Friday, May. 16, 2008

Dietz, Wright provide solid bats for Ravens

Opposing outfielders don’t usually fear Olathe Northwest hitters Chantelle Dietz and Kendra Wright — until the two of them get a few good hacks in and blast some balls to the fence.

Despite being small in stature, Dietz and Wright pack a wallop with their bats.

“Just because I come up and I’m really small, they scoot in,” Wright said of the outfielders she often faces. “Then I just hit it like a regular person.”

That may be a bit modest. Wright and Dietz are both hitting over .400 and Wright leads the 20-2 Ravens in RBIs, while Dietz is atop the Sunflower League with 10 doubles. Both of them are out-hitting most of the “regular people” in the area.

They’re obviously powerful hitters for their size, but Northwest coach Mark Mahoney said that isn’t even a fair assessment. They’re just powerful hitters, period.

“They have very strong lower halves and play softball year-round,” Mahoney said. “They’ve got very quick swings. They look little and all that kind of stuff, but they’re probably our strongest two in terms of lower body.”

Dietz may be the shortest clean-up hitter in the Sunflower League, but she’s also one of the most dangerous.

Her teammates have taken to calling her, “Mighty Mite,” and she doesn’t seem to mind, even though height can be a sensitive subject for many people.

“It’s all in fun, because everybody gets along,” Dietz said. “Actually one of my summer coaches started calling me that and I thought it was funny. They call me ‘The Midget’ too.”

Dietz is just ahead of another Olathe girl with a catchy nickname — North senior Marissa “Rizzo” Ingle — on the league doubles list.

Ingle has eight doubles on the season, but she also has a pair of homers. If Dietz were a bit bigger some of her shots to the gap might start sailing over the fence, but she said she isn’t bothered by her lack of round-trippers.

“I’m actually happy with it,” Dietz said. “I think as long as you’re hitting the ball hard, you’re successful. If it’s a home run over the fence, I’d love some of those, but at the end of the day you’re moving people around and you’re doing your job.”

Plus, as long as Dietz stays on the base paths she provides more RBI opportunities for Wright, who hits behind her.

Wright may be even smaller than Dietz, but she already has one over-the-fence homer that she drilled against Leavenworth this year. She gets the maximum potential from her swing, having honed it through hours of work in the batting cage at her house.

“In the field no one underestimates you,” Wright said. “But when you’re up to bat, it’s all about your size.”

Wright and Dietz both may be small, but put them together and they’re more than 10 feet of hitting power. That’s been the way the two have operated this year, too.

Mahoney noted that they’ve both seemed to get hot at the same times and Wright said they often work together to make life miserable for opposing pitchers.

“She’s on second a lot because she hits a lot of doubles,” Wright said. “So she tells me if the pitch is going to be inside or outside and then if she gets out she actually tells me what pitch she got because we’re like the same type of hitter.”

The type? Small, but deadly.

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