‘Hitting my spots’: Freshman brings gritty play to Trinidad State softball

By Barbara Boxleitner
Special to the Times

CAPE CORAL, Fla.

Freshman Chaunelle Penn is providing quality pitching for the Trinidad State University softball team.

Actually, the Piedra Vista High graduate has been so successful that she even earned victories starting each game of an April 11 doubleheader against Lamar Community College.

The 5-foot-7 right-hander had a 7-1 record through 10 appearances. Her 2.88 earned run average and seven wins ranked second on the squad.

“She’s really coming along as a freshman finding her way,” Trinidad State head coach Steve Swazo said. “She didn’t get the opportunity to do much in high school. She’s really stepped up.”

Penn’s mound debut was not pretty, for she allowed 13 hits and 10 earned runs over four innings in suffering the loss. But she has recovered to win her seven starts since.

Among her better performances was a 10-inning complete-game victory over McCook Community College, when she allowed 10 hits and three earned runs.

“She’s a very gritty player. She has that tenacity to stay very calm in crucial situations,” Swazo said. “She’s very deceiving. She’s probably one of the hardest throwers in the region.”

Though she throws hard, she isn’t a strikeout pitcher. She had a season-high six strikeouts in a complete-game win over Western Nebraska, when she allowed three hits and one earned run. Two other times she struck out five.

“I just try to keep us in the game and hit my spots,” said Penn, who had a .909 fielding percentage in 11 chances. “Sometimes when I start slow, I’m not hitting my spots. I get better at hitting my spots.”

Penn has shown the ability to recover from those early misses, as she did in earning a victory against Otero despite allowing two runs in each of the first two innings.

“She’s able to place the ball and well, where they’re not able to get the bat on the ball,” the coach said.

She cited the effectiveness of her screwball against righties and lefties as being an asset. She also throws a rise, drop, changeup and curveball, the latter one she’s been incorporating more of late because she has a better grasp of throwing it.

She has been happy with the movement of her pitches, she said, because she has controlled both sides of the plate.

“I kind of go inside against hitters to jam them,” she said.

Although some pitchers do not get an opportunity to hit, Penn does. She batted .143 in seven at-bats and drove in one run.

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