She said her thumb injury hasn’t held her back.

But for some reason Cassie Morales hasn’t swung as well at the plate as she used to. Last year the designated player batted .318 at the plate, tying SU’s school record with 55 hits. This year, the junior’s average has dropped to .261. It’s not that she’s batting poorly. It’s just that Morales set the bar so high her sophomore season.

Morales has a chance to improve those numbers when the Syracuse softball team travels to St. John’s and Seton Hall for a pair of doubleheaders this weekend. Continuing its Big East schedule, the Orange visits the Red Storm at noon on Saturday. And at noon on Sunday, Syracuse takes on Seton Hall, which leads the Big East (15-8).

It doesn’t take number crunching to notice Morales isn’t having the season she expected. And for someone who bats third in the lineup at the designated player position, that’s a problem.

‘It’s not like it’s just a mechanical thing or it’s just a mental thing,’ Morales said. ‘It’s really hard to figure out right now. I think it’s just both. And if it’s not one, it’s the other.’

Morales said her batting woes aren’t linked to her thumb injury, either. During practice in September, Morales ran down the second base path during a sliding drill. Morales dragged her right hand behind her while she dove, sliding it along the dirt.

Soon enough, Morales underwent surgery on her thumb and wore a cast. She was able to make mild movements without a cast by December. Semester break lasts five weeks, so Morales figured she could use that time to rehabilitate her thumb.

One rehabilitation exercise entailed putting her hand in a rice bucket. She moved her thumb under the weight of the rice, which increased circulation and range of motion. She also held a light bat, the first time since October, and swung lightly. After that, Morales visited the batting cages.

Upon Morales’ return to SU in January, the softball team cleared her to play. She couldn’t hit pitched balls, though, and instead used the tee. Morales’ thumb can move, but it isn’t fully recovered. During Thursday’s practice, Morales demonstrated her inability to completely bend her thumb and extend it to her pinkie finger. But she said that hasn’t affected her grip on the bat.

‘It takes almost a whole year before you’re actually healed from any surgery, no matter what it is,’ said softball trainer Theresa Weber. ‘There’s not really anything you can do to completely heal. There are things you can do to get them better. But it still takes your body that time no matter what we do.’

If her hitting trouble isn’t attributed to her injury, mentality, or mechanics, then what is? Morales thinks she’s just in a slump and the only way to get out of it is to keep going to plate.

SU softball head coach Mary Jo Firnbach doesn’t think Morales lacks proper hitting mechanics, either, but thinks she has batted inconsistently. Firnbach said Morales is impatient at the plate and swings at poor pitches. She has struck out 15 times this year. Last year she struck out only 16 times.

‘She’s stubborn about what we try to teach her sometimes,’ Firnbach said. ‘Later on, she’ll figure out that some of it pays off.’

Morales’ father, Casey, presently coaches baseball at La Serna High School in Whittier, Calif., and coached Cassie during her high school years at St. Paul High School in Whittier. He remembers when she honed her batting using buckets of balls at the batting cage. And at SU, she plans to do the same thing.

‘One of the best things about her is she has the chummy attitude to show someone,’ Casey Morales said. ‘As soon as someone says she can’t do something, the light goes on and then she shows them.’

Published on April 6, 2005 at 12:00 pm