Click on all cylinders
Hobart slugger fixes flaw in swing with time in her batting cage, where she goes a lot
Keirys Click’s primary residence might as well be her family’s garage.
That’s where Hobart’s sophomore shortstop spends hours every day because it has an extra feature: a batting cage.
“Right when I get home, I’ll see if I have homework,” she said. “And, if not, I’ll spend three or four hours in the garage, hitting and working out.”
All those hours of extra work are one reason Click has become a fixture atop the Hobart lineup since joining the program last year.
Click’s garage setup has been there for several years, but her home sessions have taken another step forward in the past year with the addition of an outdoor batting cage in the backyard.
There are times when her father, Shawn, will offer a helping hand, but he said the majority of Click’s workouts at home are solo endeavors.
“She really does a lot of it on her own,” he said. “She’ll call me out there when she’s slumping really bad and needs someone for soft toss or to talk her through some things. But most of the time she’s out in the garage or in the cage, hitting off tees.”
Click said there is no better way for her to work through a slump, like she did earlier this month. During a four-day, four-game stretch, Click went 0-for-12 at the plate. She had been hitting .522.
But some film review with her father and a few hours in the cages helped Click identify the culprit.
“When I was in my slump, I wasn’t striking out,” she said. “I was still making contact with the ball. But I was taking too big of a step, so I wasn’t squaring the ball up enough.”
Click emerged from that slump with a pair of three-hit games as Hobart beat Highland 12-2 on Tuesday and defeated Griffith
9-3 on Thursday. Through Thursday, Click’s .419 batting average was second on the team, and she led the Brickies (7-8) with 15 RBIs, five doubles and three home runs.
Rebounding from that slump was nothing new for Click. Hobart coach Steve Moss explained a similar situation that unfolded during Click’s freshman season.
“At the end of the regular season, she told me that she’d found something in her swing and that she’d fixed it,” Moss said. “And then she led off our sectional game with a home run.”
Click is just as important to Hobart’s defense. That’s why she sees plenty of action at shortstop. She said she hopes to see time at catcher at some point because she enjoys the responsibilities of that position so much.
“I feel like I’m in control of the field there,” she said. “I can see everything that’s happening. I can tell everyone where they need to go. I can frame pitches for my pitcher. The game’s in my hands.”
Moss said he’s appreciated the way Click has accepted her role at shortstop because the team needed her there.
“Her knowledge of the game is incredible,” Moss said. “She’s supposed to be another catcher, but she’s just so good at shortstop. She’s accepted that and is being a great teammate about that.”
While Click’s position may change at some point in her career, Click knows her future is in softball.
“It feels like something that I can’t live without,”