The Chiefs’ aggressive offensive mentality led the team to 14 wins and put Cherokee on the cusp of a conference championship.
Cherokee High School seniors Emma Gilmore and Ally St. Jean are completely different types of players on the softball field.
Gilmore has been the Chiefs’ leadoff hitter the past three years and concentrates on putting the ball in play and using her speed.
St. Jean is Cherokee’s power hitter and uses her strong batter’s eye to identify pitches she can drive for extra bases.
Gilmore and St. Jean might contribute in very different ways, but together, they have helped drive the Chiefs’ offense over the past three seasons.
Head coach Mary Madgey views Gilmore and St. Jean as two of the most integral parts of her team.
“First of all, you have a hitter like Emma, who does more of the small game, she’s going to put the ball in play, get on base and then be fast on the bases aggressively,” Madgey said, “whereas Ally is the kind of kid whose going to come up and hit a double, triple or home run and score those runs.”
Cherokee has a different offensive philosophy than many of its opponents this year. The Chiefs managed to average a little more than seven runs per game despite hitting only four home runs as a team the entire season.
“We knew going in that Ally was our only true power hitter, that we were going to have to find a way to score runs,” Madgey said. “We do that by being aggressive on the bases, putting the ball in play and making teams work to get us out.”
Cherokee’s offensive attack begins will Gilmore, a strong contact hitter and one of the best base stealers in South Jersey. As the leadoff hitter, Gilmore said she does whatever it takes to get on base.
“I bunt to get on, I slap to get on,” Gilmore said. “Sometimes I power slap to get on too.”
“I look at the fielders,” Gilmore added. “If they’re really close to me, I won’t bunt, I’ll hit it over them. It’s something a lot of people don’t expect me to do, so it’s kind of nice.”
Gilmore stole 19 bases in Cherokee’s first 20 games of the season. Her speed landed her a spot on the Chiefs’ varsity squad as a freshman in 2015.
“I joined varsity freshman year and I was pretty much just a runner,” Gilmore said. “Sophomore year I took the role of leadoff hitter and I think I’ve grown every single year that I played.”
While Gilmore provides plenty of speed, St. Jean provides the pop in the Cherokee lineup. St. Jean leads the Chiefs in extra base hits, recording five doubles, two triples and two home runs.
Getting extra base hits isn’t St. Jean’s primary focus. As the cleanup hitter, she is focused more on driving in runs, even if it means a sacrifice fly.
“It’s definitely just to get those RBIs in,” she said. “Whether you get a hit or not, it’s more so to get those runs in to help your team score.”
St. Jean has seen her numbers at the plate improve thanks to having a better approach in the batter’s box. This improvement is apparent in her statistics, as she is hitting for a team-leading .491 batting average this season.
“I’ve worked on visualizing on what pitch I want to hit and having that in my mind before I go up to bat,” she said. “This year, I’m focusing more on pitches to hit and what pitches I should be hitting.”
Despite their different hitting styles, Gilmore and St. Jean’s entered their final high school seasons chasing the 100 career hit milestone. Gilmore recorded her 100th career hit on May 10 against Paul VI High School. St. Jean entered last Thursday’s first round playoff game against Southern Regional High School four hits away from 100.
“It’s always been a goal for me since I started playing varsity to get 100 hits, because I’ve seen other people get it,” St. Jean said.
Both Gilmore and St. Jean care more about team success than reaching individual milestones. The two talked excitedly about the prospect of Cherokee winning the 2018 Olympic Conference American Division championship. The pair also hope to help Cherokee to a deep run in the South Jersey Group IV playoffs.
