Mirror Player Of The Year Dani Haley Shares Credit With Teammates
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Anthony Wayne senior pitcher and slugger Dani Haley has been named The Mirror’s softball Player of the Year in the Northern Lakes League.
Her season numbers and honors as the team’s brightest star in a 27-4 NLL and district-title winning campaign back up the distinction.
Haley compiled an overall 16-3 mark, with one NLL loss, over 131 total innings pitched. She amassed 234 strikeouts overall against 31 walks, 61 hits and 16 earned runs, finishing with a 0.85 ERA.
She also put fear in her opposing twirlers when she hit. Batting cleanup, she did so with distinction, collecting team highs in homers (eight), RBI (31) and slugging (.695). Additionally, she hit safely in 95 at-bats for a .368 average, including a team second-best seven doubles.
The accolades followed accordingly. Haley earned first-team distinction at every level possible, including NLL, district and Ohio Division I, the latest hoped for but not expected.
“I always dreamed of being all-state but never really thought it was going to happen,” Haley said.
After hitting just two home runs as a daily fixture in the middle of the 2009 lineup, Haley also found her eight long balls and league-leading strikeout total somewhat surprising.
“I didn’t expect to hit (all the HRs),” she said. “To lead the league in strikeouts I thought was pretty cool.”
And why not? The NLL is a perennial mainstay powerhouse among D-I softball conferences in Ohio and this year’s crop of pitchers was a strong as ever, with Springfield’s Ashlyn Michalak and Perrysburg’s Kim Bryson among the top throwers.
Still, the two-time NLL first-teamer and team MVP had reason to believe because she came into her third and final varsity stint flanked nicely by a talented five-member senior crop.
When allowed, Haley was quick to point out that her own success and that of the Lady Generals in 2010 could not, would not have transpired without all five points of senior leadership forming the shining star.
“I don’t know what I would have done without my teammates,” Haley said. “We wouldn’t have been nearly as successful as we were without each other.”
Her sentiments started behind the plate with senior catcher Stephanie Baker. A centerfielder as a junior, Baker had actually been Haley’s primary battery charger since the fourth grade.
Haley said without Baker catching her deliveries this past season she probably would not have thrived as well without the familiarity between the two.
“I’m most comfortable throwing to her,” Haley said. “When she would call games I would never shake her off because she always knew what I wanted to throw. I always felt we were unstoppable together.”
Baker added further comfort to her lauded partner by committing no errors in 324 chances behind the dish.
At the plate, Baker had established herself as a feared hitter in the NLL as a junior, but back then she hit leadoff. As a senior, she shifted down to fifth, backing up Haley with protection.
Baker obliged, smacking 35 hits in 97 at-bats for a .361 average. She hit one homer, plated 17 runners, stole a team-high 14 bases and subsequently scored a team-high 26 runs.
Opposite Haley batting third, senior Melissa Sigg was the other bookend for Haley in the offense. Sigg had a tremendous freshman season as a surefire four-year varsity star, lost her sophomore season to an illness, returned to shine as a junior and then flourished again as a senior.
Sigg batted safely at a .396 clip with 20 RBI and belted three homers, six doubles and a triple while scoring a team second-best 25 runs, many of them scored on Haley knocks. She gave up five sacrifices, slugged .582 and got on base in half of her official at-bats.
Defensively, Sigg was error-free in 45 attempts across left field, center field, third base and catching.
“Siggy was always good anywhere she played, especially in left field,” Haley said. “When I’d get behind on batters, I always knew they would be able to pull my pitches to left, but that she’d be there. She is an amazing player.”
Second base, particularly in the shortened game play of softball, is critical, and senior Kelly Hensley gave Haley additional comfort when dealing. On top of fielding her position well, Hensley gave Haley and company outstanding defensive leadership from a mental standpoint.
“She was our ‘mom-esque’ player,” Haley said. “She took care of everyone on the field. If there was a bad situation on the field, she’d be the one to call everyone in and calm everyone down.”
That’s why when Hensley, who struggled offensively for much of her last two seasons, hit the monumental and game-deciding three-run homer in AW’s 3-0 district title win over the rival Perrysburg Yellow Jackets in May, the seniors were exceptionally ecstatic.
“It was exactly what the seniors needed,” Haley said. “When she hit it, the rest of us were screaming in the dugout. Kelly really stepped it up when the team needed her to and we were so excited.
“I’ve never had a moment like that before.”
Hensley ended up with four of the team’s program record-setting 27 homers in 2010.
The senior class that surrounded Haley seemed to be full of surprises.
Kristen Ramer came into the season as the fifth, but most unlikely, hero among the senior quintet. A minimal role player as a junior, Ramer exploded onto the area softball landscape in 2010 as the Lady Generals’ leadoff slap bunt specialist.
Ramer collected team second-bests in batting average (.394) and stolen bases (12), while scoring 24 runs and leading the team in on-base percentage at .521. Her 37 hits were a team best and she also slapped six doubles with 13 RBI. As a result, she whisked to all-NLL first-team honors along with Haley, Baker and Sigg and joined Haley and Sigg on the all-district first team.
“We all played together over the years and it was so huge to have our senior year with Kristen,” Haley said. “Honestly, no one really expected her to have the season she had, but she was a big part of our offense.”
Haley will play college ball at Ohio Wesleyan, Sigg at Findlay and Ramer will continue at Otterbein. Neither Baker nor Hensley intends to continue playing softball at the next level.
Haley looks back on the season, though, one lost to Springfield in the regional semifinals, and rejoices in the fact that the girls she grew up with playing the game she loves all contributed to an amazing season, one in which her own extraordinary success would not have been nearly as likely.
“I don’t think anyone expected us to go that far,” said Haley, “but despite not winning a state championship, look at what we did. We accomplished a lot and I don’t know what I would have done without my teammates.”