If a batter hits a ball anywhere near centerfield against Alabama, there isn’t much of a chance the ball gets by Haylie McCleney. Catching her out of position might be realistic, but it won’t guarantee a hit. Most of the time she has the speed to get to the ball anyway.
She uses every part of the field, including the wall. More than one hole in the padding belongs to McCleney’s cleats when she climbs a wall going after what would be a home run against another centerfielder.
There aren’t many ways to get a ball past her.
“Probably go over. Seriously. Just for 100 percent sake, it needs to go over. If it’s anywhere close, she’s probably going to catch it,” Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy said.
There are few centerfielders with the range of Alabama’s.
McCleney’s ability to make a play off the wall or dive to make a catch has put her on ESPN’s SportsCenter multiple times. On any given day, the junior can scale the wall to rob a home run or lay out to snag a ball.
“She has wings in the outfield,” Alabama associate head coach Alyson Habetz said. “She flies. When she dives, you know, there are most kids, they dive especially in the outfield, and they’ll go to their knees, and most diving catches you’ll see they’re on the ground, but with Haylie, I mean, she literally gets airtime and is parallel with the ground. I mean, I think she has wings.”
Her wings in the outfield and her faith have earned her the nickname ‘Halo,’ but her bat makes her a devil for pitchers to face.
As a freshman, she spent a good part of the year hitting second in the lineup behind then-senior All-American Kayla Braud, who broke the career batting average record at Alabama long held by Kelly Kretschman.
McCleney currently owns it with a .462 career average. Braud finished hitting .438 in her four years.
Her freshman year, the centerfielder drove in 41 runs and had 14 doubles, four triples and four home runs on her way to hitting .465.
As a sophomore, she hit 12 doubles, four triples and 10 home runs. She also had 42 RBI in 65 games played. She wasn’t immune to the sophomore slump and only hit .444.
“I know, right? Who slumps like that?” Habetz said, laughing. “But no, she’s a perfectionist. In every thing she does, she’s a perfectionist. And often times that’s tough when you’re playing the game of failure called hitting, but again, she handles it well. But she’s constantly working on her game to get better because she is a perfectionist.”
McCleney has played more than 150 games at Alabama. In 468 career at-bats, she has struck out 26 times. She has been walked 102 times.
She is hitting .494 with nine doubles and three triples. She’s been caught stealing once this year and only five times in her career.
“Offensively, she’s, I think this year her power numbers are a little bit down, but her on-base percentage is still up there,” Murphy said. “She’s still doing a great job with walks versus strikeouts and that’s a key in the leadoff because you want that leadoff person to get a lot more walks than strikeouts so she’s been doing that. She’s been stealing bases, and I think as the season goes along — we’re about halfway through right now — you’re going to start to see her power numbers go up and I have no doubt that they will.”
MAJOR LEAGUE
In January, McCleney tried out for Team USA softball. She made the team again, having already played following her sophomore year at Alabama.
At the 2014 World Cup of Softball, she hit .353 (6-for-17). She had two RBI and scored seven runs. At the ISF Women’s World Championship, she had a triple, two doubles, five RBI and scored three times on her way to hitting .370 (10-for-27).
“It’s really tough for me to delineate the differences in offense, defense and pitching and the whole deal in respect to numbers and subjectiveness, but she’s a ballplayer, and whether the statistics, which remember, there’s lies, lies and statistics, but the bottom line is she’s a ballplayer and when she goes out to play, it doesn’t really matter at least for an offense or defense, she’s going to give you everything she’s got, and she’s special that way,” U.S. women’s national team head coach Ken Eriksen said. “She fits in with all those young ladies that are on the national team. They’re the same way so they’re all cut from the same cloth. They’ve all had the same type of upbringings so they’re very, very lucky.”
McCleney hit nearly an entire .100 lower than she did at Alabama in 2014. Eriksen said college ball is like the minor leagues. When collegiate players like McCleney, Florida’s Kelsey Stewart or Michigan’s Sierra Romero play at the national level, they face people who have 10-12 years of experience, he said.
