Kaylee McGill '20 Recruiting Profile

    It was hard for me to leave my town travel team, the Niskayuna Firestorm, as those were the girls I've been playing with all my life and I'd built friendships with, but I knew that if I was serious about my goal to play in college I needed to play more competitive and join a top tournament team. Towards the end of the season, my team played in a tournament in Syracuse where I injured my ankle. I was still able to play I just wasn't supposed to pitch until it was stronger. The next week we had a league game against a team that we've easily beat before but we couldn't mess around. Losing a game would've meant giving up first place in the league and we would lose our undefeated title, something that we've been working hard towards all year and were extremely proud of.

    Something happened that night, the pitcher who started was struggling and couldn't find the strike zone, she walked the bases loaded and gave up a lot of hits. Coach went to put our other pitcher in who pitched a few innings the other night but is capable of pitching multiple games in a row as she's done it before. But her dad stood up in the crowd and started yelling at coach using foul language and saying if he went to pitch her, he would take her and leave right now in the middle of the game. At this point we were down by seven runs in the first inning and couldn't afford to lose this game, so when coach asked if I thought I could pitch I said yes because I knew my team needed me. I went in without any warm-ups and proceeded to strike the next two girls out and get an easy grounder right to me and throw the girl out at first. In the next inning I proceeded to pitch my heart out, and honestly, it was some of the best pitching I've ever done. I couldn't finish the next inning as my ankle was killing me and tears started rolling down my cheeks against my will. I wanted to keep going, I knew I had to if we still wanted a chance at winning this game. Coach pulled me out and grabbed some ice and an ace bandage and I rested for the rest of the inning and wrapped up my ankle. I threw a few pitches behind the dugout and told coach I was ready, I could do it, and next inning I was back in the circle. I made it through the sixth inning when I could barely walk off the field that's when I knew I was done, I could only go so far despite my best efforts to pitch the rest of the game, my ankle just couldn't do it. I told coach I just couldn't do it anymore but he asked me if I could hit because there weren't any more subs and it would be an out if I didn't hit. We were still down by two runs but he said if I couldn't do it nobody would be mad at me, they all saw how much I cared about the team. I knew that if we took an automatic out that cut our chances of winning in half, I wasn't about to do that to my team. I went to bat in the most awkward stance ever considering I could hardly put weight on my back foot but miraculously I hit the ball deep in right-center and was able to make it to base. From there on out it was one base at a time, when I got to second the umpire saw me crying and he urged my coach to just take the out and let me sit but I told my coach not to and that we needed this and convinced him to let me stay. My team really came through for me as the next girls up had deep hits that gave me plenty of time to get to the next base. I scored along with two other girls giving us a one run lead headed into the bottom of the seventh. They put our starting pitcher back in who was still struggling but she managed to pull through and my team made some great plays to end the game.

    Through that game I learned the true meaning of leaving it all on the field. I knew my team needed me and although it wasn't the smartest idea to pitch when I shouldn't have been pitching for a few more days I did it anyway because without it my team would've lost everything we've been working so hard for, I've seen how hard my teammates worked and how bad they wanted this and if I could help save our dream I was going to do whatever needed to be done. I ended up on crutches because of that game, but I was able to be back in time to play in our last game of the season (and no, I didn't pitch this time). We finished our undefeated season in first place and I'm so incredibly proud of my team and what we accomplished. I was still in pain though and it was getting unbearable so the next day we went to the doctor where I was told I had Achilles tendonitis and was given a boot. Unfortunately for me it was tryout season and I was stuck in a boot. I emailed all the teams I had planned on trying out for and many of them waited to name their teams until they saw me which I was extremely flattered by and thankful for. In the end everything worked out and I ended up on East Coast Impact, the team I had always dreamed of playing for.