Sunday Special: North freshman adjusts to softball

By Craig Pearson
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE May 18, 2008 12:06 am

— Terre Haute North freshman Kelsey Coffey tried her hand at softball for the first time as a 12-year-old.
It didn’t take.
The Patriots’ leader in RBIs this year with 23 after Friday’s grand slam against West Vigo, Coffey played baseball — not softball — at Terre Town since T-ball beginning when she was 5 years old.
Actually, before that Coffey played backyard ball with her older brothers Dustin and Clint, now 21 and 17 respectively.
Coffey grew up a baseball fan so naturally she became — and still is — a ballplayer.
“My brothers played, and I just kind of went out and played with them,” she said.
So Kelsey stuck with the game she knew and loved until forced to play softball at the high school level.
After she hit her third home run to tie for team-high honors with Danielle Ketner and Kelly Meggs, it is evident the adjustment from baseball to softball has not been too tough.
“It’s a lot like baseball. It’s not much different,” Coffey said earlier this week. “It’s the same fundamentals of the game.”
Defensively, Terre Haute North coach Jack Kirchner inserted his talented freshman into right field, seeing an immediate impact. Coffey has “thrown three girls out at the plate and couple others at second,” Kirchner said.
“She threw Kaitlyn Pluta out from deep right field at third base,” Terre Haute South coach Steve Woerner recalled of Coffey in North’s victory in the North-South game. “I wasn’t aware she had that kind of arm.”
Coffey also hurt the Braves with a 3-for-3, 2-RBI performance at the plate that evening.
The handful of outfield assists are a result of the arm she developed as an all-star-caliber pitcher at Terre Town.
Coffey’s stepfather Jeff Marks coached the 15-year-old through last summer, and said Coffey earned her teammates’ respect right away with her play.
Her opponents, on the other hand, had to learn through the experience.
“We’d hear comments like we didn’t bring our lipstick today and that kind of stuff,” Marks said. “I heard conversations between dads and the boys, ‘You just got struck out by a girl.’
“She could bring the heat; she was tough.”
Coffey said it was the opponents in all-star competition, which she qualified for every year she was eligible, that got most foes most agitated by her pitching.
“The boys I played with were used to me. It was mainly all-stars [when] the guys would get mad. They’d throw their helmets … it just made me pitch better,” she said.
While Kirchner is curious to see if Coffey can give pitching a try at some point, it is his freshman’s hitting prowess that will be needed if the Patriots hope to make some noise in the upcoming Class 4A Martinsville Sectional.
Coffey said it took some time to adjust to hitting underhand pitching at the distance of 40 feet compared to baseball’s 46 feet at the Little League level and 60 feet, 6 inches at age 13-and-older.
“I could hit, it just took me a while to adjust to hitting in gaps and stuff,” Coffey said.
On May 2, Coffey blasted her second home run of the season over the scoreboard in straightaway center field at No. 1-ranked Center Grove’s Lassie Park.
“As soon as it left the bat, everyone knew where that was going,” Kirchner said.
“She threw it right down the middle,” Coffey said. “It was a line shot out.”
With many talented young players, Kirchner was excited to add Coffey to the mix, especially after hearing about her from youth coaches the past few years.
“I never did get to see her play [baseball],” Kirchner said. “But I was always told she was one of the better players and one of the best pitchers in her league.”
So switching to the larger ball and smaller dimensions has treated Coffey well, with the future looking good.
“She made adjustments, she’s very coachable,” Kirchner said. “I think it’s any thing she does, she wants to be good at it. Some of our girls told her how the softball team was, and I think she’s happy she did decide to play.
“I look for her to have a very bright future.”

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