If someone checks out the career batting stats of Aurora Central Catholic’s Morgan Vaghy, the temptation would be to call the senior infielder a natural-born hitter.
The numbers are impressive. Vaghy broke in as a freshman for the Chargers and hit .462, helping her earn third team all-state honors from the Illinois Coaches Association.
She then batted .356 as a sophomore and followed it up last season with a .419 average, making second team all-state in the process.
Have bat will travel? Maybe. But Vaghy has put in plenty of work over the years to fine-tune her craft as well.
“Really, it started with my dad, Mike, who always loved coaching my older brother Seth and I,” Morgan said. “I’d tag along when dad coached Seth’s teams before I could even start softball.
“I started by throwing to the mom of one of the other players during his practices and even served as the ball girl for one of the teams.”
She played a couple seasons of house league baseball before starting softball at age 8. Her dad coached three of her Yorkville Foxes travel teams. She’s played with the Wasco Diamonds since high school.
Heavy rains Thursday washed out practice, but Vaghy completed a hitting lesson indoors with Mike Trimarco, her personal instructor from Elite Sports Performance in Oswego. She has worked with him since her freshman year.
Her brother Seth, who is now a sophomore at Marquette, played baseball at Marmion. Morgan chose ACC instead of Rosary.
“I remember going to one of his games against ACC after I had just played and I had to sit on the Marmion side wearing my ACC uniform,” she said. “I was getting some strange looks that day.
“I chose ACC because I liked the way they have block scheduling. It’s a busy life with softball. I had flexibility to come home and do homework before practice or hold a job teaching young kids swimming lessons so I could earn spending money.”
This season, Vaghy is back full time at shortstop after also spending some time at third base as a freshman and second base last season when a sore throwing shoulder bothered her.
An MRI revealed a partially torn labrum, which she had repaired with surgery last August following the summer travel season. It forced her to miss fall ball while rehabbing the injury.
Also in August, Vaghy committed to play softball at Benedictine. She will be reunited with Kate Gambro, a former teammate, and former assistant coach Mark Pasqualini. He stepped down at ACC after last season to make that move.
“I had been emailing them since last high school season,” Vaghy said of Benedictine. ”I had hoped I could finish out high school playing for coach Mark, but I’m excited to be able to work with him again. I know what he’s like coaching and I like his style.
“I wanted to stay closer to home and really liked the atmosphere there.”
Vaghy pointed out that Benedictine coach Kate Heidkamp projects her to continue as a middle infielder and figures there could be early playing opportunities. The Eagles have 13 seniors on their roster.
Gabriela Drager and Izzy Hernandez, ACC’s new co-coaches, both like the leadership role Vaghy has taken.
“Even us coaches will turn to Morgan frequently to get the team going,” Drager said. “She’s such a leader at the plate and in the field, where she’s very solid and not much gets by her.”
It’s been a struggle in the early going, however, for ACC (0-8).
“It’s been a bumpy start,” Vaghy said. “I remember looking at the schedule with quite a few Class 4A schools on it and thinking, ‘This isn’t gonna be good at all.’
“The girls are working hard and we’ve gotten a lot better with several close games. There’s still a lot of potential. We haven’t found the sweet spot.”
