Park Hill South junior softball player Olivia Kinsey began pitching when she was 8 years old. She was a multi-sport athlete at the time, but she soon quit everything else to focus on her time inside the pitcher’s circle. Her infatuation with the position centered around one key element.
The strikeout.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved striking people out,” Kinsey said. “I obviously want to get every batter out, but I really want to strike them out.”
As it turns out, Kinsey became quite good at it.
She struck out 236 hitters during the fall season, her junior year with Park Hill South, and that helped her finish with a 17-3 record and 1.03 earned run average. She is The Star’s All-Metro Missouri softball player of the year.
“I throw a rise ball, and you have good strikeout numbers with that, but you also have to worry that if you miss (location), it can be hit hard. It’s risk versus reward,” said Kinsey, who has committed to Oregon. “But I like that part of it.”
Kinsey established a goal this season to strike out every batter in the lineup at least once over the course of the game. Her offseason pitching lessons focus on ways to get people to swing and miss.
And despite turning most of her attention to developing as a pitcher, Kinsey still hit .429 with six home runs at the plate. Park Hill South finished 25-4.
“This year was a really exciting year,” Kinsey said. “We had a great team, and for me personally, I thought I was able to improve from the year before. That’s been my goal — I hope to improve each year.”
Callie Martin, Raymore-Peculiar, junior. A Missouri commit, Martin split time between four positions, but saw the most time at catcher. She batted .493, including a .536 average during conference play, and drove in 31 runs.
Olivia Kinsey, Park Hill South, junior. The contributions came from multiple avenues. As a pitcher, she was 17-3 with a 1.03 earned run average and 236 strikeouts. At the plate, she batted .429 with six home runs and 28 RBI.