Patience pays off for Penn Wood’s Ballenger

In the back of her mind, Ameenah Ballenger wondered if she would get enough notice to play softball at a high level in college.

For as long as anyone can remember, Penn Wood, where Ballenger is completing her senior year of high school, fielded a softball program that struggled to compete in the Del Val League and throughout the area. It was a program synonymous with losing.

Ballenger came along in 2016 and changed the entire complexion of the program. In other words, she put Penn Wood softball on the map.

As a freshman, Ballenger possessed a trait that most, if not all, of her teammates sorely lacked, which was general experience in the sport. Ballenger had a ton of it. She was a travel player for one of the top organizations in the East, the Chaos, and she had the skills to back it up.

After a dominating career of high school ball, shortened only by the coronavirus pandemic which robbed her of her senior season, Ballenger is heading off to Maryland Eastern Shore to play for the Hawks in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

“When I was looking for schools, in the beginning, I thought that I was going to one of the big ones like Florida or Oklahoma. That’s what was in my head when I was starting out,” Ballenger said. “I play tournament (ball) for Chaos and I talked to my coach (Arlyn Landow), and she explained to me that I started out a little too late for that. So, I just looked for … as games went on … I had a bunch of people from different schools come look at me and watch me play. I had Morgan State look at me and I was trying to figure out what would be the best fit for me.

“My big thing was, more than my major, having the chance to play the most competitive softball I can play. My coaches helped me to get colleges to look at me and they told me that UMES was a really good program. And coming from a predominantly black school in Penn Wood, UMES really interested me and I felt really comfortable going there.”

Ballenger said Maryland-Eastern Shore, an historically black college located in Princess Anne, was her first college visit.

“I was never so nervous for something in my entire life,” she said. “The coach of the team, her name is Karla Powell, was very nice and I could tell she genuinely wanted me for just being a selfless person who can help the team win and stuff like that.”

Back in December, Penn Wood athletic director Rap Curry organized a signing day for Ballenger, who is one of two Division I student-athletes Penn Wood’s Class of 2020 produced. Timi Odjuno, the Daily Times boys track Athlete of the Year in 2019 who won a pair of PIAA Class 3A gold medals, is off to Columbia University.

Ballenger, who earned All-Delco honors her sophomore and junior years, did many things behind the scenes to help turn the Patriots’ program into a winner again. In 2019, behind Ballenger’s bat and pitching, the Patriots advanced to the District 1 tournament for the first time. Ballenger pitched the Patriots to victories over Del Val League champion Interboro and rival Chichester for the first time in at least two decades. She averaged nearly 13 strikeouts per seven innings and hit .500/.621/1.134 with seven home runs, 15 RBIs, 27 runs scored and 14 walks.

“It was frustrating as a freshman being so experienced that I had to explain to someone that you get an out by throwing the ball to first base,” she said. “I understood, though. My dad (Darren) drove it into me that I had to be patient and that’s how I learned a lot about being patient. My junior year, being a part of the best year for the school’s team in so long, made me feel better. I knew that my patience and hard work were all worth it.”

Like most athletes her age, Ballenger was disappointed to learn her senior season was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Ballenger believes this was the year the Patriots would’ve won the Del Val title. The lost season is also frustrating to Ballenger because she had an opportunity to reach 600 career strikeouts, which would have made her the first Delco softball pitcher to reach that milestone since Chichester All-Delco Meg Wimmer, the 2015 Daily Times Player of the Year who amassed 757 punchouts during her remarkable high school career.

“We had our first scrimmage (in March) and I had 18 strikeouts. I felt so good and felt that this year was going to be the one,” Ballenger said. “I knew that last year I was top 10 in strikeouts in the state and I felt that we were about to celebrate my 500th strikeout and have a great year. And then, well, it just didn’t happen.”

Ballenger is trying to stay in softball shape for the summer travel season. At this point, she is hoping to be back on the field for the Chaos in June or July.

“I hit off the T often and my coach got me this thing called Blast, which measures your velocity. I’ve been able to keep up with stuff like that,” she said. “We’ve also been able to do workouts over the phone with my pitching coach. My college coach Karla sent out the summer program workout, too, so I’ve been able to keep busy through all of it and I know I’ve been able to stay ready.”

Ballenger wants to pursue a degree in exercise science.

“I think I want to be an athletic trainer or a physical therapist, I haven’t quite decided between those two,” she said. “I can’t see myself doing anything else. I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was younger, but after they told me I had to put animals down, I said, ‘Yeah, never mind.'”