Callie Alford can feel it in her hands when she hits a home run.
“Nothing in the world that can beat that feeling,” she said.
Alford, a catcher and third baseman for Georgia State, has had the pleasure many times. She is to college softball what the King and his Court once were to slow-pitch softball: a one-woman wonder show of home runs and skill.
With a career-high 13 home runs this season, Alford broke the previous school record for career homers of 32 and pushed it to 36 as the Panthers (30-17, 9-9 Sun Belt) prepare to host Louisiana-Monroe in a three-game series at the Heck Softball Complex. Georgia State played Georgia on Wednesday night.
Alford’s power starts in the training room, where she credits Melissa Schmitz with helping her and the rest of her teammates strengthen their legs.
“Our team, size-wise isn’t the biggest, but pound-for-pound we are strong,” Alford said.
From there, the homers comes from practice and hours spent hitting off the tee and honing her fundamentals.
Alford uses a quick toe tap in the batter’s box to sharpen her timing, then explosively rotates her hips, while concentrating on keeping her hands inside so that she can extend her arms and drive the ball. She loves to see the inside dropball, which she can get underneath, and isn’t as fond of the inside riseball because it leads to pop-ups.
And when she connects, well the ball goes a long way.
In a game this season against Savannah State, Alford sent an inside screwball onto the roof of the indoor facility on the other side of the left-field wall at the softball field. That’s not something she said she has ever done in batting practice.
In a game against Tennessee Tech, she cleared the center-field fence, something coach Roger Kincaid said he’s never seen.
“When the bat says on plane she hits it a long way,” he said. “She crushes the ball.”
Like a lot of great home run hitters, Alford said she doesn’t try to hit homers. Instead, she tries to square the bat to the ball and impart just a little bit of backspin. She wants line drives. If they happen to clear fences, so be it.
“Callie’s as close as a poster child gets for everything that’s right for what we want to do,” Kincaid said.
Her ability to hit and competitiveness was honed playing baseball with her brothers Corey and Chase, both of whom walked on to Georgia Tech’s football team, either in the batting cage in their backyard or on the teams coached by their father.
After being a catcher and closer in baseball, she transitioned to fast-pitch softball when she was 11 years old.
Instead of attending Tech, chose Georgia State and made an instant impact.
In her first game as a freshman the Panthers scrimmaged Georgia. With her knees knocking and an 0-2 count, Alford turned on a high, inside pitch for a homer.
It was the first time she had that feeling in college.
“When you hit a good home run everything is connected,” she said. “There’s a nice flow. There’s a good feel.”
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