Patch Looks Back: Glory Days with Leslie Brenner

Late in her freshman season pitcher Leslie Brenner had just gotten bumped to varsity when a batter hit a ball right back at her. She handled her chance and tossed the runner out of first base.

"There was a force at third,'' Brenner recalled years later. "I remember the parents yelling at me. It was traumatizing." But that didn't stop her from becoming a star athlete at DHS. 

Brenner, who graduated high school in 2006, took her right-handed offerings from Deerfield to the University of Connecticut and finally to Denison University where she won 16 games as a college senior.

"Leslie was a model player,'' said Deerfield softball coach Susan Johnson. "Every year I thought she worked hard and was 100 percent committed to working in the off season. And the next year she would come back and had worked even harder. Every year she continued to improve her game."

Pitching is what made Brenner known in her community but it wasn't always that way.

"When I started playing travel ball, I was an outfielder,'' Brenner said. "And I was pretty bored out there. So, I decided to take some pitching lessons. And I felt the only way to be a successful pitcher was to practice."

And that practice paid off before she entered high school.

"All of a sudden I was throwing strikes,'' she said.

Sitting behind the plate during Brenner's high school days was star catcher Randi Kreiter.

"Leslie didn't throw 60 miles per hour,'' Kreiter said. "But she hit her spots well. She must have had a change because she got a lot of people to ground out."

Brenner credited her drop ball with those ground outs.

"I really relied on a fastball and change in high school,'' she said. "I think I had a natural drop to induce those ground balls."

Johnson also liked the way Brenner fielded her position.

"Certainly she worked on her pitches and developed her repertoire,'' Johnson said. "But she decided that she also wanted to not just be a great pitcher but defensive and offensive player as well. She would field a grounder or bunt and fire the ball to first base, many times the batter was not even halfway there. She really psyched them out as she gunned the ball to one."

By the time she reached her senior season, Brenner had been appointed co-captain of the Deerfield squad.

"I hadn't even thought about college softball until my senior year,'' she said. "You really need to put yourself out there. You can't wait for them. I worked as hard as ever and got command of my pitches."

Her Deerfield squad ran through the CSL season unbeaten. And then Brenner decided to walk on a Division I program at the University of Connecticut.

"I wanted to try something different,'' she said. "I liked the campus but I couldn't be happy without softball."

The move to Denison seemed to pay off beautifully. It did take her some time to get adjusted to college pitching.

"I think I had a tenth of confidence and I struggled as a sophomore,'' Brenner said. "But as a junior I went back to my regimen and gained a lot of insight.'

As her college career came to a close, Brenner was clearly a different pitcher than when she was at Deerfield.

"I was a much smarter pitcher,'' she said. "And I needed to be because it was a whole different caliber. I developed a screwball that curve inside to right-handed hitters."

With studies in education and psychology, Brenner in now hooked up in her father David's business of Paragon Marketing.

"I'm happy in my job,'' she said. "I'm traveling a lot."

Each Friday this month Patch will look back at one of Deerfield's greatest athletes. Stay tuned next week for another piece.