INDIANA — Megan McCormick steps into the batters box, grips the handle of her bat tightly and digs in.

That’s where the Seneca Valley graduate and junior first baseman for the Indiana (Pa.) University softball team feels most at home: waiting for a pitch to hit with great malice.

McCormick has been on a tear during the Crimson Hawks’ relentless march through the postseason.

IUP won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship, then plowed its way through the NCAA Division II Atlantic Region.

Now, McCormick and the Hawks find themselves in the Division II Softball College World Series, which begins today in Salem, Va.

IUP is in rare air — the final eight in the country — and McCormick has been a driving force behind this run.

In 11 playoff games, McCormick is batting .472 with three home runs, 18 RBI, four doubles and seven runs scored.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

McCormick leads IUP with a .414 batting average, seven homers and 53 RBI this season. But getting to the World Series is all she and her teammates are thinking about right now, she said.

“At the beginning of the season, we made a goal to win the PSAC this year,” McCormick said. “We said we wanted to get to the regional and win it and get to the World Series. We didn’t realize then how realistic all those goals were. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.”

McCormick had a feeling three years ago when she committed to IUP that this kind of thing was possible.

McCormick knew IUP senior pitcher Erin Holloway well. Like Holloway, McCormick was named to the all-region first team recently.

“I faced Erin during travel ball and she made me look silly every time,” McCormick said, laughing. “I knew IUP had a good pitcher and a good program, and I knew that’s where I wanted to go.”

McCormick has had to adjust on the fly this season. Opponents are well aware of her prowess in the batter’s box and have tried all sorts of creative ways to get her out.

Bloomsburg pitcher Shavaun Fisher pitched around McCormick in every at-bat this weekend in the region finals. In the first game, McCormick played into Fisher’s hands by expanding her zone while going 0-for-3.

But in the second game, a 2-1 win that sent IUP to the World Series, McCormick was more patient, taking two walks to help the Crimson Hawks to the victory.

“She wanted no part of me hitting the ball,” McCormick said.

In the World Series, McCormick is taking the optimist’s view.

IUP, ranked No. 11 in the latest national poll, will take on No. 2 ranked North Georgia at 5 p.m. today. McCormick said she may have some breathing room because of the sparse knowledge North Georgia may have about her.

“If they give me my favorite pitch, I’m going to take advantage of it,” she said.

Ultimately, though, McCormick said she and her teammates are simply proud of how far they have advanced this season.

McCormick said that doesn’t mean IUP is just happy to be in the Elite Eight.

“We obviously would like to leave with a ring on our finger,” McCormick said. “But we won the PSAC and the regional and those are two huge accomplishments. We want to take advantage of being here.”

IUP has won 13 straight games heading into the World Series and McCormick and her teammates haven’t felt the sting of defeat in more than a month.

As they watched the sullen Bloomsburg players walk off the field after the regional defeat, McCormick said she didn’t want that to happen to her.

“Thankfully, we don’t know what losing is anymore,” McCormick said. “We don’t want to find out any time soon.”