By Andy Walter

MILFORD — Macey Myers was only a kid at the time.

Her grandparents used to take her out to watch the men’s slow-pitch softball league in Milford.

There was something about the games that the 11-year-old loved.

“Honestly, I just liked watching how far they could hit it,” said Myers. “It was really cool because they could hit that ball so hard. ... It just looked like a lot of fun.”

Now a 19-year-old third baseman for the Delaware Tech softball team, Myers can hit the ball pretty hard herself.

Myers’ offensive stats are a big reason the Milford High grad was named both the NJCAA Region 19 Player of the Year as well as a third-team NJCAA All-American this spring. She is the first DelTech player to earn All-America honors in a decade.

Of course, her biggest accomplishment was that DelTech won the Region 19 title and reached the NJCAA Division II national tournament for the second straight season.

After making a name for herself as a freshman, Myers faced much tougher pitching this season.

“We had had a long talk through the winter,” said DelTech coach Guy Wilkins. “I said, ‘You’re not going to get that pitch down the middle or on the inside half this year.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to learn to hit the ball the other way.’

“She bought into it about a quarter of the way through the season. You could just tell she was really working at it.”

Among Myers’ best stats from this past season were a .460 batting average, 59 RBI, 14 doubles, four triples and six home runs. She had a .514 on-base percentage.

Like most other student-athletes in her age group, Myers had to deal with a big interruption to her playing career. A first-team All-Henlopen Conference player as a junior at Milford, Myers had her senior season wiped out by the COVID pandemic in 2020.

The suddenness of everything that happened is what Myers recalls.

“It was crazy,” she said. “I remember going to (preseason) practice that whole week. That weekend we had a scrimmage and it got canceled. After that, we just never went back. It was kind of upsetting because I was looking forward to it.

“I didn’t even know what to think because it kind of hit us out of nowhere. Nobody thought it would last as long as it did.”

Myers, though, had already planned to play in college at DelTech. By the spring of 2021, she was back putting up big offensive stats.

A left-handed hitter, Myers admits she feels a certain amount of responsibility to come through for her squad.

“I had to remember, I can’t get a hit every single time,” she said. “It was a little bit frustrating.

“I don’t necessarily put pressure on myself but I know that my teammates count on me. So when I can’t produce sometimes, it does frustrate me. But I always shake it off.”

As this season went along, Myers said she adjusted to the tougher pitching she was seeing.

“I had to be selective and really go with the outside pitch more,” she said. “It worked out.”

Making it back to the junior college nationals in Alabama was a big deal for DelTech’s players. The year before, they felt like nobody knew who they were.
Getting there again helped earn DelTech some more respect.

“We went last year and nobody really knew who we were and how we could play,” said Myers. “Nobody really expected us to do anything. This year, people kind of knew who we were. It was really exciting. We competed really well.”

Myers and some of her teammates will actually get the chance to make a third-straight trip to nationals.

DelTech is a two-year school. But, because the NCAA granted athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, Myers will play again at DelTech next spring.

“She’s a good kid and I’m glad to have her back,” said Wilkins. “When she walks on the field, it’s all business.

“She’s a down-to-earth kid. She goes out and she plays for her team.”

Myers will also have the opportunity to go to a four-year school and play in the spring of 2024. At some point, though, her college career will end.

A legal studies major, Myers can’t imagine not playing softball. She figures there’s some adult slow-pitch games in her future.

“Going from playing every spring and every summer ... I really don’t know what it’s going to be like,” she said. “I’m kind of nervous for it because I have no idea what I’m going to do with my time.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 302-741-8227 or walter@iniusa.org.

Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.