RANKINGS
EVENTS
I COMMITTED
COLLEGE
ABOUT
It’s been an up and down season for the Washington Huskies, who are 24-11 overall and 4th in the Pac-12 conference standings with a 5-6 in-conference record, but there are some positive signs moving into Easter weekend.
After being swept at home by UCLA in a three-game series at the end of March, Washington has won the last two series against Top 20-ranked teams in Arizona and Oregon State.
The series with the Beavers wraps up on Saturday with a 2 pm PST game after UW took the first two-of-three at home thanks to a tremendous pitching performance Friday by junior Kelley Lynch, who had a career-best 15 strikeouts in a 2-1 win at home. The Georgia native tossed a three-hit gem as she only allowed one walk in the nail-bitter.
Perhaps, Husky fans have to hope, this is a harbinger of good things to come as Kelley certainly has the talent and the potential to help her team go a long way, which she’s done all throughout her softball career.
Currently, she is second on the team in innings pitched with 50.1 behind senior Gabbie Plain’s 99 and is also second in wins to Gabbie’s 10-4 mark as Kelley upped her record to 4-3 with the win Friday, her third complete game of the year. Kelley does have a team-best 1.25 WHIP.
Last year, she was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team, though she was technically a sophomore, because COVID shortened her true freshman season in 2020 when the pitcher/infielder earned Pac-12 Freshman of the Week honors three consecutive weeks (Feb. 18, Feb. 25, March 3). Kelley also led the Top 5-ranked team in home runs (8) and was second in RBIs (28), total bases (48) and slugging percentage (.727.).
Kelley also in 2020 was the first Husky ever to hit multiple walk-off home runs in one season and was equally successful in the circle going 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA and striking out 41 opponents in 37 innings.
Whatever your leanings towards a favorite college team, though, it’s easy to cheer for Kelley on and off after she she lost her favorite coach–her father, Steve Lynch–10 years ago last month to esophageal cancer.
Steve was hugely influential in softball in the Peach State and more than 1,000 people attended his funeral when he passed in March of 2012.
In our first year of existence as Extra Inning Softball (2018), we told the beautiful story of Kelley honoring her father through her dedication and commitment to excellence in softball… you can read that story below.
And what a great softball career Kelley has had in the last decade.
Prior to playing for Washington, she was named as the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2019, was a two-time Gatorade State Player of the Year, won back-to-back Georgia high school state championships, led her Georgia Impact – Lewis 18U team to a PGF Nationals championship, won the World Cup with the USA Jr. National Team and was the #1-ranked player in the the 2019 Extra Elite 100, published on October 26, 2018.
We’re happy to look back on Kelley’s big high school and club achievements prior to her starting her college career in Seattle in light of her record-setting night Friday and wish her the best moving forward…
— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball
*****
Kelley Lynch Named the 2019 Gatorade National Player of the Year
Originally published June 6, 2019 on Extra Inning Softball.
On June 6 Gatorade announced that Kelley Lynch of East Coweta High School in Sharpsburg, Ga. was chosen as the 2018-19 Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year.
Kelley was presented with the award at her school among teammates, friends, family and coaches by two-time Olympic softball pitcher Jennie Finch.
You can check out a video of Kelley’s accomplishments here:
“I had so much fun celebrating with Kelley Lynch after she was named the Gatorade National Softball Player of the Year award and welcoming her into our prestigious family of winners,” said Jennie Finch. “To be recognized by Gatorade is a statement that you are one of the best athletes in the nation. There is no greater honor in high school sports.”
The 5-foot-9 senior right-handed pitcher and shortstop led the Indians to a 32-2 record and their second consecutive Class 7A state championship this past season.
The state’s returning Gatorade Softball Player of the Year, Lynch compiled a 17-0 record with a 0.27 ERA, along with a .436 batting average, three home runs and 25 RBI. The Georgia Athletic Coaches Association Player of the Year, Lynch was also named Player of the Year by the Georgia Dugout Club and was ranked as the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2019 last October when we released the 2019 Extra Elite 100.
