COVENTRY — For the third straight year, Coventry softball senior Elizabeth Mitchell was selected to represent the Coventry Patriots for the All-Conference and All-State teams.

Mitchell is one of the reasons the team went 24-2, where they won their second straight Class S State Championship, as she was an elite hitter and pitcher.

She said her hitting surprised her the most, as she hit more home runs than she expected.

In her junior year, Mitchell only hit one home run. However, that changed this year as she increased her home run total from one to 11.

She said having a clearer mindset also led to her having more home runs this year.

“I definitely have been working on my swing,” Mitchell said. “I started a new travel team, and the coaches really fixed my swing with working on my timing. I just went up there looking for a base hit, and usually that either happened or a double or a home run. I went up there looking for a base hit every single time. If I wasn’t going to get anything good, I was happy with walking, just anything to help my team.”

Mitchell added that hitting the weight room also really helped increase her power. Instead of hitting lazy fly balls to the outfield like she did last year, she said it allowed her to hit the ball an extra 20 feet this season.

She said working with a personal trainer increased her explosiveness, which allowed her to hit and throw harder.

While Mitchell had success at the plate the last two years, she said she swung the ball harder than she did in the previous three years.

She said it helped her fix her timing at the plate since she wasn’t afraid of striking out and failure.

At the plate, Mitchell said what also helped her fix her timing was that her teammates would relay messages about what the pitcher was throwing during their at-bat.

Meanwhile, on the mound, Mitchell said adding her changeup to her arsenal allowed her to succeed.

“My changeup definitely was what helped me throughout the season because I don’t throw hard enough to throw it by all the girls., so I really needed to mix up my sequence and be able to through the changeup where I wanted to the most,” Mitchell said. “It was definitely helpful in messing with the batters.”

At the start of the year, Mitchell said her pitch sequence was predictable since she had to develop chemistry with sophomore catcher Brooke Blouin, who played third base last year.

Once the two developed that chemistry, Mitchell said the hitters could not sit or wait on a certain pitch.

“We had to work through what was being called, not always calling a change-up on the third strike and not always calling the two seamers on the first pitch,” Mitchell said. “We usually started off the three or four batter with a changeup to really just mix them up.”

With Mitchell being familiar with her opponents, head coach Jeff LaHouse said she attacked the hitters differently.

“She’s smart and has a ton of heart,” LaHouse said. “It’s a different attack for each hitter. She knows what each batter is capable of. She knows what she’s going to do up there against every single individual batter.”

Now that Mitchell’s career is over at Coventry, she hopes to be remembered for the back-to-back titles.

“Last year, we won for the first time ever and I just hope every time the girls look up at our scoreboard at the field where it says state championship, I hope they look up and remember me on the field,” Mitchell said.