"I knew I was coming up to it, that I was getting closer and closer," she said. "I don't keep track. My dad and my coach do it. After the game coach told us I got to 102."
Hit No. 100 was not her greatest hit - it was a bloop single to left - but it made her the fourth Old Tappan player to get 100 hits since Melissa Landeck took over as coach in 2001.
"It's a nice accomplishment," Landeck said. "It speaks to how consistent Allison has been since freshman year.
She played first base for us and then went behind the plate. What you see is what you get with a hard-working kid that has some power.
It's team first."
ONLY A JUNIOR
What makes Brown's feat even more impressive is that she is only a junior, so she has made it to the 100-hit club in only three years.
Brown began her freshman season as the DP and started to play first base midway through the season. Last year, her sophomore year, she moved behind the plate and has been there ever since.
She couldn't be happier, saying, "Catching is my favorite position. There is a lot of action."
"We always knew she was a catcher," Landeck said. "We had a senior catcher (Jaime Giacomelli) in her freshman year. We knew she could handle the ball well and we saw we needed her in the lineup from day one."
Brown said she began playing softball in clinics back when she was in kindergarten or first grade. Through the years she played with current teammates Kayla Farrell, Kelsey Morgan, Emily Russell, Brittany Steindl and Mary Wiley.
"I've been pretty good for awhile," she said. "I've always been a taller and bigger kid."
SOFT TOSS
Watching her pregame ritual of soft toss should send chills up the spines of opposing pitchers as she uses her whole body to pound ball after ball into the net.
"I love to soft toss," she said. "I swing right at the ball, but not hard. I try to hit line drives."
Brown finished with 109 career hits by season's end and she will have her senior year to hit some more line drives and perhaps break the school record.
Unfortunately no one knows what the school record is or who holds it. During Landeck's tenure third baseman Alexandra Rodriguez had 117 hits, but Landeck will not say for sure that A-Rod holds the record.
"I'm not going to say that A-Rod has the most," Landeck said. "There were a lot of good teams in the 1980's so maybe someone from that era has more."
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