By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Ever since Damon Bailey became a basketball legend at Bedford North Lawrence, chiseling his name into the record books with his famous exploits, many have wondered when the next great superstar would come along. Could anyone ever measure up to such an immortal standard?
Well, after 34 years, that answer is finally, definitely “Yes.” But the newest generational phenom doesn’t compete in a gymnasium. She plays softball.
The comparison to a basketball icon, in a state that worships that game while softball ranks far down the interest list, might be unfair, but it’s not inaccurate. BNL’s Ava Ratliff, now the greatest slugger in Indiana history, joined that conversation when she shattered the state’s career home run record – as a junior. She’s already a two-time national Catcher of the Year award winner, she’s on her way to South Carolina once she’s done terrorizing high school pitchers, and her name already hangs on the press box wall with her home-run count prominently displayed. That number could be go off the charts.
Ratliff crushed the record – the previous mark was 50, set by Bremen’s Erin Coffel in 2019 – when she connected for her 51st against Floyd Central on Friday night. Coffel lost her senior season to the COVID cancellation of spring sports in 2020, but that just changed the target. Ratliff, who got to that mark in far less than three seasons, is the Thanos of the game – she is inevitable.
She’s already the first player in state history with back-to-back seasons of 20-plus bombs, and now she’s currently leading the state after slugging her eighth for the record. “That’s a lot of home runs,” said BNL coach Brad Gilbert, who has shaken her hand every time she’s rounded third and headed for home. “It’s crazy.”
What makes Ratliff so special? She doesn’t swing for the fences, because that usually leads to disaster. She’s not oversized or physically imposing. She’s not loud or demanding of attention. In fact, the ceremony to honor her remarkable accomplishment during the game with the Highlanders caused her the most red-faced squirming and embarrassment she has ever shown. “Everyone was looking at me!” she said, obviously uncomfortable in the lonely spotlight as she stood at home plate.
Everyone is looking. What they see is a swing of sheer speed and technical perfection, honed by years of work in the batting cage and weight room. What they hear is a deafening crack when her beloved Louisville Slugger LXT (34 inches long, 26 ounces) greets a pitch that catches too much of the strike zone. The softball fences are 200 feet away. Her towering, majestic drives usually clear that by 20-plus feet, or more.
“The ball just jumps, it’s different,” Gilbert said. “It sounds different. The ball exits her bat like no other.”
Home runs are not her goal or focus. They are the product of that picture-perfect swing, of plate discipline and a keen eye.
“I try not to think about it, because I feel if you think about hitting a home run, there are never good results from that,” she said. “I just try to see my pitch and hit the ball hard. When you hit the ball hard, it works out. As long as I feel like I’ve done as much as I could, that’s a good at-bat for me. My swing is technical, but I’ve done it so many times, it’s just instincts. I don’t have to think about it, it just happens.”
Before Ratliff arrived, BNL was already blessed with a major talent. Sarah Stone set the single-season school record with 17 homers in 2021 and blasted 34 during a three-year career (with that lost 2020 campaign), she also set the school record for career RBIs with 125. And her signature moment was unforgettable, a grand slam in the regional win over Gibson Southern, a titanic shot that landed 275 feet away. She’s now a standout at Indiana University.
And she issued a warning before she left. Ratliff would make everyone forget about her.
“When Sarah was breaking all the records, her and her dad kept saying they wouldn’t last long, because Ava was coming and she would break them all,” Gilbert said. “I just laughed, thought they were just saying that. Then when Ava got here, the words from the Stones were in my mind.”
As a freshman, Ratliff slugged 21 homers. As a sophomore, she cranked out 22 more. Somebody curiously looked up the state record (it wasn’t a household number, like Babe Ruth’s 714 or Hank Aaron’s 755) and discovered how close she already was. Now she’s got it.
“Yeah, it’s a big deal,” Ratliff said. “I tried not to think about it too much, to put more pressure on me, But it’s a great honor to have. It’s a big relief. I tried not to think about it, but it did cross my mind every so often.”
Baseball (and thus softball as its sport cousin) is statistics game. And there are some numbers that are just boggling. While the comparison of Ratliff to baseball’s great sluggers is a little on the apples-oranges level, here are some stats to ponder:
X – Ruth, who romanticized the homer in the public eye, hit a home run every 3.5 games, every 11.8 at-bats. His career slugging percentage was .690, and 25 percent of his hits were homers. Pretty impressive.
X – Aaron, who passed Ruth as the all-time home run king in 1974, hit a homer every 4.4 games, every 16.4 at-bats. His career slugging percentage was .555, and 20 percent of his hits were home runs. That’s amazing.
X – Barry Bonds, regardless of the opinions surrounding his alleged steroids use, passed Aaron with 762 homers. He hit one every 3.9 games, every 12.9 at-bats. His slugging was .607, and 26 percent of his hits went out of the park. Powerful stats.
And then there’s Ratliff.
BNL’s Princess of Power hits a homer every 1.5 games, every 4.7 at-bats. Her career slugging is currently 1.27, and 40 percent of her hits have gone over the fence. Unbelievable.
Yet she takes it all in stride. Those kind of numbers aren’t supposed to happen.
“It’s pretty cool,” Gilbert said. “As soon as she knows she got it, I might be the next person that knows. You can just tell off the bat. Most of them, when she squares it up, it’s like ‘Yeah, that’s it.’”
“I don’t know if I can describe it,” Ratliff said. “I just see it go, and it’s like ‘Yeah, that’s gone.’ My swing is not perfect, but I have worked on it. That gives me a powerful swing.”
All that information creates a question: why does any coach pitch to her? Bonds, who was once intentionally walked with the bases loaded, holds the MLB mark with 2,558 walks. After her prodigious first two seasons, many observers predicted a drop off in chances, with many walks in her future. That has not happened.
“Their answers are almost always ‘Our kids want to pitch to her,’ Gilbert said. “They want to challenge the best hitter and see what they can do. Out of respect for the whole thing, and wanting their team to challenge someone like that, that’s the reason teams still pitch to her. And why not?”
Floyd Central coach Sean Payne, whose club surrendered the record-setting shot, backed up that stance.
“If it’s not a game-deciding moment, especially in the regular season, we’ll try to get her out,” Payne said. “I’m a competitor and I expect that out of my pitchers. But she is a special talent. I don’t think it’s fair for people to pitch around her all the time. She deserves to go up there and swing the bat, as much as anybody else. We wouldn’t be witnessing this special talent if everyone was afraid.
“She’s really disciplined. A lot of fly-ball hitters just chase, but she knows what she’s looking for, she attacks it. From early on, you could tell she’s a big-time talent.”
So when the smoke clears, when Ratliff finally concludes her career in 2025, what will the final number be? Possibly 80 or more? Barring injury, she’s going to set the bar at a ridiculous height. Records are always made to be broken, but her mark could be untouchable.
Ratliff is more than a fierce slugger. After all, the award is “Catcher” of the Year, not just hitter. Her defense is often overshadowed, although she is slick at stopping balls in the dirt and dangerous at throwing out runners. And her greatest characteristic is her attitude and approach. She’s just another kid, somewhat shy and self-conscious. Her mother wishes Ava would be a little more cocky on the field. It’s just not in her DNA.
“I want to be remembered as a positive person and good teammate,” Ratliff said. “Some good players are remembered as being super cocky, but I want to be remembered as humble, someone who just went out and did their thing.”
Her “thing” is homers. Damon’s name adorns the basketball court in BNL Fieldhouse. One of these days, Ratliff’s name should be immortalized on the softball field that can’t hold her.
