Prior to Tuesday Clare sophomore Brooklyn Tocco had never hit a home run as a member of the varsity softball team.
She had hit a homer or two in travel ball, yet never as a member of the Pioneer varsity squad.
The hard-hitting slugger made up for that though as she belted three homers in a 26-15 road win over host Ogemaw Heights Tuesday.
Tocco’s three home runs in a single game is tied for second in the Michigan High School Athletic Association archives, one behind single-game state record holder Courtney Robinson who belted four in a single game for Detroit Kettering in 1999.
“I was hitting in the cage the day before the game and hitting it pretty good,” said Tocco of her long-ball outburst. “I was thinking ‘get your hands to the ball’ and it worked. I didn’t realize it was that big of a deal until my dad told me what I had done. When I got to school (Wednesday) people were coming up to me to congratulate me. At the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
For coach Jeff Albert seeing Tocco hit three home runs and go 4-for-6 at the plate with six RBIs was a welcomed sign.
“She has been working really hard, especially the last two weeks,” said the veteran skipper Albert. “We haven’t played for two weeks because of the weather so she had a lot of time to work on her swing. I usually hit her third but I put her in the two spot (Tuesday) between two good hitters thinking I might bunt her a little bit. That didn’t happen though. Her first at bat she hit a home run and I think that built her confidence up.”
Tocco belted her second homer in the fifth and closed the day out with her third homer of the day in the sixth.