Here’s one way to comprehend the speed of Oak Park leadoff batter Alex Morocco.
Count to yourself: “One-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three-Mississ — stop!
In those 2.6 seconds, a third baseman has to charge Morocco’s bunt, field it cleanly and unleash an accurate throw that beats the Huskies senior to first base.
“If I get the right placement, I’ll beat it out 70 percent of the time,” said Morocco, who is batting .569 with 31 runs, 25 stolen bases and a .626 on-base percentage.
“I feel real comfortable batting left-handed this year, and I’m more confident in where I place my hits.”
She placed one over the left fielder’s head for a triple last Saturday during Oak Park’s doubleheader sweep of Lockport.
“It was a good feeling — I feel more powerful,” Morocco said about taking a full cut. “My coach (Mel Kolbusz) is always encouraging me to swing away.”
Morocco has been on a tear of late with 12 hits in her last 17 at-bats against defenses aligned to take away her bunt-and-slap game.
With a tip from one of his former players, DePaul coach Eugene Lenti came to watch Morocco in the summer before her junior year. Six months later he offered a scholarship and landed a prize recruit.
“I was ecstatic — it was really amazing,” Morocco said. “I never thought such a great team would be interested in me. It was kind of shocking.”
She has come a long way from the 4-foot-11-inch 6th grader who couldn’t hit the ball out of the infield as a right-handed batter.
But taking notice of her speed, a Windmills summer team coach switched Morocco around to a lefty slapper.
“I was pretty bad as a righty,” Morocco said. “It was like a last resort.”
She joined the half-dozen other converts on “lefty night” — every Wednesday when Windmills’ slappers would work out exclusively on their new endeavor.
Recently, Morocco has begun working on her speed and agility at Velocity, a training facility in Darien.
“I feel like I’m faster going from home to first and from first to second,” Morocco said.
“I’ve begun working out more intensely this year.”
———-
bsakamoto@tribune.com
