Get on board with Extra Inning Softball’s regular feature, The Last Inning!
We are scouring the Internet and Social Media and keeping our ears to the street for the latest going on in the softball community.
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Here’s our TLI for Tuesday, March 8:
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EXTRA ELITE PROFILE: MAKENNA RAYE DARK
North Carolina-bound P MaKenna Raye Dark, #8 in the 2022 Extra Elite 100, recently talk to Extra Inning Softball about her softball journey with Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier, Eastern Almanance High in North Carolina, recruiting trips, sign language and 12U softball.
EXTRA SPOTLIGHT Q&A
Name: MaKenna Raye Dark
Home Town: Mebane, NC
High School: Eastern Alamance High
Club Team: Birmingham Thunderbolts Premier 18U
Graduation Year: 2022
Height: 5-foot-7
Position: Pitcher
Nickname: TINA SNOW
Twitter: @KDark2022
Honors: All-Conference Academics (2018-2022) and 4.4 GPA
Travel Ball Highlights/Fall Stats: Did not play Fall ’21 due to much-needed rest and recovery (first time since age 6).
High School Highlights: 3A Mid-State 1st Team All-Conference (2021); 3A Mid-State Academic All-Conference (2021); 3A All-State/All-District/All-Conference (2021); North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year (2020); 3A Mid-State 1st Team All-Conference (2020); 3A Mid-State Academic All-Conference (2020); 3A All-State/All-District/All-Conference (2020); Max Preps Freshman All-American (2019); 3A State Champion (2019); 3A West Pitcher of the Year (2019); 3A All-State/All-District/All-Conference (2019); 3A All-District Pitcher of the Year (2019); 3A Mid-State Conference Pitcher of the Year (2019); 3A Mid-State 1st Team All-Conference (2019); 3A Mid-State Academic All-Conference (2019); and NC High School Performance of the Week Award (March 2019).
Tell us about your travel team/organization and how you became involved with them?
I play for the Birmingham Thunderbolts 18U Premier team, coached by Rock Thompson. Joining the organization in January 2020 was the best decision I made for my travel softball career. Coach Rock has been instrumental in broadening my softball IQ, defensively and offensively.
In the last two summers, my 18U squad has been extremely competitive by winning titles or placing in the Top 3 of most tournaments. When we won the Top Club Nationals in OKC, Coach Shea rewarded each individual player with huge diamond-studded rings that have a Teal “B” embedded in the middle of the ring in honor of Alex Wilcox. I absolutely enjoy building lasting friendships with the girls that I play with every year.
Can you talk about your experience at Eastern Alamance High?
My experiences at Eastern Alamance High have been nothing but good. I enjoy learning course information, which has expanded my knowledge, especially in the STEM field. During my years at Eastern Alamance, I have learned to balance the core values of being a student athlete through leadership, integrity, respect, responsibility and good sportsmanship.
What should we expect from your HS team this spring?
Eastern Alamance High School softball team’s ultimate goal this season is to mimic our 2019 softball season, winning the 3A state championship.
Do you have recruiting advice for younger players?
As a young athlete, set high expectations for yourself and before you communicate with your softball coaches about the colleges that you are interested in, make sure you are researching the schools. Attend softball camps, so that you have the opportunity to showcase your talent in front of college coaches that you’re interested in.
Create videos of your fundamental skills such as hitting, fielding, speed and the primary position you play to send to coaches. Your travel ball coaches should have great rapport and reputation in the national softball community and college coaches at large.
Do you have a secret talent/skill?
I can communicate through American sign language (ASL). I can also prepare the best Alfredo sauce and pigs in a blanket.
What’s your most memorable softball story?
My most memorable softball story was my first 12U softball game and I got called to pitch on the mound first. As I was running to the mound, my nervousness started to get worse but I pushed through it. After facing the first two batters, both of them being outs, made my confidence level rise and I said to myself, “Okayyy. I’m sitting these girls down, they don’t know what to do.”
Well, the next girl came up to bat and I slipped up and threw her a fatty down the middle, which resulted in a line drive back at my ribs, knocking the breath out of me. My dad comes running to the mound to make sure I am okay and the only thing I could do was to hold onto him because I did not know if I was going to make it.
After the game was over, my parents forced me to wear a bulky football chest protector that I disliked. This was a learning experience for me and since then I have been perfecting the location of my pitches.
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NEWS & NOTES
***Some people are naturally fast, but to increase it takes hard work such as the time FL Thunderbolts 05-Gatewood 2024 P/UT Addisyn Berry spends on training.
Faster and Stronger everyday… thanks to @CoachMike_10 , @marcellaossa and my ubrzati fam. #StrongIsBeautiful@Los_Stuff @StriveSoftball @SoftballConnect @FLBOLTS_G8wood @melhighsoftball pic.twitter.com/l4oQ1CKEEX
— Addisyn Berry (@AddisynBerry) March 3, 2022
“I’ve been training at a sports performance facility in Melbourne, FL, called ubrZati for around two years,” the two-time USSSA All-American said.
“They specialize in athletic performance training with their main focus being on the high-performance treadmills seen in my videos. ubrZati uses a periodized approach to their speed training allowing me to constantly improve and get better every single week. I also do my agility work and strength training at ubrZati. They’ve helped me over the past years to increase my speed, power, strength, which in turn helps my performance on the softball field in all areas.”
*** Scroll down to read more in today’s TLI including the latest adds to the Triple Crown International Challenge this Summer and which ACC team just picked up a verbal!
