For some student-athletes the summer months are the only time of the year to sit back and relax without the typical busy slate of homework and classes piled on top of games and practices. But for others, such as Memphis Softball junior infielder Cierra Mangum, summer represents an opportunity to work even harder in preparation of the upcoming season.
Mangum spent her summer out on the East Coast, playing in the Beach League — a softball summer league designed for college athletes who want to continue to improve their game throughout the summer. In her sophomore season at the U of M Mangum started a team-high 55 games, but finished the year with a batting average of just .230.
“When I had my end of the year meeting with coach Poole, (assistant coach Roya St. Claire) and (associate head coach Andy Lott) we really talked about my hitting and how it needed to be a lot better,” Mangum said. “I really focused on more of my mechanics than anything. When I went over there to play I really focused on seeing the ball differently, seeing the spin on the ball, feeling how differently my swing is every at bat and focused more on the little things.”
The extra work in the off-season has paid off in a big way, with Mangum batting .298 in 31 games this season. She’s also batted in 17 runs this year, already five more than in her entire 2014 campaign.
Unlike baseball where summer leagues are more common, most collegiate softball players don’t get the experience over the summer that Mangum did.
Sophomore outfielder Hannah Harrell was the only other Memphis player to participate in the summer league, and according to Tigers head coach Natalie Poole she and Mangum were the first two players in the history of the program to play in an organized summer league against other college athletes.
A major barrier to entry to softball collegiate summer leagues is that they come at a cost to the student-athletes themselves.
“In this league that they put together they tried to do like a year ago and they couldn’t find enough people to make it work, because they have to pay to do it,” Poole said. “It’s not something where somebody’s saying ‘Hey, come out and play and we’ll pay for everything.’ They kind of have to make that investment, and ultimately I think the return was really good (for Mangum).”
The summer league experience was key in helping Mangum work on her swing, but her experience from her first two years with the Tigers was also instrumental in her successful 2015 season. Mangum was a regular starter both seasons — starting 51 games her freshman year and 55 as a sophomore — and all of that experience has helped her improve mentally as well as physically.
“What I’ve learned is that you’re going to have bad games,” Mangum said. “I learned how to set that aside. In my other two years I kind of dwelled on it a little bit more. I think this year that if I went (hitless) one game, the next game I would come back and step it up a little bit more. Trying to adjust faster was the biggest thing I needed to do, and I’ve learned how to do it.”
Even with Mangum’s tremendous improvement this season, she still acknowledges that she has room to get even better as the Tigers start to get deeper into American Athletic Conference play.
“That’s one thing that I really focus on, is trying to better myself every single day,” Mangum said. “I think in that aspect it would be fielding-wise right now. I have three errors so far I believe, and I think that if I can just focus more on my fielding it’ll be better, and hitting I need to just keep doing what I’m doing, keep adjusting, finding things that are working for me and keeping it that way.”
Memphis is about halfway through the 2015 season, and with Mangum continuing to work to get better every day throughout the season and the summer coach Poole and the Tigers will be hoping that she can finish the year strong and come back even better in her senior campaign.
Memphis Tigers softball infielder Cierra Mangum has increased her batting average in each of her three seasons as a Lady Tiger. She also has two home runs this season, tied for most on the team. Photo by Joe Murphy
