GODFREY – Baseball players have a walk-up song, with the music going silent just before the first pitch.

For Alton softball’s Tami Wong, it’s a snappy little ditty, written, produced and performed with gusto by teammates in the Redbirds dugout.

“Tami … Tami Wong … Tami, Tami, Tami, Tami Wong”

The ‘can’t get it out of your head’ chant extends beyond the walk-up and reverberates throughout the sophomore’s at-bats.

“The girls have their own little thing for everybody,” Alton coach Dan Carter said. “To me, that shows the support the team has for Tami because of the way she supports them. It’s pretty catchy and I think it helps rally her and I think it helps rally the whole team sometimes.”

It rallied Wong to a record-setting season for the Redbirds and recognition as the 2017 Telegraph Large-Schools Softball Player of the Year. The Alton center fielder batted .509 to lead the Southwestern Conference and break Katie Wilson’s school record set at .492 in 2005.

“When you put it in perspective and you think about the history of Alton High – we’ve had some pretty good hitters – to be the first one to hit .500 is a tremendous honor,” Carter said. “To hit .500 as a sophomore, to work that hard and be that dedicated, it shows you what kind of kid she is.”

Wong and teammate Savannah Fisher were both named Class 4A all-state by the Illinois Coaches Association. In addition to winning the SWC’s batting title, Wong led the league in doubles (17), runs (45) and on-base percentage (.576) out of the No. 2 slot in the Redbirds lineup.

Those numbers came from an underage sophomore – Wong does not turn 16 until September – who hardly looked the part of future all-stater as a 6-year-old in the Godfrey Parks and Rec softball league.

“I honestly think that I was really not that good,” Wong recalls. “I started out catching and I remember every time I threw, it was like rainbows. Really high rainbows.”

When she shifted to the Collinsville Extreme softball club for her 12-under season, Wong’s game came of age. “We started traveling and I started getting the training I needed,” she said. “And here I am.”

Softball beat out a deep roster of sports for Wong’s attention growing up.

“I played basketball, I swam, I played tennis, soccer,” Wong said. “Then as I got older, softball started consuming more time and I realized I was better at it than every other sport, so I stuck with softball.”

Wong was an immediate starter for the Redbirds, winning the job at second base as a freshman. She hit .377 with 27 RBIs and 43 runs scored to earn second team All-SWC honors.

But Wong’s leap to clear .500 as a soph goes unexplained. “I really don’t know what happened,” she said. “I don’t feel like I really started performing until the middle of this season.”

Carter concedes a relatively slow start for Wong. “She had to make adjustments as the season went on,” Carter said. “She’s got great hand-eye coordination. She fights off bad pitches and waits till she gets one she can do something with. Great discipline and great ability.”

A three-walk night in a season-ending loss at Springfield SHG in the regional semifinals denied Wong a shot at reaching Wilson’s school-record of 60 hits in season. She finished with 58 for the Redbirds, who went 22-12 and 7-7 in the SWC.

The transition from infield to outfield came from team need and a shift back to the infield could come as a junior.

“I really like the outfield,” Wong said before adding, “Wherever coach wants me, then he’ll put me there. We’ve talked about going back to the infield, but we’ll just see.”

Any position change, Carter said, has come without complaint.

“She’ll never question what we’re doing,” Carter said. “She’s going to be one of those great leaders. … The younger girls look up to her. She doesn’t get loud. She’s shows how things are to be done and she leads by example.”

GODFREY — Alton High softball fans, players – and the Redbirds coach – were likely a little befuddled last week when the Illinois Coaches Association’s Class 4A All-State Softball Team was announced. Surely one or two or the Redbirds would be there, right?

Well, yes and no.

Tami Wong and Savannah Fisher were selected for All-State recognition. But their names were inadvertently left off the original list when it released by the ICA.

The situation was corrected Friday when Alton coach Dan carter was notified that Wong was indeed a member of the All-State second team and Fisher was named to the All-State third team.

“They were left off the list for some reason,” Carter said. “But they got it fixed. I’m glad for them, because it’s well deserved.”

Wong was one of the leading hitters in the St. Louis area. The sophomore centerfielder batted .509 for the Redbirds, the first Alton player to hit over .500.

Wong had 35 RBIs on two home runs, a triple, 17 doubles and 38 singles. She had a pair of sacrifices, stole 14 bases and struck out only twice all season.

“(Wong) was a great all-around player,” Carter said. “She played centerfield the majority of the time, but was also our No. 2 catcher and played some at third base as well as shortstop.”

The All-State recognition for Fisher was the third of her career at AHS. She was third team as a sophomore and last year was named to the second team as a junior.

A three-year starter at shortstop, Fisher batted .444 with 13 RBIs, a home run, four triple and nine doubles. She had 38 singles and stole 33 bases.

In the original ICA Class 4A All-State announcement, three Edwardsville players were named. Sarah Hangsleben was named first team, Anna Burke was second team and Lauren Taplin was third team.

GODFREY — When encountering Alton sophomore Tami Wong, her infectious smile can’t be ignored.

Never mind the beaming blue braces Wong sports, this is a 15-year-old that always seems to have a bright smile beaming, and with that continuous positive attitude, it’s translated onto the field for the Redbirds softball program.

Wong’s numbers are eye-popping for the 22-11 Redbirds. Her .513 batting average with 58 hits, 44 runs, 17 doubles and 35 RBI would make anyone notice, even the player that accomplished the feats, but not Wong.

“Sometimes I’ll look at it and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty good,’” Wong said with nothing other than a smile. “But most of the time, I just want to help my team out.”

