THE FRONT ROW with Jason Elliott, July 6, 2013

Haley Loffer has won the state Pitch, Hit and Run title for the last three years and competed at Safeco Field each of those seasons.

But for 12-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident, it was her latest appearance at Safeco that will have her taking a bite out of the big apple.

LOFFER WON her age division at the Seattle Mariner team competition on June 23 and finished in the top three nationally to advance to the finals on July 15 at Citi Field in New York, home of the Mets, prior to the Gatorade All-Star Workout Day.

“I’m really excited,” said Loffer, who will be an eighth grader at Canfield Middle School in the fall. “But I’m going to be really nervous. There’s a lot of traffic in New York and I’m not used to traffic, but I’m really excited about competing.”

In the girls competition, participants use 12-inch softballs.

At Seattle, Loffer hit four of six targets from 35 feet away during the pitching event, then ran the 120 feet from second to home in 7.69 seconds and her best hit measured out at 221 feet.

“Running is probably my strongest event,” Loffer said. “I love running and could run for a passion if I wanted to.”

To prepare for the pitching section, Loffer used a picnic table in the backyard as a target, a 17x30-inch banner that reflects the standard strike zone.

“The last two years, she’s known where the target goes,” her father Jeremy said. “We had a picnic bench that was a little more narrow than the actual target.”

“I worked my butt off to try and get four out of six,” Haley said. “I was just made to play this sport. I just love it.”

“Rick Rasmussen was the biggest one to push her into this,” Jeremy said. “Once Susie (Cano) out of the Hayden Parks and Rec got wind of her, she really wanted to see her do this. She’s seen people come and go, but Susie has said she’s just blessed.”

WITH NO warm-up time to prepare at Safeco Field, Loffer’s dad, Jeremy, had her practice the same way — no practice.

“On her own, she’d go out to the yard and throw on her own,” Jeremy said. “You can’t just show up and throw and don’t get a chance to warm up, so she’d got out, throw six and kept getting a little better each time. She’d just been practicing and happened to hit them that day (in Seattle).”

Preparing for the hitting portion was a little different.

“They take a tape measure from home plate and run it as straight as they can for distance and accuracy,” Jeremy said. “So we bought a tape measure and tee.”

Haley competes on the Northwest Wildfire 14-and-under club softball team, which competed in the Firecracker tournament in Denver earlier this week.

“She does a lot of fastpitch, but the hitting portion is for distance and accuracy,” Jeremy said. “If you can hit the ball 300 feet, but are 100 feet off the line, it only measures out to 200 feet.”

Haley plays second base and shortstop for the Wildfire.

During a practice round at Croffoot Park, she hit the ball 221 feet, but 14 feet off the line to finish at a total 207 feet.

“She’ll practice, but not a ton,” Jeremy said. “Because it takes more of an upward motion, you don’t want to screw up her swing for softball. But you’ve got to have power and accuracy.”

“I’m just a proud dad right now,” Jeremy said. “We work very hard at what we do. She’s playing on a 14-and under team and we’re traveling all around the country playing ball. I’m really proud of her.”

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]