For as long as she can remember, Hannah Dossett has always been quiet. So when the senior catcher and infielder walked into head coach Shannon Doepking’s office in mid-February, Doepking’s ears perked up.

“Coach,” Doepking remembered Dossett began to say.

For the first two weeks of the season, Dossett played sparingly, coming off the bench in three games and not playing altogether in three more.

“I’m willing to play any position this team needs,” Dossett told Doepking. “If it needs me to go behind the plate, I’ll go behind the plate. I just want to compete and have a chance.”

“It threw me back,” Doepking said about the exchange later.

Doepking gave Dossett the chance she was looking for, and the senior has seized it by becoming one of the Orange’s (9-16, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) most aggressive and consistent hitters. Shortly after earning a regular spot in the lineup — primarily at third base — Dossett went on a seven-game hitting streak and now has the highest batting average (.315) on the team.

“I think personally,” Dossett said, “I’m just feeling very comfortable at the plate, and I’m just seeing the ball really well, which I think helps more than anything.”

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To get comfortable at the plate, Dossett made small mechanical adjustments, she said. After hitting .173 last year, she moved her hand placement slightly on the bat and shifted her weight back before the pitcher delivers.

Throughout the season, Doepking has been impressed with Dossett’s aggressive approach and said many of her teammates can learn from it. Doepking calls Dossett a “free swinger” — She often swings early in the count, fouling off tough pitches and taking balls off the plate.

Though Doepking has brought many analytical strategies to the team, she knows some batters worry about information overloads. Dossett is one of them. “I’m not thinking a lot in the box,” she said.

“Hannah doesn’t get short-changed,” Doepking said. “She’s going to hack.”

In last Sunday’s game against Louisville, with the game knotted at 2-2 and a runner on second, Dossett left the first pitch down and away, then took a big cut at a fastball but missed. With a full count, she didn’t miss the same pitch she swung past twice earlier in the at-bat and drove the fastball over the plate down the left field line, putting the Orange on top for their first conference win.

Dossett has played third, first and catcher in her career at Syracuse University. Last year, she played primarily first base, filling a position of need, she said. Dossett calls first base the most difficult of the three — picking off-target throws and defending slap-hitters, lefty hitters who start a run to first base before their swing, give Dossett trouble.

“There’s so much responsibility you don’t think of,” Dossett said of playing first base, “and I feel like at lower levels, you’d kind of hide someone there if they weren’t that great in the field. But I think at this level, to play it well is very hard.”

This year, with sophomore transfer Alex Acevedo at first base, Dossett returned to her more comfortable position on the opposite corner of the diamond, third base.

Still, Dossett makes her biggest impact from in the batter’s box. Her .315 batting average is the best on the team, and her nine runs batted in are the fourth most on Syracuse, despite having roughly 20 fewer plate appearances than several of her teammates.

After Dossett hit the go-ahead double in the eighth inning against Louisville, Toni Martin’s single scored her. As Dossett rounded third base and headed to home, she remained stoic, like when she entered Doepking’s office in mid-February to ask for an expanded role. As Dossett crossed home, she didn’t hoot or pump her fist, instead offering Acevedo, who was waiting for her, a soft high-five.

“Hannah’s kind of come out of nowhere, to be honest,” Doepking said.

Published on March 18, 2019 at 11:31 pm

Contact Danny: dremerma@syr.edu | @DannyEmerman