World Traveler: Country Day’s Mia Ennis earns All-World Team honors, two medals playing for Team USA

by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Rising sophomore Mia Ennis of Metairie Park Country Day can’t wait to put her thoughts from a dream summer to paper.

For the first time in her young life, Ennis left her hometown of New Orleans and traveled abroad playing the game she loves. She twice represented the U15 team of the United States, the most recent venture being in Caronna Pertusella, Italy.

Ennis, a speedy left-handed hitter and outfielder, was part of a group coached by former UL-Lafayette All-American Kyla Hollas to a bronze medal in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s World Cup.

“I’m going to try to put all of my adventures in there,” Ennis said of her soon-to-be written story in this year’s English class at Country Day.

She’ll have plenty to say.

Team USA won its first six games in World Cup competition before dropping a tense 3-2 game to eventual champion Japan. Ennis turned in one of her better performances of the tournament, going 2-for-2 with a fifth-inning RBI single.

The team, 7-2 overall, followed with a 4-0 loss to Puerto Rico before finishing strong with a 4-0 win over Mexico for the bronze medal.

“We were happy to bring something home after all the hard work we had to go through,” Ennis said.

Ennis was also honored on the nine-player All-World team, which also had two of her teammates.

“I feel honored,” she said. “It was an amazing experience.”

Country Day athletic director Mike McGuire said Ennis is a budding star and a tremendous representative of the school.

“She’s our best player by far on our school team,” McGuire said. “She gets to leave school practice and then practice with Louisiana Voodoo and play at a higher level, and then she got picked to play at a higher level when she got to play with Team USA. What she’s done is compete with the best players in the world at her age. 

“We’re so proud,” McGuire said. “She’s at a small school and she still wants to be at the school with her friends, and then compete at a really high level, and then have a chance to come back and share it with her friends and the school. It’s very special.”

Ennis had at least one hit in all but one of her team’s games, batting .421 with six runs scored and two stolen bases. She played primarily in center field.

“I’m a slapper that puts the ball on the ground,” Ennis said. “The international teams really don’t expect that. They expect people from America to hit home runs, so it really surprises them when someone fast shakes up the defense.”

Ennis, a natural lead-off batter for Country Day and her Louisiana Voodoo travel team, adjusted to hitting lower in the Team USA lineup and twice helped her team to walk-off victories.

During a 3-for-3 performance against Czechia, Ennis poked a ball to the outfield that split the left and center fielders and rolled to the wall, invoking a run-rule victory (15-0).

She also displayed alert base-running in a 7-0 win over Mexico in bracket play, picking up a ball in the dirt that got past the catcher for a stolen base.

“It was always the dream,” she said of her walk-off hit vs. Czechia. “I’ve never really had that many walk-offs because of where I bat. It felt really good that I finally got to experience that on the international level.

“I just saw an opportunity to win it,” she said. “It was a passed ball, and I just took it and was aggressive. On the double, I just punched it through and wound up walking them off and run-ruling them.”

Team USA completed bracket play with consecutive shutout wins over Singapore (15-0) and Australia (7-0) before blanking Mexico in the super round, setting up the huge matchup with Japan.

Team USA had marched its way to the pivotal game, having outscored its opponents 68-1.

“We felt defeated a little bit,” Ennis said after the setback to Japan. “We put up a hard fight. They were the best team in the tournament because they won it all. I think we played hard overall, but made too many errors.”

Ennis said the team spent 16 days on the trip, arriving in Italy and ramping up for the event with a week’s worth of workouts. There was time for sightseeing and a sampling of the local cuisine.

“It was very pretty,” she said. “The food was good.”

It was the second such trip abroad for Ennis, who four months earlier was part of Team USA’s gold-medal winning efforts in the Pan American Games in Acapulco, Mexico.

McGuire believes the summer experience will only enhance Ennis’ game and further help attract talented players to the school. She’s already the nation’s third-ranked outfielder in the Class of 2028, according to Extra Inning Softball.

“It’s important in any program to have someone that can carry it, and other people join in,” he said. “Now we’ve got proof that Mia’s one of the best in the world in softball.”

Ennis, who earned a spot on the U.S. team through a rigorous tryout among 90-100 hopefuls, also enjoyed a productive travel ball season with the Voodoo, where she played in tournaments in Houston and Dallas. 

The three-time all-district performer and Class 2A honorable mention All-State choice two years ago will continue practicing in preparation for her high school’s fall season, where she’s coached by her father, Rob.

“It’s bigger than anything I could have imagined,” Ennis said of her summer. “This will definitely be something I’ll never forget.”