Leadoff hitter Vanorny sets table for Wolfpack

Credit an older sister, a teammate’s dad and a lineup bursting with big hitters for Kenna Vanorny’s status as a consummate leadoff hitter.

On the verge of the Montana High School Association record for runs in a single season, the Glacier High senior also plays sparkling defense and is a terror on the basepaths.

And she’s always on the basepaths.

“She has a .714 on-base percentage,” Glacier coach Abby Connolly said Wednesday, on the eve of the State AA softball tournament at Kidsports in Kalispell. “She’s walked 20 times this year, and been hit by 20 pitches. And then she has an awesome batting average.”

It wasn’t always this way, though Vanorny has played fastpitch since age 10. The middle of three kids to Tony and Trina Vanorny, Kenna followed her older sister onto the diamond.

“She played a couple years, and that’s what made me think, ‘Oh, I should try softball,’” She said. “She didn’t like it much, but I ended up liking it a lot.”

She started out bunting and using her speed to get on.

“Initially I was terrible at hitting,” she said. “It wasn’t until 12U (travel ball) that they taught me to swing a bat. I was better off bunting in those days. But it was a little awkward up there, later in the game with the bases loaded.”

Enter Crispin Schroeder, father to Wolfpack catcher Halle Schroeder.

“I was at a low point,” Vanorny said. “He kind of took me under his wing and did some private lessons with me. If I had to credit one person with my success in softball, it’s Crispin.”

Fast forward to 2021 and Vanorny is on the cusp of history, with 56 runs scored this season.

At MHSA.org the listed all-class record is 56 by Mission’s Marietta Brown in 1995 (the listed AA record 43 by Billings Senior’s Bridget Tollefsrud in 1995, but Maxpreps.com has six players with more since 2016, including Sarah Conway of Great Falls with 56 in ‘19 and Billings West’s Lauren Blaschak with 50 this season).

Every run Vanorny scores in her final state tournament will set the record. And it helps that hitters like Kynzie Mohl, she of the 16 home runs and 64 runs batted in, are hitting behind her.

“I always think that’s a funny correlation,” Vanorny said. “I’ve been really proud of these girls... We’ve got a lot of good young talent that I’ve been very impressed with.”

Eight of them are hitting at a .325 clip or better, including freshmen Kenadie Goudette (.439) and Ella Farrell (395). Junior Sammie Labrum has knocked in 44 runs.

The Pack, though, is coming off a 13-3 loss to MIssoula Sentinel in the Western AA Divisional championship. The two teams have split five games this season, with Sentinel winning two; a future meeting depends on how Glacier fares against some tough Eastern AA pitching.

As it is, that Sentinel game still showcased Vanorny, who robbed the Spartans of a home run in center field.

“Two of them, actually,” Connolly said.

“We were in the right mindset when we got there,” said Vanorny, who has 21 steals and a .517 batting average. “At the outset our defense was very good. Then in the fourth inning it was still a close game, and I think the morale of the team just started to drift as we made some mental errors.

“If we do end up meeting them again I think we’ll be fine, knowing it’s OK if you strike out, you’ll hit ‘em next time.”

This weekend will quite possibly be the finale for her softball career. College prospects fell when the pandemic not only erased Montana’s spring sports, but hindered travel ball: She and Schroeder were headed to join a Sacramento team for a second straight summer.

“Looking back now, during my senior year, it is a bummer,” Vanorny said of the lost 2020 season. “I wish I’d had one more opportunity to play with the girls I play with now. I didn’t really realize it until this year.”

A 4.0 student, she’s headed to the University of Iowa to study nursing. Before then the 5-foot-4 catalyst has work to do.

“It really makes all our other hitters better, because you can’t pitch around the top of the lineup,” said Connolly, who bats Mohl and her .648 average second in the lineup. “We couldn’t ask for a better leadoff.”