By Brad Morris
SportingPumpkin.com
Jeri Hartley knew she was getting a heralded pitcher in freshman Sadie Binkley.
What the long-time Logan Elm coach didn’t fully realize was how complete of a player that Binkley was.
“Sadie plays on a really good travel ball team, so we knew we were getting a good athlete and a good pitcher who had a nice mix of pitches,” Hartley said. “Sadie doesn’t bat often when she plays travel ball, so we didn’t know how she would be able to hit?
“As it turned out, Sadie finished the season as our leading hitter and really did a nice job of staying within herself and putting the ball in play. When Sadie wasn’t pitching, she played some center field for us and made a couple of diving catches and didn’t have any errors in the field. We found out that Sadie was a pretty complete athlete, especially for just playing her first season of varsity softball.”
Binkley was recently recognized for her season by earning second-team All-Ohio honors in Division II.
The right-hander posted a 10-7 record with a 2.27 ERA. In 114 and one-third innings, Binkley allowed 89 hits, walked 38 batters, hit five and struck out 160.
She also batted .460 with two home runs, 17 RBI and 18 runs scored.
“The biggest adjustments that Sadie had was learning how to pitch deeper into games, throwing a greater volume of pitches and competing against kids older than she is typically,” Hartley said. “When Sadie learned to mix her pitches and pitch to different plains of the strike zone, she showed what type of pitcher she can be.
“Sadie is just scratching the surface of her potential. She’s a great leader, a great teammate and a very hard worker, so she is going to learn from her first season, get stronger and I think she is going to be something special to watch in her next three seasons at Logan Elm.”