“Watching them playing at college is just watching somebody that’s way above talent-wise than 99 percent of players that play in college,” Eriksen said. “That’s Haylie, and that’s Sierra. So it’s an interesting situation when you start getting all those great players together. It’s like right now they’re in Triple A, Double A or the minor leagues in college but when they all get to the New York Yankees, you know, they all [get] pretty good together so that’s a fun system to watch them play in.”
McCleney agreed playing at the national level is like jumping from the minors to the majors. She said she wants to absorb as much information as she can while playing for Team USA.
“I think that’s more than true because you come, every college pitcher that you face is good, every single one, but every international pitcher you face is going to be great so it’s definitely difficult,” McCleney said. “It’s a difficult adjustment to go from here to there, but I feel like the more experience that I gain as a player the better it’s going to be.”
It isn’t often that fans get to see members of the national team play against each other in college. Last weekend with Florida and Stewart coming into town wasn’t the first time this year. Alabama opened the season against Michigan, whose shortstop, Romero, hit .491 as a sophomore.
“I definitely don’t want to play against her, I’ll tell you that much,” McCleney said. “I can’t stand playing against her. She’s good. Gosh, she’s good. I’m thankful she’s on my team this summer ‘cause man, playing against her is probably one of the most difficult things that I’ve ever had to do as an outfielder because she can tattoo it.”
As much respect as McCleney has for Romero as a hitter, Romero has for McCleney as a fielder.
“It was fun, but at the same time it was a little scary,” Romero said. “I mean, I know what she’s capable of and how good of a player she is.”
The advice going around Michigan’s dugout: if someone hits the ball out of the infield, it can’t be to centerfield.
“Because just like she was going to catch everything, like there’s no way she’s going to let something fall,” Romero said.
GIVING IT HER ALL
On the field, McCleney is one of the most respected outfielders in the country. Off the field, she’s top of the class.
In addition to being an NFCA All-American, she is a Capital One Academic All-American.
So far, she’s never made a B.
“Knock on wood, wherever that is,” McCleney said. “Knock on wood. I have never made a B. No. Academics is something that I’ve always really prided myself on because you know, it’s not, you can’t really make a career out of softball, just playing.”
She credits her parents for her attitude. She said they told her since she has the ability to make A’s, there isn’t an excuse why she shouldn’t. She knows they wouldn’t be disappointed with a B or C as long as she gave it her all.
“I take a lot of pride in making good grades just because I feel such a desire to learn,” McCleney said. “Whether that’s softball or the classroom, I just have this something inside me. I just want to learn so much as much as I can. I want to soak everything up. It’s more of a competitiveness that I have about myself is just I don’t want anyone to be better than me on the field, and I definitely don’t want anyone to be better than me in the classroom so I just kind of carry that wherever I go, and if I make a B, I’d be sad for probably some time. I’d be very disappointed in myself so hopefully that doesn’t happen.”
She shares her exercise science major with fellow Alabama outfielder and junior Andrea Hawkins. The two have had classes together most semesters, but this semester they don’t.
Usually that means studying together. Even though they aren’t in the same classes, Hawkins said she still can ask for help.
“I mean she’s always good to go up and ask questions because I guess she’s kind of used to softball so she simplifies everything,” Hawkins said.
Out of the classroom, help translates into picking each other up during practice, workouts and games. In batting practice, that might be making each other laugh after messing up.
In the weight room, McCleney takes on a different personality.
“We call her the Scott Cochran on our team ‘cause she runs around and screams like him and jumps up and down, just acts a fool, and all [strength and conditioning coach] Michelle [Diltz] can do is just laugh and shake her head, so she’s definitely a spark plug,” Hawkins said.
McCleney is her teammates’ biggest cheerleader, Habetz said.
“That’s the fun part,” ahw said. “When they see Haylie do something, they’re like, ‘Man, I want to do that,’ so it’s challenging and it pushes them because if Haylie wasn’t around to do that then they would never be challenged to do it. So when she makes a diving catch or scales the wall to rob a home run, then the rest of them are challenged to do it.”
For her part, McCleney said having coaches like Murphy and Habetz and teammates like the ones she has make her not only want to be a better player but a better person.