*****
2019 Extra Elite 100’s #1 Player: The Driving Forces Behind Kelley Lynch’s Success
Originally published October 29, 2018
AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Kelley Lynch has accomplished everything a softball player her age can achieve, but you get the feeling she’d give it all up for one thing.
On Friday, Kelley was named as the No. 1 player by Extra Inning Softball in the 2019 Extra Elite 100 and just one day later, Saturday, October 27, would pitch a no-hitter in the semi’s and then a perfect game in the Georgia 7A state title game to give East Coweta (Sharpsburg, Georgia) High its second straight high school championship.
And just in the last six months she’s won a PGF 18U National Championship as the ace of Patrick Lewis’s Georgia Impact team, was named the Gatorade State Softball Player of the Year and was one of the first wave of talented players invited to try out this winter for the USA Softball Jr. National Team.
Following a junior year where she and current South Carolina freshman Rachel Vaughn would lead the Lady Indians to a 36-0 record and the first softball championship in school history, Kelley was named an Extra Inning Softball 1st Team All-American and shined this fall both in the circle and at the plate.
Although every team tried to find a way to shut her arm and bat down, Kelley went 17-0 with two saves, had 236 strikeouts in 105 1/3rd innings, compiled a minuscule 0.26 ERA and tossed three perfect games and three no hitters as well. Offensively, she batted .436 with three home runs, eight doubles, 25 RBI and a whopping 31 walks with 20 being intentional leading to a .584 on-base percentage.
LOSING HER FIRST & FAVORITE COACH
Yet all of her accomplishments admittedly are a little less fulfilling without her biggest fan and favorite coach: her father, Steve.
On October 31, 2011–Halloween Day seven years ago this week–the dad and coach of two future softball standouts was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and less than five months later, March 7, 2012, Steve Lynch passed away, but not before leaving behind a legacy that still resonates strongly throughout the Peach State to this day.
“I think about my dad a lot,” Kelley says. “As the years go by it is easier to accept everything that has happened. I think more about the happy memories we shared and smile about them.”
There certainly were a lot of great times as well as there were a lot of lives touched by the salesman of CAT heavy equipment when not at the fields.
A longtime coach and softball supporter at every level, Steve Lynch not only mentored his daughters Katey and Kelly in the Atlanta Vipers organization, he seemingly had an influence on thousands of softball players, parents and coaches at every age and playing level.
“The Saturday before Steve passed away, word got out that his days were numbered,” his wife, Jan, recalls. “There was a line of visitors to pay their last respects that started outside the hospital. Hundreds and hundreds of friends, family, coworkers and customers of his at Yancey Brothers Caterpillar and members of the softball family were there: entire teams from the travel ball community, rec ball, middle school, high school, coaches, etc.”
The mother of two continues:
“Steve made a lasting impact on the lives of everyone he came into contact with, but none more than his softball girls, families and coaches.”
Steve was moved to hospice the next day, and even though he was in and out of consciousness at this point, the visitors continued non-stop. Many came each day and stayed all day long until visiting hours were over.
He passed three days later and over a thousand people attended his visitation as well as his funeral.
“People waited in line, which wrapped around the church, for hours at the visitation,” recalls Jan. “It was standing room only for his funeral. The Newnan Georgia Police Department were there to direct traffic and parking due to all the cars. Steve’s customers had delivered various CAT tractors and other equipment he had sold them which were placed in front of the church.”
The impact of Steve Lynch continues to this day–just recently, Jan received a photo from Chris Polk, the father of Troy University freshman Adia Polk who played with Kelley on the Vipers team that her father coached.
Chris wrote:
“Adia just sent me her new glove and guess whose initials are on it: SL. I can’t explain how great of an impact he made on my child but want to thank you for it.”
SISTERLY ROLE-MODEL
One of the last to speak to Steve Lynch was East Coweta High Head Coach Franklin DeLoach.
“I spoke to him just a day and a half before he died,” the coach recalls. “He told me he wanted his daughters to play for me and for the last nine years we’ve had a Lynch softball player in the lineup wearing #10. I just hope I didn’t let Mr. Steve down.”
