Plymouths Meg Marcel will try to knock down some fences as part of ASFLs Home Run Derby – Wicked Local Plymouth

Meg Marcel will compete with the best home run hitters in the state for charity.

PLYMOUTH - Meg Marcel didnt hit a softball until she was 13-year-old but shes quickly made up for lost time. The Plymouth native and recent Archbishop Williams graduate will put her powerful swing up against the top power hitters in the state as part of the inaugural A Shot for Life Home Run Challenge.

The event will take place over the weekend of Sept. 12 at the Austin Prep School in Reading. Money raised from the event will be donated for ongoing cancer research being conducted by the Dr. Curry Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital.

A similar ASFL charity challenge to crown the top boys and girls basketball shooters in the state has been a successful event for the last eight years under the direction of ASFL CEO Mike Slonina. This year 16 softball players and 17 baseball players are in this event two-day event. Each participant was asked to raise $1,000 to compete.

Plymouth South senior Amelia Freitas, a teammate of Marcel on the Mass Drifters Showcase AAU softball team, will also take part in the contest.

Im honored that Ive been asked to take part in this competition, said Marcel, who was settling in over the weekend as an incoming freshman at Bryant University. Its raising money for a great cause and I get to play the game I love. I jumped at the chance to be a part of this.

Speaking of jumping, the softball has a tendency to jump off the bat of the 18-year-old, 58 right-handed hitter.

I can hit the ball with some power, said Marcel, who had a legitimate shot at breaking the Bishops career home runs record if her senior season had not been canceled by the Coronavirus pandemic. Ive learned that you cannot swing for home runs. You need to make a good swing and get solid contact with the softball and then let the pitcher provide the power.

That hitting philosophy has served Marcel very well. She was a three-time Central Catholic League All-Star as the starting shortstop with Archbishop Williams and is now a member of the NCAA Division I Bryant University softball program. She will major in Business and carry a minor in Sports Management.

I love the campus and everyone was very nice to me when I came here for my visit, Marcel said about the Smithfield, RI university where classes started on Tuesday. One of my teammates is my roommate and the rest of the softball team is coming in this week. I think weve got a couple weeks of conditioning practices to start and then theyll add on more in a couple weeks as long as everything remains safe.

Marcel grew up playing baseball in the Plymouth Youth Baseball and Softball league before switching over to softball at the age of 13. The angle the ball comes to you at the plate is one of the bigger differences she encountered in her switch from one sport to the other because the softball comes at you from a lower spot than a baseball, which is thrown over the top.

You meet a softball and a baseball at different points in the swing so that was something I had to make some adjustments for, she said.

The adjustments she made worked out very well for Marcel. She batted .463 as a freshman and came back as a sophomore to club eight homers and 20 RBI. She saw her batting average continue to climb as a junior when she was named a Patriot Ledger, Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic.

Along with choosing a college, Marcel also had to pick what sport she wanted to play at the next level. She played four years with the Bishops girls basketball program, making it to four Division 3 South title games, winning three of them, and she was also a part of two state championship hoop teams.

I was playing basketball as soon as I could walk. I thought I was going to be a basketball player when I started high school but softball came along and I grew to love it, Marcel said. I have some great memories of playing basketball for Archbishop Williams. Ill miss my teammates and (Head Coach Matt Mahoney) was the best to play for but I think it will be better for me now that I can concentrate on playing just one sport.

You can donate to any competitor in the ASFL Home Run Derby at http://www.gofundme.com/f/asfl-home-run-derby . Make sure you indicate which player you are donating to in your message.

Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and you can follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.

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Plymouths Meg Marcel will try to knock down some fences as part of ASFLs Home Run Derby - Wicked Local Plymouth