Hurt Digits No Big Deal for Taylor Shepherd

A couple of banged up fingers on her throwing hand is no big deal for Fontbonne Academy's Taylor Shepherd.

Shepherd broke two ribs playing hockey her freshman year. The junior also suffers from vasovagal syncope, which is a condition that causes a person to faint or lose consciousness at any given time.

So, fingers? Please, Shepherd can handle that.

"It's nothing really too bad," said Shepherd. "It hurt obviously the first day but gradually it's gotten better and it doesn't hurt too much anymore."

Shepherd tapes her middle and forefinger together to get through a game. It looks like the tape could limit her throwing and hitting ability, but that isn't the case. Take Saturday's game against Hanover. From the shortstop position, Shepherd recorded seven putouts and had no trouble firing the ball over to first.

She did admit that playing the field has been an adjustment with the taped fingers, however.

"I don't have the grip that I used to have," she said. "But it's not too much of a struggle coming back."

The team leader only missed two games, but she will be a big part of Fontbonne's success in the next couple of weeks. Shepherd is the team leader in batting average this season and her power out of the three spot will be huge for the Ducks to maintain any kind of offensive prowess.

"Taylor fills a couple of holes," said head coach Kathy Bernardi. "She fills the hole on the field with her good arm. She goes after anything deep because she knows her range and she fills our batting spot.

"She's loose and brings a lot of leadership. We have both ends of her and I need her on both ends of the game."

Shepherd has noticed her power coming back to her swing as she adjusts to the knicked up digits. She is hoping to ditch the tape completely in Fontbonne's next game against Brockton today.

Her presence in the lineup didn't go unnoticed to Hanover's head coach Joe Messina, whose team played Shepherd and Fontbonne twice this week.

"(Shepherd) is unbelievable," he said. "I was looking at the book because I was trying to pitch around her, but she still managed two nice shots. She's really one of the better shortstops I have seen."

Fontbonne is on a five-game losing streak heading into its final game at home against Brockton, but with the recent struggles the natural leader sees a team that is getting better, not worse. 

"Just because we lost the games doesn't mean we are playing poorly," Shepherd said. "I really think we are getting better each game because we are playing tough teams.

"It's good to play tough teams before you go into the playoffs. You don't want to play teams that you are going to crush before the playoffs, you want to play good ones."

Shepherd oozes confidence, even with two banged up fingers, just imagine what she could do with ten healthy ones.