Most amateur players step closed, try stepping even or open, just keep your front shoulder on the ball. You need to use your hips to maximize the turn of the barrel. The picture above is from the Allstar game and even though the ball is away, Springer rotates his belt buckle to the pitcher at contact which maximizes the use of the lower half to generate speed into the barrel. One exercise to use is the step over stretch, where you lift your leg as you walk, over an imaginary rope around your waist. Do this forward, backward and side ways to help build flexibility in hips. The less flexible you are the more you should step open during your load. If you are going to step closed you need to stand off the plate so that there is no strike that is actually in but with high school and college strike zones I don't recommend this because the ball of the plate away is consistently called a strike. Focus on striding straight forward or even open while keeping your front shoulder on the ball as long as you can. Striding closed is #1 thing I consistently see in amateur swings that is hurting the development of the swing but with focus can be relatively easy to fix.
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