By Donald Heath

Special for the Effingham Herald

Time flies by for former South Effingham softball standout Alex Brown.

Her collegiate playing days have raced around the bases like a runner sprinting for an inside-the-parker. After finishing her junior year at Clemson University, she’s rounding third, eyeing the plate.

“I feel like I blinked and here it’s coming to an end,” said Brown during a phone interview from Sarasota, Florida, June 23.

She’s working as hard as ever on her craft this summer in the collegiate Florida Gulf Coast League after earning second-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors for the second time in the spring.

With Brown contributing at multiple infield positions, Clemson finished with a 35-19 record, went to extra innings with eventual champion Duke in the ACC Championship semifinals and advanced to an NCAA regional.

But the Tigers were hoping for better than a good season. They lost five of seven extra-inning games during the regular season and, as a No. 2 seed in the Tuscaloosa Regional (hosted by No. 1 Alabama), they lost twice to third-seeded Southeastern Louisiana.

“I don’t think I’ve been on a team with as much talent, so we were all a little disappointed,” Brown said. “We know we could have done better.”

Brown put up solid numbers – a .328 batting average with career highs in extra-base hits (13), runs batted in (28) and runs scored (44).

But she had a lot of adjusting to do after transferring from the University of North Carolina last summer when the Tar Heels coach retired.

Brown was on a new campus, surrounded by a new rural environment. She switched majors from media and journalism at UNC to economics. She had new softball teammates and a new coach who moved her from her natural shortstop position to third base and second base.

“I didn’t mind. I would have played right field if they asked me,” Brown said. “I just wanted to play. But there was a lot to adjust to and a lot to learn.”

And some fears to overcome. She said she talked to the team doctor before the series with North Carolina.

“I thought I might have the jitters playing against my former team, but he talked me through it,” Brown said. “He said prepare like it’s just another game.”

The advice worked. She went 5-for-10 with two home runs and the Tigers swept the three-game set, 5-0, 4-1 and 9-1.

“That was probably our best weekend of the year. Everything was clicking,” she said.

The loss to Duke was a low point in the season. Clemson had two leads, including a one-run advantage in the seventh inning. The Blue Devils won it in the 10th inning when a runner scored from second on an infield single. A video replay overturned the original call at the plate.  

“I’ll always have individual goals to strive to be better, but our team goal would be to win the (ACC) tournament,” Brown said. “That’s something they’ve never done at Clemson. We were so close.”

Two weeks after the North Carolina series, Brown was reunited with former Mustang teammate Bailey Kendziorski, who came to Clemson to see her future team, Boston College.

Brown was a senior when Bailey was a freshman pitcher and the duo led SEHS to a 28-4-1 record, a region championship and an Elite Eight showing at state.

That seems like a long time ago. Time has a way of flying by.

“Bailey was wearing Boston College stuff and I was like, ‘C’mon, Bailey’,” said the elder from the stable, laughing.