Katey was only in the 9th grade when her father would pass away and Kelley was just 10 years old; Katey would become, according to her high school coach, a “double-hitting machine who wore out the gaps. She could really swing the bat and in the 10th grade was a solid catcher coming in, but a knee injury slowed her down and she played the corner positions very well.”
The oldest Lynch softball sibling, now age 21, would go on to play at Kennesaw State before taking a medical retirement after two shoulder surgeries. Today, she is Stacy Tamborra’s personal assistant at Champions Fast Pitch Academy and helps coach two Atlanta Vipers club teams.
“My sister has always been a role model for me,” Kelley says. “Since she is four years older than me, I started playing at a very young age. I would always pitch to parents at all of her tournaments or throw with her out in the front yard. She’s the main reason I got into playing softball.”
Coach DeLoach remembers that when Katey was playing on the high school team, a regular sight at games would be dad and youngest daughter working together between pitches.
“Steve and Kelley would be in centerfield or down the lines,” the coach laughs, “and he’d stand up for every pitch when Katey was batting and then between pitches and innings would catch Kelley and you’d hear the ball hitting his glove.”
GETTING BACK INTO SOFTBALL
After her father’s death, Kelley was understandably devastated, and her mother admits it took some time for her to get her bearings as to how to continue in softball.
“Her father had always played a part in both of the girls’ softball experiences including Kelley’s Atlanta Viper’s team. It was really hard for the next year after Steve died until Andrew Biele of the East Cobb Bullets picked her up and she really started to shine.”
Biele would go on to coach Kelley for four years and remembers softball as being a way for her to leave the stunning loss of her father and coach behind… or at least as a diversion to enjoy life between the lines.
“Kelley was always having fun when she was at the field,” he remembers. “She was always full of humor and loved to be around her teammates. I always looked at it as her outlet having been through everything she had been through.”
“She is a great kid and softball was her extended family,” Biele continues. “What most people didn’t know is how determined Kelley was. She wasn’t always the best pitcher, but there was never a moment in that kid’s mind that she wasn’t going to become the best pitcher. In the beginning she would walk 10-plus batters a game, but she never got frustrated and never stopped trying to get better. There was also never a moment she wasn’t having fun doing it.”
The Bullets coach also recalls that her confidence was always off the charts.
“I remember when we were a 14U team and we were playing up in an 18U tournament. We were playing one of the best 18 Gold teams in Georgia, Kelley was pitching the best game she had ever pitched to that point in her career and we were up 1-0 in the last inning. She walked the first batter, hit the next batter and went two balls, no strikes on the next batter.”
“I called ‘Time out’ and went to the mound and asked her how she felt and she just smiled and said, ‘Coach, I’m like James Brown, I feel goooood.’ I just smiled and walked back to the dugout and we won that game 1-0.”
Kelley says her father’s influence in her life, both on and off the field, has remained with her to this day.
“It took a long time to get over his loss and in many ways I’m still not ‘over it’ but it has definitely impacted many aspects of my life. Specifically, with softball, it made me motivated to be my best. My work ethic increased because softball was a way to still feel connected even though he isn’t still here.”
KELLEY ICE
According to Coach Franklin, her father’s passing likely helped her on-field demeanor which has led to the nickname “Kelley Ice.”
“That has made those girls become so strong,” believes the East Coweta High coach. “With Kelley, you just have to see in person to believe it, it’s like nothing phases her and there’s no stage too nerve-racking. She does have ice running through those veins and I think it’s because of the guy who coached her first, who helped her have the high softball IQ she has today.”
“And I have to think that she’s so strong and tough between the ears because she had to watch her father as he was dying and it put everything in perspective.”
Kelley laughs about the nickname “Kelley Ice,” but admits:
“I guess it would be accurate. I don’t like to show a ton of emotion on the field until after the game is over. I feel like it keeps me calm and focused during the game.”
One great example was the PGF National Championship game. Facing the always-powerful Batbusters, Kelley had a two-run lead in the top of the 7th inning but an error, hit batter and bunt single loaded the bases with no outs.
Patrick Lewis picks up the story:
“I never thought of making a change, I’d seen her do that all year where she has such an ability when faced with trouble to take her game to a next level. There are athletes like a Michael Jordan who have the ability to lock in and get in a zone when it matters the most.”
