No one has been hotter this summer than Mack Leonard. The Myakka City RiverMocs’ super-hybrid standout made a difference both with her bat and her arm during the Florida Gulf Coast League’s inaugural season.
Entering the league playoffs, Leonard owned a 9-0 record in the circle and a .482 average at the plate. One of a handful of true breakout stars during the FGCL’s inaugural season, it might come as a surprise that Leonard wasn’t an initial target when the league sought out players to take part.
Despite leading her team in batting average during the shortened 2020 collegiate season, Leonard – an Illinois State product – found out about the league quite by accident. “My teammate from college, Alyssa Wiebel, was contacted, and she told me about it,” Leonard said. “She was a senior, so she wasn’t going to keep playing, but when she told me about it, I reached out to [league executive Ryan Moore]and got the ball rolling from there.”
After playing in twenty games at ISU before the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 collegiate season, Leonard said that the 6-week summer season felt like picking up right where she had left off in March.
“In a way, it felt like I was still just going; I had something to look forward to still,” she shared. “That was really nice to have during quarantine the last three months. I had this to look forward to, and it is a very different dynamic than my college team. It’s a summer league, so it’s just relaxing and fun. It’s nice to play and not have stuff looming over your head and it’s just easy-going and fun; I enjoy that a lot… I wanted to come in and pick up where I left off [in March], and I feel like I’ve pretty much done that.”
After knocking off a little bit of rust earlier in the summer, Leonard’s arm and bat got hot and stayed consistent, helping buoy her team to impressive success through the entire course of the season.
On Saturday, Leonard took part in the inaugural FGCL Home Run Derby, advancing to the event’s semifinals before falling just short of reaching double-digits in her home run count. When FGCL broadcaster Gray Robertson later announced Leonard as the choice for the league’s Most Valuable Player trophy, he noted that she was a unanimous choice for the trophy.
“There were a lot of other girls in the league who could have gotten it as much as I could have,” Leonard said of the MVP award. “I thought that everyone did really well in the league, and I was very surprised to get it… I’m pretty proud of myself, but a lot of it is really the coaches that I’ve had here and the teammates that I have; I’m as proud of them as I am of myself.”
Monday afternoon, Leonard got the start in the circle and earned the win in her team’s initial postseason victory in the postseason semifinals. She again started in the circle and batted at the top of the order for the championship game on Tuesday, before being ejected from the title match following a much-maligned ruling from an umpire. Her River Mocs took home the first-ever FGCL championship with a 10-9 win.
With the summer season now officially in the rearview mirror, Leonard minced no words when she discussed the importance of a summer league for the sport of softball: “There’s a baseball league; why can’t there be a softball league? This is probably the first collegiate league where girls are leaving their homes for the summer and coming down for six weeks to play. I think it’s important to give girls that opportunity, and I think this will open up for other places across the country to be able to do the same thing.”
There’s a lot that can be taken away from a summer season like the one Leonard has had, and she found definite benefit from her time in the Sunshine State. “My biggest takeaway is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable,” Leonard said after some thought. “This is something that’s completely out of my comfort zone, so I’m not used to it, but I’m glad I did it. And now that I did this, it opens up a whole new opportunity for stuff for me in the future.”
Fresh off of her team’s title celebration, Leonard will be one of a group of league All-Stars that will take on the USSSA Pride in a barnstorming-esque 3-game series that begins on Wednesday. Expected to both pitch and hit in the series, Leonard said she’s looking forward to facing off against some of the best athletes in the sport.
“It’s a great opportunity [to play against the Pride], an opportunity that I never thought that I would get,” Leonard said. “Obviously, they’re pro players, they’re All-Americans from powerhouse schools, so in the back of my head, I just can’t get too down on myself when they hit well off me or if I don’t hit well off of them. My goal is honestly to go in there and have fun with it and see what I can do against them.”
Even with her own tempered expectations for the 3-game series, if this summer has proven anything, it’s that Leonard is a game-changer, no matter the situation or opponent.
