Originally posted here by the Daily Titan during my time as Sports Editor. Won an "Honorable Mention" in the 2017 California Newspaper Publisher's Association awards.
Ask freshman Kelsie Whitmore what she loves about baseball and she’ll zero in on a feeling. She loves putting a good swing on the ball and feeling it leave the bat. She loves the feeling of wanting to catch a fly ball in the outfield, then actually doing it and sending a perfect throw to her cutoff. She loves hitting her spots as a pitcher and knowing she can trust her teammates on defense.
“I’m so in love with it,” Whitmore said. “There are times where it’s all I think about.”
Whitmore played with the Sonoma Stompers of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs over the summer before she came to Cal State Fullerton as a softball player. She joined her teammate Stacy Pigano as a few of the first women to play co-ed professional baseball since the 1950s. Whitmore, now 18, was 17 when she played side-by-side with grown men on the Stompers.
During her time in pro baseball, Whitmore trended on Twitter and was written about in just about every major sports news outlet, as well as GQ and The New Yorker. She said the day she made her first professional start as a Stomper and saw herself on SportsCenter was the best night of her life.
“I don’t think I’ll ever have a better night than that because before the game, I was so nervous. All I wanted at the end of the day was to lay my head on the bed and just tell myself I’m proud of myself,” Whitmore said.
Whitmore won the Gold Medal in the Pan American Games with the USA Baseball Women’s National Team in 2015 and played in Gijang, South Korea in the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup in September. Prior to the cup, Whitmore and her teammates trained at Goodwin Field.
“She’s a unique freshman,” CSUF softball Head Coach Kelly Ford said.
Whitmore is unique in the sense that she’s had so much baseball experience and relatively little softball experience prior to becoming a Titan. Teammate Megan Estacio said she “makes anything possible,” coming from her level of softball experience to a D1 program.
“Kelsie is one of our hardest workers, and it’s really inspiring because she’s so young and to have that work ethic at 18 is unbelievable. I didn’t develop that until junior year of college,” Estacio said.
Because they are different sports, playing professional baseball did not affect her NCAA softball eligibility. At CSUF, Whitmore also has the opportunity to train with the four-time College World Series champion Titan baseball team.
“Even though it’s the same –like hit the ball, throw the ball–it’s a lot quicker and I feel like things have to be a lot more perfect in a way because it’s so quick and so close,” Whitmore said. “What compares the most is you’re still out here to play. You’re still out here to compete.”
Whitmore played baseball in high school in Temecula, Calif., which she notes as a defining experience.
“I was the only girl. I had nobody else to relate to,” Whitmore said. “It was hard, I was on my own. I think that’s another thing that’s made me who I am.”
Whitmore said she almost quit baseball in high school in part because of bad-mouthing from her teammates, but she persevered.
“I’m not a quitter,” Whitmore said. “Even if it’s so hard, even if it’s so tough, I’m doing what I love.”
Now, her teammates and coaches say they see the level-headedness and maturity that her myriad of experiences on the diamond have yielded.
“I think her experiences raise her mental game and that spills over into our team,” Ford said. “I will ask her to speak up more. I know she’s got a lot of insight to share and I want her to share it like an upperclassmen.”
She visited other schools but chose Fullerton because of the proximity to her hometown, the warm welcome she received from the team and the respect that the coaching staff paid to her baseball background.
“Her ability to make adjustments is incredible. The other part of it is she’s a self-adjuster. Some players, and there’s nothing wrong with it, need coaches in the beginning to tell them every single thing.” Ford said. “She takes a swing, evaluates, makes an adjustment, comes back and takes a slightly different swing. It’s very, very awesome to watch.”
As for the future, Whitmore faces it with her signature determination and maturity. She lists playing in the Olympics and making the most of her opportunity at Fullerton as goals but is focused on staying pro.
“I want to keep going with pro ball. I want to spend another year or two there and just get better as a ballplayer and I want to move up a level,” Whitmore said. “I’m not going to worry what other people say because that doesn’t really matter and all I can do is control what I can control.”
Whitmore said the support she gets from fans is “awesome.”
“I want to become that girl that younger girls can look up to,” Whitmore said. “I want to be the girl that I never had to look up to.”