Kelley then stuck out two and got the final batter on a weak ground ball to end the game.
“She is, for me, a perfect teammate and a great person. She’s a natural leader and anything she’s accomplished it’s always ‘we.’” It’s never about ‘I’ or ‘me,’ and that’s unusual in today’s world.”
Coach Lewis remembers Kelley’s father and competing against him across the field.
“He was with the Vipers and I coached against Steve and you knew he was all about the kids. He was an encourager, a relationship guy, and his heart was in the right place. Kelley has a lot of his personality.”
That could include a mischievous side. Lewis reveals his ace pitcher/hitter has a dry sense of humor and loves practical jokes and pranks.
“She loves to mess with you, like the time she told me, ‘I’m going to be back-packing through Europe next summer, Coach, so I don’t think I’m going to be able to play travel ball next summer.’”
LONGTIME FRIEND, WINNING TEAMMATE
Backing up the pitcher when the Impact won PGF Premier Nationals was a friend and teammate Kelley had known practically all her life, third baseman Charla Echols, who was one of the hitting stars all summer form Georgia Impact-Lewis and is now a freshman at Michigan State.
The Lynch’s moved to Noonan, Georgia in 2004 and Charla and Kelley played rec ball together on the Vipers’ team which Steve Lynch coached. Although the two softball standouts would play on opposing high school teams, they remained good friends and Kelley and Jan Lynch helped get her on the team for the summer where everything fell into place.
“Yeah, they were a big reason why I played with Impact,” Charla said earlier today. “I’ve also known Patrick for a long time and I knew it would be a good decision to go play with him and I’m glad I did!”
The Spartan freshman agreed that Kelley is cool under pressure.
“I would say Kelley is, for sure, one of the best teammates I have ever played with and she never lets the moment get too big for her.”
Another fun fact tying the Echols and Lynch families together: Katey and Ebonee Echols–Charla’s older sister who also is at Michigan State– won PGF 14U Nationals back in 2012 with the Atlanta Vipers-Loveless team.
CLOSING OUT HIGH SCHOOL WITH PERFECTION
Prior to the fall of 2017, East Coweta High softball had won a Regional title every season that the Lynches had worn the No. 10 and had been to the Elite 8 of the Georgia playoffs every year but once, but had never won it all.
“We had a couple of 4th place finishes and a 3rd place, but in 2016 we had a heart-breaker,” says Coach DeLoach. “We lost in the semis in ITB and it was gut-wrenching. Everyone was devastated, but I remember Number 10–we don’t call her Kelley, we call her ‘Number 10’– looking at me after the loss and saying, ‘Coach, I’m going to win you two (championships) before I’m out of here.’”
Splitting time in the circle with current South Carolina college freshman Rachel Vaughn, the Lady Indians were untouchable last fall going 36-0 and as a junior Kelley earned 1st Team Extra Inning Softball All-American honors and Gatorade Player of the Year as she went 14-0 with a 0.45 ERA while batting .454 with 10 home runs and a school-record 55 RBI.
As a senior, however, it was all on her shoulders and the Kelley and her teammates rose to the challenge and closed with a flurry. On Championship Saturday, East Coweta High run-ruled Lassiter 8-0 and Mill Creek 9-0 as the pitcher didn’t allow a hit in her last 11 innings and junior outfielder Lily Agan went a perfect 7-for-7 to spark the offense.
COMPARABLES & ATTRIBUTES
It was also a significant win for Coach DeLoach as it brought him career softball victory No. 500. Two days after the milestone win, he tried to put Kelley’s career in perspective among the greats he’s seen.
“I’ve been doing this for 23 years, softball and baseball too,” he began, “and I have placed two in the Major Leagues and coached against guys like Buster Posey and Jason Hayward, but Number 10 is at another level. We’re comparing and talking about guys who play at the Big League level and Kelley, well, she’s just very special.”
Along with her ability to thrive under pressure, the high school coach says it’s her intelligence and savvy that “puts her above 98 percent of the players in this game.”
