact,” she said. “Just looking for good pitches to hit. Inside pitches are what I like to swing at, but pretty much anything close to the strike zone as long as I know I can get the bat on it.”
Contact is crucial to Moore. Perhaps her most eye-popping stat is that she struck out just twice the entire campaign. Twice.
“That right there just shows her plate discipline and confidence in the batter’s box,” Ratermann said. “And we faced some elite pitching this season, just in our conference alone.”
While this is Moore’s second consecutive all-state bid, it’s a little different this time. She was a second team utility selection, meaning she was playing positions all over the diamond, in Class 2 in 2017. The Wildcats were bumped up to a deeper and more competitive Class 3 this year and Moore settled in full-time at the hot corner. She still landed among the elite.
“It’s a lot tougher to receive a vote as a one-position player than just having a good batting average and moving all over,” Ratermann said. “In softball, the game’s so fast-paced that having a good defensive third baseman is key and she was a staple there. She helps us in a lot of different ways and she’s put in the work and the time it takes to be successful.”
Class 3 All-State Softball First Team
Wright City junior infielder Brooklyn Moore was a first-team selection on the MSHSAA Class 3 All-State Softball Team.
