Denee’ ‘Mouth’ Menzione keeps the Eastern softball team loose prior to games. Mouth’s pregame antics consist of telling jokes, laughing, dancing and cutting up. Mouth, a team captain, brings a special flair to her team aside from flashy stats and dependable fielding-she brings personality.

“I like to have a good time, have some fun and get some laughs going,” Mouth said.

Every game, the senior right fielder has her own way of warming up, getting loose and getting amped up to play right field. If she prepared any differently, her teammates might be worried.

“That’s her style of warming up,” junior pitcher Amber May said. “If she’s tense then she’s not going to have a good game.”

May is overjoyed to have Mouth as a team captain for the reason that Mouth likes to have fun and not take things so seriously.

Mouth is a unique softball player and a key ingredient to the 10-11 Panthers, as her personality can stand alone.

“She’s one of those people. She has the name Denee’ and nobody needs to know her last name because that’s Denee’,” head coach Kim Schuette said.

So to her teammates, coaches and friends, she’s just Denee’, or Mouth for some comments that come out of her facial feature.

“She says some dumb things, funny things, and keeps the team light,” Schuette said. “We give her a hard time and she can dish it out and take it as well.”

While the Panthers’ leadoff hitter is all fun and games outside the lines of the softball diamond, she’s all business inside – making her a scary hitter.

While Mouth is batting a team-leading .405 with four home runs against Eastern opponents, some of her pitching teammates have seen her focus in the batter’s box first hand.

Personally, May has felt the wrath of the powerful, fiery right fielder when pitching to her during practice.

For instance, one moment May remembers is when Mouth shot a ball straight up the middle, back at May’s ankle in practice.

“It gets scary every time I’m up against her,” May said, thankful to still have her ankles in good health.

What has May learned from her pitching experience against Mouth? Don’t leave a ball down the middle, or prepare to pay for it.

“Looking at her when she’s up in the box, the grin on her face and her eyes – she’s one of those batters you don’t want to face,” May said.

Mouth hasn’t been opposing pitchers favorite competition so far this season, tallying a .405 batting average and a .738 slugging percentage – nearly 200 percent more than any other Panther.

This weekend, in two wins over defending Ohio Valley Conference champions Jacksonville State, Mouth went 3-for-6 from the plate, hitting one home run, notching two RBIs and drawing two walks. For Mouth, her weekend stat line doesn’t accomplish anything but putting in another good day on the diamond.

“That’s my role,” Mouth said. “I’m supposed to hit the long ball and get some RBIs for the team.”

While the senior was playing good softball, she didn’t realize she was staking her name into Eastern softball history books.

Mouth’s solo shot in the seventh inning against Jacksonville State, in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, tied her first all-time among career home run leaders in Eastern softball history with 23 dingers.

“I had no idea I was even close to it,” Mouth said. “It’s something and you always work for that.”

While Mouth said the record doesn’t mean anything unless the team is winning, it seems there may be more history for her to rewrite.

Last season, Mouth broke the single season records for most home runs (8), RBIs (40) and walks (27) in a season – 54 games total.

Through 18 games, Mouth has tallied four home runs, 10 RBIs and eight walks. If she keeps pace, she’ll have 12 home runs, 30 RBIs, and 24 walks after 54 games.

That’s assuming her pregame antics and her fierce attitude inside the batter’s box don’t strike her game up another notch.

Alex McNamee can be reached at 581-7944

or admcnamee@eiu.edu