Fox Chapel grad Neena Pietropaolo goes from team manager to key cog for Mercyhurst softball

For sports teams, end-of-the-season banquets are a time to look back at the accolades and accomplishments of the prior months. For Fox Chapel grad Neena Pietropaolo, the 2022 Mercyhurst softball banquet was a time to look ahead.

Pietropaolo served as the Lakers’ manager last season, and at the end of the team banquet, coach Leanne Baker offered her a spot on the roster for 2023.

“The whole place went nuts,” the 10th-year coach said.

Her work ethic, personality and attitude endeared her to the team. But her inclusion on the roster was no token gesture for a job well done. Pietropaolo is a regular contributor to the Lakers, appearing in 26 games — starting 21, usually as the designated player — while hitting .258 with 11 runs and six RBIs.

She has helped the Lakers, coming off the first PSAC championship series appearance in program history, to a record of 23-17 overall and 13-9 in the conference.

“It’s been a whirlwind of events,” Pietropaolo said. “I could not be anymore proud of myself because I feel like I worked so hard, and I finally got to the place I wanted to be my whole life. I can’t thank my coach enough. I can’t thank my teammates enough.”

Pietropaolo had no shortage of opportunities to play softball coming out of high school. Most of her overtures, she said, were from Division III schools.

She, however, was more interested in finding a school with her desired major, and if softball was a part of the equation, great. If it wasn’t, that was OK, too.

She chose Mercyhurst because of its law enforcement/intelligence major, which, she said, is among the best in the region. An outfielder by trade, Pietropaolo did have conversations with Baker and even worked out for her, but Baker informed her there was nothing available for her at the time.

So she offered the next best thing: the role of team manager. Pietropaolo kept stats, kept the score book and did just about anything else that was needed.

“It’s a selfless position to be a manager,” Baker said, “to be there day in and day out and know that you’re never going to put a uniform on. She was there with a great attitude, and the team saw that.

“She did everything we asked and more.”

Occasionally, Pietropaolo would get a chance to toss the ball around with the players or take a few swings, but that was the extent of her hands-on college softball experience. Once she was offered a spot on the roster, she knew she would have to hit the ground running.

Away from competitive softball for a year, Pietropaolo joined the Pittsburgh Riot travel team — she said she knew no one on the team — to knock off the rust. She recovered her touch at the plate and in the outfield relatively quickly, she said, but playing the collegiate game would be a different animal.

She confessed she had some anxiety when she returned to campus to begin practicing with her close friends who now were her bona fide teammates.

“I felt like they were going to judge me even though they were my friends,” Pietropaolo said. “They had never seen me play softball before. But they were so welcoming. They helped me with all the plays. … My teammates were so helpful to me and made me feel so welcome as a player.”

She formed a particular bond with senior outfielder Madison Fry, who taught Pietropaolo about “slap” hitting. It was a skill she hadn’t put to use at any point in her high school and travel ball experiences, but Baker thought it was a perfect way to use the left-handed-hitting Pietropaolo.

“When she became a slapper, that really changed her game,” Baker said. “It helped her find the holes in the field.”

Said Pietropaolo: “I played softball for the longest time, and no one ever taught me how to slap. I think slapping was probably the best decision. Right now, I’m in the lineup to move runners, score runners, put the ball in play. Sometimes I have to realize that’s the role of a slapper, and I never understood that until I started doing it.”

If there were any early jitters, Pietropaolo got them out of the way quickly during the team’s trip to Arizona. She was penciled in as the designated player in the Lakers’ season-opening game against Franklin Pierce and singled in her fourth at-bat, which was part of a three-run rally that enabled Mercyhurst to tie the score 7-7 in the top of the seventh.

Her hit moved Kacie Irwin, who had singled, to third, and Irwin scored the tying run on a single by Anna O’Geen. Pietropaolo also stole second but was stranded as the rally was halted, and Franklin Pierce went on to win 8-7.

A few games later, she was on base four times in five plate appearances and drove in three runs in a 10-0 win over West Liberty.

If learning a new hitting technique wasn’t enough, she also learned a new outfield position. After playing center and left field in high school and travel ball, she now is playing right field.

But Pietropaolo has found her comfort zone at the collegiate level, and she is just scratching the surface of what she might be able to accomplish.

“Her work ethic is going to determine that,” Baker said. “Whatever she puts into it, she’s going to get out of it.”

Pietropaolo said she plans to crank up her softball training over the summer in anticipation of bigger things, far bigger than she dreamed of just a year ago.

“Whenever (Baker) announced I had a spot, I just wanted to have fun, be around my friends in a good environment,” she said. “… It just felt good to be part of the team and make some good friends. Then, once I started contributing and really making a difference out on the field, I was like, ‘I need to put some work in.’

“It’s all finally paying off. It feels so great now.”