Melvin, a two-time all-Olympic Conference player, could see more time as a pitcher this season after the graduation of Eliza Sweet.
Seneca High School junior Madison Melvin has made a ton of contributions on the softball field for the Golden Eagles.
Melvin has been named an all-Olympic Conference player two times, making the second team in her freshman year and first team her sophomore year. She batted .318 for Seneca in 2017, led the team in runs scored and stolen bases, and shined on the field at shortstop.
This year, however, Melvin may need to do something she did little of her first two seasons — pitch.
Seneca lost Eliza Sweet, the team’s top pitcher for the past three seasons, to graduation. Sweet threw all but eight innings last season, leaving Seneca to look for new players to step up in the circle. The day before Seneca’s season opener last Thursday against Cherry Hill High School West, head coach Chrissy Gerber still wasn’t sure how the pitching situation would shake out. Melvin, sophomore Madasyn Vernier and freshman Emma Spencer are the three players most likely to pitch this season.
Melvin enters the season with only a handful of innings pitched on her high school resume, but she has a ton of pitching experience on the travel circuit.
“When I was younger, I pitched a lot and then for travel, I was the №1 pitcher,” she said. “Then I realized I liked playing the infield more and I kind of stopped. But I was still going to pitching lessons for here.”
While much of Melvin’s focus has been on perfecting her hitting and play at shortstop in high school, she has continued pitching lessons with instructor Tom Besser once a week. Melvin also did a lot of pitching in practice during the preseason.
“We’ve thrown her in preseason the last couple years, but it was obvious that Eliza was a stud with the pitching so we didn’t have to throw Melvin,” Gerber said.
Melvin, who identifies the screwball and the changeup as her best pitches, has been successful in her limited reps in high school. In her only appearance as a pitcher last year, Melvin threw three innings of relief in a May 10 game against Winslow, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out five batters.
“I’ve done it for a long time,” Melvin said. “I pitched against 18U, our same year and I pitched a little bit freshman and sophomore year against some of the teams we’ll be playing.”
Gerber admitted she is hesitant to pitch Melvin, not because of her pitching ability, but because Melvin is so valuable at shortstop, one of the most demanding defensive positions on the field.
“I don’t want her to pitch,” Gerber said. “If I take her out, that shifts my entire infield and I don’t want to do that. But she is a very good pitcher.”
Gerber plans to give Spencer and Vernier plenty of chances to succeed with the varsity team. Vernier spent most of the 2017 season pitching on the JV team, but did pitch one game for varsity last year. Spencer pitched with both JV and the varsity team in the preseason and performed well enough to earn opportunities with varsity in the regular season. Spencer received the start in Seneca’s first game of the season last Thursday.
Gerber believes Spencer and Vernier may work well together because of their differences. She said Spencer throws harder than Vernier, but Vernier is good at throwing a variety of off-speed pitches.
“It might be a nice one-two combination with someone throwing hard and someone throwing junk,” Gerber said.
Melvin doesn’t believe it matters whether she’s called upon to pitch. She’s open to contributing to the team in whatever way she can.
“I’ll do anything to help out the team,” Melvin said. “I can pitch. I can play shortstop.”
