Altavista’s Short named softball player of the year

A four-year, three-sport standout, Altavista senior Brooke Short saved the best season of her career for last.

The southpaw pitcher bound for Longwood University on a softball scholarship carried the Colonels to their first-ever Group A state championship, firing a two-hitter while striking out 11 in a 7-1 victory over Glenvar in the June 7 final at Radford University.

“That’s something she’s always wanted to do,” Brooke’s father and Altavista assistant coach Philip Short said of winning a state championship. “For her to do it her senior year, it was pretty incredible. It was amazing.”

“That’s all that this team wanted was a state championship,” Brooke Short added. “I couldn’t have asked for more. We couldn’t have had a better year. We were (Dogwood) District champs, Region (B) champs and (Group A) state champs.”

Short, who also plays volleyball and basketball but shines brightest on the softball diamond, posted a 19-3 record this spring. While her ERA ballooned to 1.30 after recording a career-best 0.36 ERA last year, she still held opposing hitters to a .167 batting average (95 hits in 570 at-bats) while fanning a career-best 237 and walking only 14 in 144 innings, bringing her four-year strikeout total to 753.

Philip Short called all of his daughter’s pitches, with five or six to choose from.

“This year I thought I had more movement and more accuracy with my different pitches,” Brooke Short said, noting her drop ball and changeup were her most effective in completing a strikeout.

As polished of a pitcher as Short is, The News & Advance All-Area softball player of the year is even more potent with a bat in her hands, as she showed in the state semifinal against Essex, a dramatic 7-6 come-from-behind triumph, Altavista’s third seventh-inning game-winning rally of the postseason.

Short tripled and homered in that game before reaching out to deliver a walk-off double down the left-field line on an intentional walk pitch.

“She didn’t swing at a lot of bad pitches and we encouraged her to take a walk,” Philip Short said.

But with the game on the line, she couldn’t resist.

“I wanted to hit it,” Brooke Short said. “She threw me an outside pitch and I got it.”

For the year, Short batted .660 with a .791 on-base percentage, delivering 11 doubles and five triples to go with her seven home runs and 14 steals. She racked up 41 RBIs while scoring 32 runs and collecting 37 hits and 35 walks, many intentional.

“She just absolutely completely changed the whole inning when she came up,” Altavista coach Tim Fenn said. “She walked almost two times per game (and) when they didn’t walk her, she got a hit two out of every three at-bats.

“She is absolutely the most feared offensive hitter baseball or softball-wise I’ve ever seen as a coach. Offensively, mechanically, I have not seen a better offensive hitter at any level in either sport.”

Short may be used as a designated hitter when she’s not pitching at Longwood, where she plans to major in exercise science in preparation for a career as an athletic trainer or physical therapist.