High school softball: MVPs each made a strong pitch

Nowhere is there more pressure in softball than in the circle.

This year's Deseret News softball Most Valuable Players are all pitchers who led their teams to state titles by embracing the pressure that comes with squaring off against every player on the opposing team. Each player exhibited the kind of mental focus that rallies a team in situations in which others might fall apart.

Their skill in the circle, at the plate and in the dugout has earned them the state's top honors for the 2009 season.

5A MVP: Tori Almond, Bingham

Tori Almond understands pressure.

At 15, she led the Miners to an improbable state title. This year, success was expected and Almond showed both patience and maturity in playing the role her team needed to successfully defend that title.

"Even with that target on her, she still improved so much," said Bingham head coach Mikki Jackson. "Her strength is as a starter, but we needed her to finish games."

So Almond set about making herself the best closing pitcher most in prep softball have ever seen. The combination of Cienna Smith and Tori Almond made the Miners very difficult to hit.

Almond finished the season with a 0.71 ERA, earning 13.8 strikeouts per game. In the state tournament, she was even better, with 15 strikeouts per game. When playing first base, she had a .950 fielding percentage. She earned 158 strikeouts in 82.22 innings and had a batting average of .304.

"Tori's just so focused," Jackson said. "She works so hard to improve … Sometimes I wonder if she knows how good she is. When your best players work that hard, younger players understand, 'That is the way it is here.'"

What is frightening — at least for other softball squads — is that Almond will be back and most likely even tougher.

"I think she grew in ways that will make her that much stronger next year," Jackson said.

4A MVP: MaCauley Flint, Roy

MaCauley Flint has the kind of steely determination that is contagious.

Even as others suggested the Roy softball team might stumble en route to the 4A state title, she refused to even consider it.

"I have always known she had a better mindset than I ever did," said Mandy Koford, the Royals coach and Flint's aunt. "She is an extremely competent girl. Not in a cocky way, but she just believes that if you work hard, you show up every day and you win games. I always thought about what might happen, what if this batter gets a hit, what if we make an error. She is much more deliberate in her methods."

Not only does Flint have the legacy of her aunt to live up to, she has the expectations of her father and grandfather, both of whom are assistants for the Royals.

"Her dad calls the pitches for her and they read each other very well," Koford said.