Hempfield grad Olivia Persin's return to form helps set example for young Saint Vincent softball team

Success can breed additional success. But success also can breed pressure.

That’s what Saint Vincent senior softball player Olivia Persin figures happened to her last season. Not that a stat line featuring a .328 batting average with 11 RBIs and a team-leading 36 runs is poor by any stretch.

Compared to her breakout sophomore season, however, her 2023 output represented a significant decline.

After going through the usual freshman growing pains during the 2021 season — she hit .281 with a homer, 11 RBIs and 10 runs — the Hempfield grad had a huge sophomore year. She hit .460 with 24 RBIs and a .500 on-base percentage while setting the program single-season record for runs (41).

That performance landed her on the All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference second team.

As to what led to her decline last season, Persin is unable to pinpoint anything specific.

“I’m honestly not too sure. It kind of made me sad,” she said, able to laugh about it now. “I think last year I feel like I put more stress on myself since I did so well my sophomore year.”

Through the early stages of the 2024 season, it appears as though Persin has let the pressure be lifted from her shoulders.

A shortstop, she appeared in 10 of the Bearcats’ first 12 games, starting each one. She posted a .452 batting average and had a team-leading 14 runs as well as an eye-popping .550 on-base percentage. In the first game of a doubleheader against Penn State Beaver on March 14, she went 5 for 5 — the first five-hit game of her career — with four RBIs and a pair of runs.

Bearcats coach Nicole Karr certainly recognizes a good hitter when she sees one. In her playing days at Saint Vincent, Karr set program single-season records for batting average (.538), doubles (21), OBP (.582) and slugging (.925). The 18th-year coach sees all the traits that make Persin dangerous at the plate.

“She’s one of the hardest-working players on our team,” Karr said. “She’s always putting in the extra work. Even when we don’t ask her, we always see her doing that. … She’s the first one to go do something when we ask (the players) to.

“She is very patient (at the plate). She’ll let that first strike go by, but then she is looking for her pitch. She knows what pitch she can drive well.”

Said Persin: “I just try to go up with an open mind and looking at the situation at hand. Just know I’ve got to put the ball in play, advance the runner, just help out the team.”

Very often this season, when Persin is looking to advance a runner, that runner is Mackenzie Favero. A freshman from Kiski Area, Favero has played like a veteran. Through 12 games, she led the team with a .478 batting average and scored 12 runs while being successful on eight of nine steal attempts.

Persin has hit from the leadoff spot at different times in her career, but she had no problem ceding the role to Favero.

“It’s nice to see that I’m able to advance Kenzie because she’s so fast,” Persin said. “I know that when she gets on first, she’s definitely getting to second, and if she’s at second or third, I just know I’ve got to put the ball in play — ideally to right field — so I advance her along the way.”

The two have formed a connection in the field as well. Persin has been entrenched as the Bearcats’ starting shortstop for some time, and Favero has assumed the role at second base.

Together they have committed only four errors in 79 chances, helping the Bearcats post a team fielding percentage of .949. Saint Vincent also leads the PAC with six double plays.

Persin said she and Favero already have developed good chemistry and can communicate without even speaking.

“I think we connect pretty well. It has definitely improved since (the team) was in Florida,” Persin said. “We’ll look at each other to make sure we’re on the same page. … I think it’s a silent connection when we’re on the field. It’s just giving each other looks while we’re out there.”

Connecting with all of the young players has been an even more important part of Persin’s role this season.

Saint Vincent has 23 players listed on its roster, and 15 are freshmen or sophomores. Persin, meanwhile, is one of only four seniors.

Many of the freshmen are regulars in the lineup, including Favero (nine starts), Shayna Perigo (11), Alyssa Henderson (12), A.J. Arnal (nine), Apollo-Ridge grad April Earnest (nine) and Anita Szymoniak (six).

The young players already have exhibited a fair amount of skill. Persin said most of her advice to the freshmen and sophomores focuses on the mental aspects of the game.

“Just making sure they’re always picked up,” she said. “Even if they make an error, letting them know it’s not the end of the world. We all do it. Just make sure they’re happy, having fun, not stressing too much out there.”

Given the way Persin has rebounded this spring after her sub-par 2023 season, it sounds as if she has taken her own advice to heart.

“This year going into it, it was like, it’s my senior year. I want to have fun,” Persin said. “That’s why I’m playing. That’s why I’ve always played softball, and I just want to make sure I enjoy my last year playing.”