Hannah Dossett’s tweaks to batting mechanics pay off

Mike Bosch’s iPad noticed Hannah Dossett’s flat barrel before anyone else.

Every couple of weeks, the SU coaching staff uses the head coach’s iPad to analyze players’ pre-pitch loads, bat paths and follow-throughs. They compare players’ swings month-to-month and look for things the iPad’s slow motion feature sees — things the naked eye may not.

During batting practice last week, Bosch’s iPad helped assistant coach Alisa Goler realize Dossett’s loading phase was off. Her barrel was flattening early, leading to a relatively weak top hand and difficulties in hitting balls with backspin.

Goler told Dossett about the “little thing” in practice. Once aware of it, Dossett focused on keeping a strong top hand to prepare for a weekend series with Notre Dame.

By the end of the series, Dossett’s batting average jumped 31 points, from .139 to .170. She tallied four hits and three RBI’s in nine at bats, thanks largely to the plate adjustments she made. She gave Syracuse (16-15, 3-6 Atlantic Coast) an offensive spurt that helped it take two of three from then 17th-ranked Notre Dame (25-5, 4-2). The adjustments also have her poised for another weekend of conference play, beginning Saturday with a doubleheader against Georgia Tech (13-20, 2-7) at SU Softball Stadium.

“I was trying to keep myself calm more because I know I’ve been thinking a lot in the box,” Dossett said. “Not guess where the pitch is, but really track it and hit it well.”

In the series’ rubber game Saturday afternoon, she went 3-for-3. It was her first multi-hit game since Feb. 20 and marked Dossett’s best weekend in a Syracuse uniform to date.

Dossett, a freshman, is one of just three SU players to have started in each of the team’s 31 games this season. She’s third on the team in total at bats, with 88. It was only a matter of time, Goler said, before she would find her place in the box.

“There’s been so many balls this season that she has just missed squaring up,” Goler said. “This weekend, with those minor adjustments, she really saw the ball fly off the bat.”

The ball flew off her bat in game two on Saturday, when she belted a pitch deep to straight away center field. As it soared high into the winds at SU Softball Stadium, Dossett sprinted out of the box. Had the wind not been blowing almost directly in, it could have cleared the fence.

Instead, it hit the top of the fence and bounced back in. The ball wasn’t fielded cleanly and, with Dossett running hard out of the box, she ended up on third base with a triple.

“I don’t know if there is a good spot to throw to her, really,” SU pitcher Jocelyn Cater said. “She comes in contact pretty often.”

A day prior, with the game knotted at two, Dossett scored on an Alicia Hansen home run. It gave the Orange a 4-2 lead that it would hold until the fifth, when Dossett smacked a double to give SU an insurance run.

Cater, a senior, has noticed Dossett’s patience in the box. On Saturday, Dossett ripped a hard ground ball foul. The next two pitches were soft and outside, making it clear UND’s wins leader Allie Rhodes refused to attack Dossett with inside pitches anymore. For the remainder of the at bat, Rhodes stayed away with mostly slow stuff. But Dossett didn’t bite.

Dossett’s patience, Cater said, makes her difficult to pitch to. This is why, if she had to face Dossett in a real game, Cater said she’d have to dive deep into her arsenal.

“I think she would crush me a few times,” Cater said. “She’s just really explosive. Since the second she got here, she’s just almost intimidating but in a quiet way. She’s not outgoing, she’s not really over the top, she’s just pretty silent in the box.”

On the scoreboard, though, she’s begun to make some noise.