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By Kelly Hodge
Johnson City Press Managing Sports Editor
Megan Aldridge didn’t begin her softball career at Milligan College as a power hitter. In fact, she had all of two home runs after her first two seasons.
How times have changed for the senior third baseman.
Aldridge will leave Milligan with more homers than anyone before her. She currently has 26, including 11 this season, and sounds as surprised as anybody about her lofty perch in the program’s history.
“I didn’t hit any home runs in high school,” Aldridge said Monday. “I didn’t hit any as a freshman here, and I hit two as a sophomore. I don’t know where it came from; it’s just kind of happened.”
The transformation has been an odd one indeed for the former three-sport athlete at Science Hill, who signed with Milligan just two weeks before tearing up her right knee playing high school basketball.
The injury cost her a final season of softball with the Lady Hilltoppers and set her on an arduous path of rehab as she prepared for college. Aldridge has undergone three surgeries on the knee to try to make things right, and she can still feel the effects.
“I still have to sit down after games,” she said, “and kind of watch what I do.”
It doesn’t show on the field.
The quick-handed Aldridge is a steady influence at third base, and when she’s in the batter’s box, good things tend to happen for the Lady Buffs. She broke Jennifer Blevins’ 11-year-old school record of 16 home runs earlier this month, and the big hits keep coming.
On Sunday, Aldridge entered the proverbial zone in a doubleheader against Mountain State, smacking four homers and driving in nine runs in a Milligan sweep that raised the Lady Buffs’ record to 18-14.
“It just makes me laugh when I think about it,” she says now. “I guess I was feeling it.”
The outburst propelled Aldridge to third in the NAIA in home runs this season. Aside from that, she’s now hitting a team-best .374, with 27 runs batted in. (Jessica Blevins hits .372 and leads the Lady Buffs with 28 RBI).
“I tell myself before every pitch to go strong straight through the middle,” said Aldridge. “When I’m pressing too much, the home runs don’t happen. I just have to react to the ball.”
There was a time when Aldridge couldn’t decide whether to pursue softball, basketball or soccer in college — “Each one brought me a different joy,” she said — but she’s happy with how things have turned out. And she’s hoping for a big finish to her career.
“I’ve been looking forward to my senior year for a couple of years now,” she said. “It’s starting to sink in that my career will be over in a month or so. Having my senior year in high school cut short taught me a valuable lesson about enjoying every day. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
The Milligan baseball team is enjoying itself these days.
After a slow start, the Buffs have won five straight to improve to 13-15 overall. More importantly, they are 6-2 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference.
Milligan got a solid one-two pitching performance Saturday in a double-header sweep of Covenant. Brett Seybert pitched a complete game to easily win the opener 13-3, then Nathan Fritz slammed the door with a one-hitter in a 5-0 victory.
The Buffs will be back in action today at King. The single game, beginning at 3 o’clock, won’t count in the AAC standings.
The track and field team opens its outdoor season Thursday with the Milligan College Relays at Liberty Bell.
Teams expected to compete include East Tennessee State, Tusculum, Carson-Newman, King, Virginia Intermont, Lees-McRae, Bryan, Brevard and Mars Hill.
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