“[Tiffany] attended a history course some of the softball players were taking [on her recruiting trip],” McKendry says. “She had brought some of her own high school work to do, but I had forgotten my notebook and a pen. As I looked around for someone to lend me a piece of paper and something to write with, Tiffany offered me her own pen and notebook. It was such a small gesture, with the most selfless implications.”

I Think She’s Alone Now

Despite her team focus, Whitton cleaned up when it came to collecting the hardware, receiving the 2002 Ivy League Player of the Year Award, First Team Northeast Regional All-American honors as well as the ECAC Tournament MVP award.

Whitton led the Ivies and placed sixth in the nation with a .457 batting average over the course of the season.

She topped the nation in RBI per game with 49 in 40 games while setting Crimson single-season and career homerun records, with 13 and 23, respectively.

And Whitton claims it all began with a bag of Skittles.

“It just started when I was in travel ball playing on a summer league team when I was a senior in high school,” Whitton says. “I was tired so I ate some skittles and I hit really well.”

But her prowess at the plate extends well beyond a fruity sugar rush.

Rather than swing with all her might on every pitch, looking to drive the ball as far as humanly possible, Whitton’s smooth stroke slices through the strike zone, driving the ball all over the diamond.

“I think as a result of her aggressiveness, as a result of her getting her body behind her swing, she adds a lot of power,” Allard says. “Her wrists are very powerful. I think technically, she has one of the best swings I’ve seen.”

But even the best of techniques doesn’t guarantee a base hit on a consistent basis.

It is Whitton’s mindset, or the lack thereof, that makes her swing so dangerous. When she’s at the plate, Whitton is thinking absolutely nothing, channeling out all the noise to focus just on the pitch.

“An assistant coach when I was in high school asked us ‘what goes through your head at the plate?’” Whitton says. “When I was in high school the best advice I’d ever gotten was to not think about anything.”

And the approach has worked to perfection for Whitton and the Crimson, as seen during last year’s career season.

But the law of averages dictates that with the good comes the bad. While exploding at the plate, Whitton was halted on the mound, unable to overcome a case of tendonitis to pitch.