Maddi Brown is the imperfect perfectionist and the “Momma” of Mt. Vernon’s state championship softball team.
Someone has to oversee a group of teenage girls on those road trips and, most often, the duties fall on Brown.
“In our hotel room, I’m always cleaning everything up and picking up everybody’s stuff and organizing it all,” she said. “I’ll make sure everything’s good on the bus, or all of our bats and helmets are organized in the dugout. They always give me a hard time because I’m the Mom of the team. Sometimes, I don’t let them have enough fun or whatever.”
VOTE FOR BROWN IN THE 1 AWARDS
It’s a role fitting for a team captain like Brown.
In leading Mt. Vernon to a spring softball state championship, she hit .396 (1.069 OPS) with 7 doubles, 4 triples, 3 home runs, 28 RBIs, 46 runs and 24 steals from the leadoff spot. Also the team’s starting pitcher, she threw 151 innings, amassing a 19-7 overall record with a 1.34 ERA and 112 strikeouts.
She was at her best – along with her Mt. Vernon teammates – during the postseason.
In the district title game against Strafford, she hit a leadoff homer to spark Mt. Vernon past an Indians team that had beaten the Mountaineers twice during the regular season.
Brown admitted she didn’t exactly feel calm before the game, either.
“Strafford was like, holy cow, one of the biggest games of my career,” said Brown, who will play for Crowder College in Neosho next school year. “I was so nervous, I can’t even tell you. I could barely talk on the bus; I kind of felt sick to my stomach at school. I was like, ‘I don’t want our season to end. It’s way too early.’ I knew that we could go all the way if we could beat them, and I knew we could beat them just from playing them so well the last time.”
From there, Mt. Vernon prevailed in a back-and-forth sectional battle with Purdy, a team that had won two of three matchups against the Mountaineers during the regular season.
Three more wins – all shutouts – brought a state championship to a program that didn’t exist five years ago.
Brown recalled the push for a softball program when she was in junior high.
If there wasn’t a school team, the plan was to run track in the spring and play on a competitive travel softball team in the summer and fall.
“They would bring polls to the middle school and have us fill them out. They were basically, ‘What sport would you play in which season?’” Brown said. “They wanted numbers. They wanted to have a large team and for people to play and participate. A lot of my friends and people I knew were going to play, so I really knew that there was a good chance we would get one.”
Postseason push
Looking back, mid-April could be considered the low point of Mt. Vernon’s championship season.
On April 12, errors caused the Mountaineers to blow a comfortable lead and lose 10-7 at Sarcoxie.
The next night, Mt. Vernon lost 7-1 to Strafford in a makeup game from the Marionville Invitational finals, a contest that included third baseman Kaitlyn Foulk taking a foul ball off her knee – while in the on-deck circle. She missed multiple games due to the freak injury.
The next afternoon, on April 14, Mt. Vernon was easily defeated 8-1 at home by Purdy.
Injuries had taken their toll on Mt. Vernon, which fell to 12-5 overall after the three straight losses.
In the past, Brown said the losses may have gotten the best of her. Now a senior, she tried to remain calm and remember that Mt. Vernon had the talent to compete if it could stay healthy.
“This year, we would lose, but I didn’t have that same angry reaction because I knew it was making us better. It was good that we got to play that competition because it made us better and prepared us,” she said.
Mt. Vernon healed up and finally hit its stride. The Mountaineers played Strafford and Crest Ridge to close losses late in the regular season, giving them confidence for the playoffs.
After getting by Strafford and Purdy, Mt. Vernon didn’t allow a run in its final three games. The Mountaineers blanked Stockton (10-0), Malden (4-0) and Crest Ridge (7-0) to win a state championship and earn a permanent spot on the school’s Wall of Champions.
CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL 1 AWARDS NOMINEES
And yes, for the record, the state championship trophy is a lot bigger than the 4th-place trophy Mt. Vernon claimed when it went to state two years ago.
Brown saw the difference first-hand at Mt. Vernon’s recent team banquet.
“I thought all the state trophies were the same size and they just had different plaques for first and second place,” she said. “The size difference between our fourth-place one and first-place one is so much bigger. I was like, ‘Holy cow, we did it.’”
Organization is key
If you know Brown very well, you know she values structure. For most things.
“I’m like a perfectionist in every little thing I do,” Brown said. “I like to organize things and have things all perfect in their place.”
For school, every binder for each class must be organized into a specific section. Homework and class notes must never be mixed.
In the circle, she has her simple but regular pregame routine of kicking the dirt, throwing warm-up pitches and adjusting the brim on her visor in a certain order.
Brown doesn’t necessarily have a case of O.C.D., because, as her mom would suggest…
“I say (I’m O.C.D), but then my mom will say, ‘Well, your room’s never clean. I don’t get how you can say you’re a perfectionist when your room’s never clean,’” Brown said. “It’s not like it’s crazy."
Brown’s emphasis on consistency and structure has her eyeing a career in accounting or finance, as long as the math part of those fields doesn’t become too overbearing.
“I like math, but I don’t like that high (level) stuff that goes way over my head,” Brown said. “I can add and subtract, but I really like the organization.”
Brown’s spending her summer as a lifeguard at the city pool while giving pitching lessons on the side. One day, Brown hopes to have her own softball team to coach – and organize.
“I really hope to someday have my own travel team with little girls, and be able to move up with them and be their coach,” Brown said. “I’d love to have a group of girls that I could coach from a young age all the way through their careers.”
