Whenever NIU’s No. 3 hitter strides out to the batters’ box, opponents take notice. The defense takes one look at the 6-foot-3 left-handed first baseman, and the fielders make a Barry Bonds-like shift to the right.

As he looks at the defensive shift, NIU hitting coach Tim McDonough can’t help but chuckle.

“It’s funny to see,” McDonough said. “They see a big 6-foot-3, 220-pound first baseman come up, and everyone assumes he’ll be kind of pull happy, and that’s just not his swing.”

Scott Simon is not the pull hitter or power hitter that opponents expect. Instead, he drives the ball to all fields by employing one of the sweetest swings McDonough has ever seen.

In his three full seasons at NIU, the junior first baseman has made a reputation for himself as a hitting machine. After hitting over .370 his first two years, Simon is second on the team this year with a .348 batting average and 30 RBIs. But keeping things simple is the key to Simon’s consistency.

“Just pretty much staying within myself with my swing and not doing too much with it,” Simon said. “That’s usually when I’m at my best.”

After analyzing Simon’s swing closely the past few years, McDonough thinks Simon’s pitch recognition and ability to hit bad pitches are his biggest assets.

“What I attribute that to is he has tremendous hand-eye coordination,” McDonough said. “He can pick up the velocity, the spin, the location of a pitch out of the pitcher’s hand quicker than most guys at the college level.”

Simon’s batting prowess has not gone unnoticed outside DeKalb. He was named First-team Freshman All-American in 2003 and National Baseball Congress World Series MVP and Summer League All-American in 2004.

But if there is one knock on Simon, it is the thing that everyone expects out of him when he steps up to the plate — his home run ability.

“I could probably hit more home runs,” Simon said. “That’s probably something people say I could do more. Usually I’m just trying to hit line drives out there.”

Adding more power to Simon’s swing is the $64,000 question for McDonough. The junior’s inside-out swing allows him to hit the ball the other way, but it also is a hindrance to his power hitting. McDonough said improving Simon’s home run potential will be the key for him to succeed at the professional level.

“I’ve always been reluctant to try and change too much with his swing because he’s been successful with it,” McDonough said.