Mersch a hit machine for Downers South

Marissa Mersch steps into the batter’s box and appears so in control, so cool.

The secret is, she is anything but.

“To be honest I’m probably the most nervous girl there is,” said the Downers Grove South senior. “Before games I’m shaking.”

Opponents might not see Mersch sweat, but Mustangs coach Ron Havelka knows well the psychology behind his talented, thoughtful star.

“She doesn’t want to disappoint anybody — she doesn’t realize that she could never ever disappoint anybody,” said Havelka, sounding like part-coach, part-grandpa.

Mersch never let down coach and teammates and put up amazing offensive numbers in four years.

This season the Wisconsin-bound Mersch led DuPage County in hitting with a .575 average and runs scored with 53, both school records, and was among the top five in the area in homers , doubles and RBI.

In a program steeped with elite hitters, Mersch rewrote the Downers Grove South record book. She set new records in season on-base percentage , career average, career runs, hits in a season, career doubles and career hits.

It is that last record that received the most attention this spring.

Mersch fell 2 hits shy of the state record 252, going 0-fer for just the 16th time in 136 career games in the sectional final versus Benet.

How she handled disappointment says as much about Mersch as any numbers.

“Records are meant to be broken, and there are so many good young players coming up — who’s to say my record wouldn’t be broken,” Mersch said. “There’s only so much you can do.”

Mersch’s amazing offensive numbers, and the thoughtful person behind the player, make Marissa Mersch the 2011 Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area softball captain.

‘She’s a game-changer’

Benet, the foil to the pursuit of Mersch’s hit record, actually shut out Mersch and Downers Grove South twice this season. Mersch had 2 hits in the first game but didn’t score in either — no coincidence Benet won both times.

“She’s a game-changer,” Benet coach Jerry Schilf said. “You have to plan the whole game around her. If you don’t stop her you’re not going to win.”

Mersch is the unique leadoff hitter who can equally beat teams with her speed, or can drive the ball. Schilf’s Benet team has a clone of that type in Maeve McGuire.

“You just don’t throw the ball by her,” Schilf said of Mersch. “The kid never loses focus. She doesn’t waste an at-bat, and she’s been like that since she was a freshman.”

“She has a good eye, a good talent for the game and is very unselfish,” Havelka said. “She was going for the hit record, and the other day she took a pitch just off the corner that probably a lot of people would be swinging at. She just wants to get on base — she always felt that was her job.”

The making of a hitter

Mersch could aptly be called a “hitting machine.” Her swing, though, was born from good bloodlines and good old-fashioned hard work.

Marissa’s dad, Jeff, played baseball at Morton East High School and continued at Elmhurst College before an off-the-field injury cut short his career. Dan Mersch, Marissa’s older brother by four years, starred at linebacker and fullback for Downers Grove South football playoff teams and played baseball until junior year.

Marissa started softball as an 8-year-old with the Oak Park Windmills, then joined the Darien Diamonds after her family moved. She dabbled in basketball and enjoyed cheerleading. Only softball stuck.

Mersch’s skills took off when she joined the Chi-Town Express travel team in the seventh grade. Mersch gave kudos to coach Kelley McClure for developing her fundamentals through constant drill work and conditioning.

“He taught me everything I knew,” Mersch said.

Mersch’s work didn’t stop there. She does exhaustive work hitting off a tee, hits in her back yard or at a field, goes to the cages during the winter. The “ping” sound of aluminum meeting ball is a familiar soundtrack to the Mersch’s neighbors. Weight training at Downers Grove South starts in earnest once a week in October.

“People don’t realize it’s a year-round sport for these girls. They’re either playing or they’re working out,” Jeff Mersch said. “She’s just a very hard worker.”

A humble talent

Anyone could forgive Willowbrook coach Rachel Karos for disliking a player like Mersch. The last two years Mersch and the Mustangs routinely beat up on Karos’ young, rebuilding Warriors teams.

Count Karos, though, as a huge fan of Mersch.

“For some reason I find myself always rooting for her,” Karos said in an email. “Any person that plays with that much passion and that much desire earns your respect.”

Even after she got her college scholarship, even to the last week of practice, Mersch never stopped running all-out on outfield drills. Havelka can’t think of one time Mersch “went through the motions.”

That hunger to better herself transferred to the classroom, where Mersch made honor roll at Downers Grove South every semester.

Never a showboat, never flamboyant — she just got her work in.

“What I like most about her is she’s just not cocky at all,” said Naperville Central pitcher Alyssa Wunderlich, also a teammate on the Beverly Bandits. “She’s probably the nicest girl you’ll ever play against. You never hear her talk about what she has done. She just gets it done.”