“I’ve always been told that you’re a product of the people you surround yourself with and that couldn’t be more true for where I’m at and I feel really privileged to be in the position that I’m in,” McCleney said. “And I feel as if, you know if my teammates are successful, I feel like I play a part in that, and I feel like when I’m successful, they for sure play a part in it.”
WINGS AND A HALO
It’s a truism that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work. This is why McCleney rarely gets beat.
“It’s very rare that the best athlete, the most talented kid is also your hardest worker, and that’s been the case with her since her freshman year,” Habetz said. “Often times you have a great athlete, she’s just talented and has never really had to develop that great work ethic ‘cause she’s naturally gifted. With Haylie, that’s not the case.”
McCleney came in to Alabama having won three state titles at Mortimer Jordan High School in Kimberly, Alabama. She set her high school’s record for batting average after hitting .692 as a senior.
She came in to replace All-American Jennifer Fenton who, along with winning the 2012 national championship, broke the NCAA record for consecutive stolen bases without getting caught (74).
There’s a saying at Alabama softball: Tradition never graduates.
In the outfield, that’s certainly been the case.
“We can go all the way back to Kelly Kretschman and we’ve had some hellacious centerfielders; Jackie Wilkins and Brittany Rogers and Jennifer Fenton and I mean, just so many good kids out there and now it’s Haylie’s turn,” Murphy said. “And I almost feel bad for the next one because you know, big shoes to fill for sure.”
McCleney has made six errors in 152 games played at Alabama. Balls hit near centerfield rarely get by her, and she rarely misplays them.
“She has absolutely no fear,” Murphy said. “She gets the best reads of probably anybody we’ve ever had. I mean, right off the bat, she knows exactly where she needs to go. I think it’s probably months and months and years and years of practicing in the backyard with her dad and her brothers of just reading a ball off a bat and just getting that perfect jump, and she’s been doing that since her freshman year, and it’s just an instinct that you cannot teach everybody. She just has it.”
In terms of instincts, McCleney is one of the best to play at Alabama. Habetz knows because she’s worked with them all. She’s coached at Alabama for 17 years, working with the outfield and hitting.
“I’d say strictly in the sense of outfield play, she’s the best because she’s a pure outfielder,” Habetz said. “I mean, there’s nobody else who’s ever gotten jumps on the ball like she gets and she has the best instincts of any outfielder that’s ever played, I think any outfielder in the country that’s ever played. She has great instincts and she’s a tremendous outfielder. She has great outfield skills.”
McCleney has a habit of making difficult plays look routine. Some of her best catches don’t make the highlight reels.
Murphy said what he thinks is her best catch happened against McNeese State on Feb. 8. He said she was playing in right-center field when the ball was hit in the gap in left-center. The first thing he said was she was in the wrong position.
“She comes probably 30 yards at least, dives head first,” Murphy said. “I still think it’s going to drop. And she comes sliding in and at the last second, the ball just falls into her glove and the glove is literally on the ground, and she just got it underneath, and to me it was her best catch because number one, she had the farthest to run. It was a full dive, out of position, and it was unbelievable.”
These kind of catches are why Habetz says she has wings in the outfield. It isn’t like in the movie “Angels in the Outfield.” No one has to do any arm flapping to signal an angel on the field.
“No, but they’re there,” Habetz said. “They’re there because she flies.”
Part of her ability to fly comes from how much she practices. Playing in the outfield is her happy place. She said she could sit out there and catch balls all day or run from foul pole to foul pole, catching as many balls as she can and robbing home runs.
But even she won’t take full credit for some of her catches.
“There are definitely some angels in the outfield, I can tell you that,” McCleney said. “From all those catches. There’s definitely some angels in the outfield ‘cause most the time, out there diving around it’s — I don’t really know if I can get to it, it’s just an effort play, you know, and then somehow it just ends up happening and it’s definitely not me. It’s definitely not on me, teammates yelling at me, screaming at me where the wall is and there’s definitely a higher power roaming around out there somewhere, I promise you, because those catches, they definitely aren’t all me. I promise.”
