Mt. Pleasant grad Haylie Brunson wastes no time making impact for Pitt softball

Pitt softball coach Jodi Hermanek wants freshman Haylie Brunson to sing the national anthem before one of the team’s games this season.

“I’ve yet to see this hidden talent that I’ve heard is pretty awesome,” Hermanek said.

For now, though, the coach is more than happy to watch Brunson’s more obvious talents, such as hitting a ball with tremendous force and consistency.

Brunson, a Mt. Pleasant graduate and the 2021 Westmoreland Tribune-Review Player of the Year, has started all nine games for the Panthers and leads the team with a .333 batting average to go with three RBIs and four doubles heading into Friday’s games.

“I didn’t expect to come out as hot as I did, so that was really cool,” said Brunson, who was named to the all-tournament team at the season-opening Northern Lights Invitational.

Brunson, who starts at designated hitter, batted cleanup in Pitt’s opener and since has moved up to third in the order. She earned a lineup spot after a strong showing during the Panthers’ fall schedule, when she homered in her first collegiate at-bat against Seton Hill.

“She was a kid that came in with all the tools and the talent already, and it was just a matter of getting her up to game speed at this level,” Hermanek said. “And she’s responded really well. We knew right away she was going to be an impact to our lineup in a great way.”

As a senior at Mt. Pleasant, Brunson led the Vikings to the state title by hitting .560 with six homers and 41 RBIs. Hermanek first saw Brunson after her sophomore year while playing for her travel team in a tournament at Tennessee-Chattanooga. The same offensive instincts that stood out then have carried over.

“She’s got a great swing path,” Hermanek said. “She covers the zone so well. She’s really good with the trigger and the timing of her swing.

“She has fast hands. You can’t burn Haylie on the inside corner. Trust me, I called a lot of pitches in a lot of scrimmages against her, and I’m like ‘What is the way to get her out?’ It was nice to get her out of the scrimmages and off of my pitchers’ backs and onto (their side).”

Brunson’s mental approach also has played a major part in her immediate success.

“She thinks along the lines of a coach’s mind with strategy,” Hermanek said.

There’s a reason for that. Her dad, Chris, played collegiately at Cal (Pa.), coached there and went on to coach Haylie at Mt. Pleasant.

“I was pretty much straight out of the womb watching videos with a bat in my hand throwing a ball,” Haylie said. “I remember when I was young, my dad would sit me on his lap and would watch recruiting videos (for Cal) of kids hitting. He would ask me what can this kid do better with his swing. … It helps to have more of a knowledge of the game when you have a coach as a dad.”

Hermanek said that knowledge has rubbed off on teammates, too.

“I know a lot of veterans love working with her in the cages in the offensive aspect of the game because she is so driven and purposeful in what she’s doing,” Hermanek said. “It’s a contagious good. It’s awesome to have a young person make such an impact on our program. It’s been great.

“She’s thinking the game as much as I’m thinking the game sometimes, and that’s kind of scary.”