Sierra Norman might be regarded as a power hitter, but she’s shown she can hit for average, as well.
The Columbus North sophomore has been a bright spot on a team that went 1-25 last year and has started 0-6 this season. She was hitting above .700 for most of the season and now sits at a team-best .583 going into today’s game against Columbus East.
“She started off like she was on fire,” North coach Ron McDonald said. “She hits any kind of pitching. She’s hitting so go good that she’s almost jumping a lot of times at the first pitch, but she’ll make adjustments.”
Norman burst onto the scene as a freshman last year. She led the Bull Dogs with a .456 average, six doubles and 20 RBIs and had two home runs.
This year, Norman has two doubles, a home run and a team-high seven RBIs through six games. She said the key has been having confidence in herself and what she’s doing, and not putting too much pressure on herself.
“I worked a lot last summer and definitely last season improving,” Norman said. “I changed my swing a little bit, and it’s definitely helped a lot. I’m just trying to do what I know what I can do and keep working on getting better.”
Norman, who also plays basketball for North, has been playing softball for about eight years. She plays travel softball for coach Jeremy Foster’s Indiana Dreams squad.
The hope for Norman is to play Division I softball. She has been to camps and looked at Indiana University and University of Southern Indiana.
“I think she’s Division I by the time she gets out of our place,” McDonald said.
Last high school season, Norman played mostly third base and a little first base. This year, she’s playing third and second base.
Although the Bull Dogs have yet to win a game this season, McDonald feels they have several winnable games coming up on their schedule the next few weeks. Following today’s game, they play Tuesday at Bloomington North. On Thursday, Columbus North hosts Southport, the team it beat last season.
“I just want to give the team some wins and keep improving and help everyone else get better and be a leader for this team,” Norman said. “I think we’re definitely improving, and we’ve started competing every single game. I’ve seen so much improvement from everyone, and we’re just working hard and I think we can get some wins, definitely.”
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Columbus East at Columbus North softball
When: 5 p.m. today
Where: Southside Elementary
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