Bringing the heat: Kyle's excellent pitching led West Limestone to state tournament
Jun. 26—LESTER — Katie Lyn Kyle said the key to her success all comes down to eye level.
The West Limestone sophomore had a dominant season as a pitcher this year, and when asked what her best pitch was, she had an unusual answer.
“I don’t think I have one best pitch,” Kyle said. “I’m just always trying to work up and down with my rise and drop balls, maybe throw in a change-up. If you’re keeping the hitter’s eye level different, they can’t get control easily.
“Of course it helps to have a good defense behind you, and I was lucky to have a great defense. They’re responsible for a lot of my stats.”
It’s hard to argue with the results of her approach. This season Kyle was almost unhittable, posting a 22-3 record with a 1.09 ERA, .88 WHIP and 247 strikeouts. She finished with 12 shutouts and two no-hitters and also batted .402 with 25 RBIs.
Because of this she was selected as The Decatur Daily’s Class 1A-4A Softball Player of the Year.
“She took her game to another level this year and became one of the most dominant pitchers in the state. She was the difference maker in a lot of our games,” West Limestone head coach Molly Fenn said. “She’s always been an effective competitor, but this season everything clicked for her. Her confidence, command and mentality all came together, and the results spoke for themselves.”
It was a big season for the West Limestone Wildcats. Last year they fielded a team led by multiple talented seniors, including Decatur Daily Player of the Year Aubrey Bethune, that many viewed as one of the best teams in Class 4A. However, despite all their talent, the Wildcats fell a game short of reaching the state tournament for the second year in a row.
Coming into this season, the Wildcats had just one senior, but the feeling of falling short a year ago was something they didn’t want to experience again no matter how young they were.
“With the seniors we had last year, everybody thought that was our year. So it was very upsetting when we didn’t make it,” Kyle said. “That fueled us coming into this year, and we just came in with a different mentality. It didn’t matter if we only had one senior, we are hungry.”
The mentality paid off as West Limestone finally broke through, reaching the state tournament for the first time since 2003 and going on to finish in third place.
Now that they’ve overcome that hurdle, Kyle and the Wildcats have a new goal: winning a championship.
“We grinded hard to get to state, now we have to work even harder to get to the finals. Hopefully it’ll end with us bringing home a championship,” Kyle said.
To achieve that goal, Kyle said she’ll have to be even better as a junior than she was as a sophomore.
“We’re only losing one senior, so I’m going to have basically the same exact team behind me. With them backing me up, I think I can improve a lot,” she said.
— caleb.suggs@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @CalebSuggs2
