Maitland joined the Vipers late in 2012, arriving very raw but with tremendous upside.  An extremely powerful young lady, all that was missing was a proper swing to take advantage of her natural tools.  After beginning the season 0-for-24, everything started to click for Maitland as she finished up by hitting over .300 for the remainder of the season and showed flashes of the great power that her coaches knew was in there, with one foul ball clearing the 280-foot fence. 

 

Entering the 2013 season, coaches continued to work on building Maitland’s swing from the ground up and are beginning to see extremely promising results.  The power that they knew was in her has shown up more consistently, as she became the first Viper to clear the 200’ fence in fair territory and is cranking out an extra base hit every ten at-bats.  The only thing missing now is fine-tuning her hand-eye the generate more consistent contact. Once the timing is down with her new swing, the sky is the limit.

 

Despite being the youngest and least experienced player, Maitland has been a valuable member of the Vipers organization.  She has taken over the leftfield spot and has performed flawlessly. She is not blessed with sprinter speed on takeoff, but within a step she is using her long legs to cover ground effortlessly.

 

Maitland caught for the first half of her 7th Grade school season and displayed an excellent grasp for the position.  She possesses a strong accurate arm and, as with her hitting, just needs a small bit of fine-tuning to generate a quicker release.  After the school’s starting pitcher hurt her elbow, Maitland - with very little experience - was asked to step into the pitcher’s circle for the remainder of the season. She performed admirably and was quickly throwing around 50 mph with a nice change-up.