Wong is on the cusp of setting the school record for batting average and hits, held by Katie Wilson when she hit .492 and 60 hits as a senior in 2005. “I didn’t even know,” Wong said. “I’ll go knock on wood then.”

No need to bother, because the success seems to come naturally, and without self-absorption.

“She is very humble,” Alton coach Dan Carter said of Wong. “She doesn’t want to talk about her success. She just wants to come out and do her job. You talk about a kid who cares about her teammates and helping the team out, great team leadership from a young girl. The girls rally around her, she’s a well-liked kid. Not much more you can ask of her.”

What Alton did ask of Wong is to make the switch to center field this season. Why? Because that’s where she’s needed. Wong just wants to see team success, and if that happens, then the individual accolades will follow.

“I just want what’s best for the team,” Wong said. “I hope I can keep getting better because if I get better, then our team gets better, too. It’s nice to be able to contribute. Without defense, there’s no offense, and without defense, you can’t win games. Defense is always important.”

But Wong’s bat is lethal, make no mistake. Hitting second in the Alton lineup, Carter would like to put her bat further down in the lineup for more RBI opportunities. But having her see at-bats on a more consistent basis make the Redbirds lineup more dangerous, and it was evident early on that Wong’s bat will be a weapon for Redbirds softball.

“In eighth grade, we worked with her, changed her swing just a little bit and she went to some hitting lessons and she’s worked her swing out,” Carter said. “She works hard in the cages, she works hard off the tees. Every swing she takes, she’s working at it and it shows. The progression she’s putting in does not surprise me a bit.

“Hitting over .500, that’s a surprise, but not a complete surprise. That’s not easy to do, especially playing the schedule that we do. To play the schedule that we play, it’s pretty impressive.”

Those hitting lessons have come with the help of Collinsville softball coach Brett Swip, who’s part of the select program at Collinsville Extreme, where Wong has played since the 12U team.

“I think it’s because I’ve been starting hitting lessons with coach Brett,” Wong said. “Transitioning there has been great.

“I don’t know honestly. It just happens. I like to pride myself because I feel like I have good plate discipline, and a lot of times, I jump on the first pitch and that’s aggressive. Pitchers always want to get up on you. The first pitch can be the best one you see, so I like to attack it.”

With graduating seniors Savannah Fisher and Tomi Dublo that make up the middle infield positions, Wong could find herself playing shortstop next season as a junior, and Carter said if he needed her to, she can also pitch.

To which Wong quipped: “I can play anything … except pitch. I tried pitching. It was bad.

“Savannah’s so good. She’s a stud. This might sound creepy, but I want to be her because she’s really fast, she’s really talented. I look up to her.”

“She’s got the ability to play anywhere on the field,” Carter said. “Next year, with Tomi and Fisher graduating, she might be our shortstop, I don’t know. The nice thing is she’s very versatile and can do anything we ask and will do anything we ask of her.”

As long as that bat’s in the lineup, Alton always will feel like it has a chance.

“We have a freshman pitcher (Abby Scyoc) and we have to back her up,” Wong said. “She’s been doing pretty good, but there’s only so much that she can do. If our offense is good, it only makes her better, too.”

SPRINGFIELD — After 33 games with varied plots, the Alton Redbirds got their first look a prep softball played exclusively at fast forward.

Playing with a temporary fence on an all-turf baseball field, the Springfield SHG Cyclones held off the Redbirds 9-6 on a damp night under the lights Tuesday in the SHG Class 4A Regional at Comstock Field.

SHG, seeded second in the regional behind Belleville East, improves to 26-6. East, 27-6 after beating Springfield 10-0 in Tuesday’s first semifinal, will play SHG for the regional title at 11 a.m. Saturday. Alton, seeking its first regional title since 2006, closed its season at 22-12.

“I don’t want to make excuses, but it’s a different situation up here,” Alton coach Dan Carter said. “And that’s the advantage of hosting a regional.”

SHG normally plays its home games on a tradition dirt infield and both teams had to make adjustments to a surface that turned a hard-hit groundball into a gap shot. The enclosed surroundings for the baseball complex made charging admission — an IHSA requirement — easier.

“You’ve just got to get used to the hops because it will get on you fast,” SHG coach Al Yoho said of playing on the artificial turf.

Alton was the first to take advantage of the fast track when Tomi Dublo shot a grounder through the left side that reached the fence in left center for a double that drove in Tami Wong and gave the Redbirds a 1-0 lead in the first inning.

The Cyclones answered with three runs in the bottom of the first on three hits and a pair of walks off Alton freshman Abby Scyoc.

The Redbirds cut the deficit to 3-2 in the second inning on Miranda Hudson’s home run deep over the fence 200 feet away in left. SHG’s Katie Weller’s two-out, two-run double in the fourth grew the Cyclones’ lead to 5-2. But Alton again fought back, with singles from Rachael McCoy and Bronte Fencel leading off the fifth inning before Savannah Fisher’s sacrifice fly and Dublo’s RBI single again got the Redbirds within a run at 5-4.

The Redbirds trailed 6-4 when a Cyclones throwing error scored two Alton runs after Hudson doubled and McCoy singled. Alton finished with 10 hits off SHG pitcher Bailey Morrow, including eight over the final three innings.

But the 6-6 tie the Redbirds worked to earn in the top of the sixth quickly vanished in the bottom of the inning when SHG responded with three runs on three hits to win it. Scyoc allowed 12 hits, walked six and struck out one to take the loss.

But Carter had few complaints with his team’s performance.

“I thought we played one of our better games,” Carter said. “(SHG) is a good ballclub. … I’m very proud of the girls. We battled. Got down, tied it. Unfortunately for us, they’re moving on and we’re not.”