As far as tools, Coach DeLoach says:
“Kelley is so special with her rise ball, she actually throws a low rise that jumps up and is a strike. She has a change and screwball that gets batters out all the time too; she has the best change I’ve seen in softball, it actually drops, and her screwball especially effective against slappers.”
As for her hitting talents, the coach says:
“Not only does she hit with power, she’s so disciplined. Kelley gets pitched to so carefully, she often gets walked but doesn’t let that phase her.”
In the Georgia state playoffs last week, DeLoach adds:
“Kelley wore out the right-center field patch when they did pitch to her. She’s a well-rounded hitter, an exceptionally tough out and can hit very high-end pitching on a consistent basis.”
Coach Lewis adds, “She’s a great hitter who can dominate in the middle of the lineup. She batted fifth for us at PGF and when you look at the type of hitters we had, like Charla and Julia Cottrill (ranked in the Top 5 of the 2019 Extra Elite 100), that’s pretty impressive. She’ll bat in the middle in college too.
All the coaches agree she has the two-way talent to be compared to Rachel Garcia of UCLA, who was the NCAA Div. I College Softball Player of the Year in 2018.
Adds Coach DeLoach:
“Kelley has gears you don’t think even exist; she was more dominant in the fourth game of the Georgia playoffs than any other game she pitched as she just got stronger as the week went on.”
“She’s the best I’ve seen in either sport.”
LEGACY LEFT BEHIND
Saturday was a bittersweet day for the Lynch family in some ways.
“Many tears were shed by me,” Jan, the devoted mom says. “It was the very last high school game for both of my girls; I’ve been there for nine years but what a way to go!”
It will be the ending of “Number 10” in another way according to Coach DeLoach:
“I’m not going to give another ‘10’ to anyone else. No one will wear that number around here on the East Coweta high school softball field and it will likely be retired in a few years so no one else will wear it in the Purple and Gold.”
For her four-year career at East Coweta High Kelley set numbers that will be forever appreciated along with her two state titles.
- She went 52-6-5 in the circle with a 0.57 ERA and only gave up 30 earned runs in her 367 1/3rd innings pitched and had 746 career strikeouts, almost two per inning on average.
- At the plate, Kelley hit .443 with 29 home runs, 84 runs scored, 159 RBI and a .443 batting average.
But the legacy of the Lynch family continues in other ways, not just through Katey and Kelley and their prolific accomplishments.
The middle school league championship softball trophy between Fayette and Coweta Counties is named the “Steve Lynch Championship Trophy.”
And a wood bench on the East Coweta softball field was donated in memory of Steve Lynch by his coworkers at Yancey Brothers Caterpillar. It says:
In Memory of Coach Steve 3/7/12
Remember, Lead… Don’t follow
Looking back, Kelley says she has happy softball memories of her father.
“My dad was my coach from the day I started playing to the day he passed away. There’s a lot of memories with the two of us, but now that he is gone just the simple things like going to the field to hit or him catching me at pitching lessons are my favorite memories.”
A lot of the credit for both Lynch girls becoming successful players, and people, have to be given to their mother, according to all those close to the family.
“Jan is one of the strongest people I know,” adds DeLoach. “I wish every parent was like Jan Lynch in letting the coaches coach their kid. She’s that parent that sits in the stands and roots for the team and you don’t have to worry about her being negative. She’s not the parent who thinks she knows more than the coaches. Jan shows up at every tiny event she can be at and she loves those girls. She’s a role-model parent and I know that I can always count on her.”
Adds Coach Biele:
“Kelley has an amazing mom and an incredible family that supports her.”
THE FUTURE
While her high school softball career is over, there are still some other future plans that are yet to be decided.
For one, though Kelley is committed to Auburn officially, she’s taken official visits to the SEC campus as well as to Florida, Florida State and Washington this fall.
“I hope to have a decision by November 13,” she says of the day before the Signing Period officially starts.
And then there’s the USA Softball Jr. National Team tryout in the winter, which is a stepping stone to what her primary softball goal is: to play in the Olympics.
“I think any athlete’s major goal is to be an Olympian,” Kelley states. “As I’ve gone through life and seen some of the dreams I had as a kid–like playing softball in college–start to come true, it’s just exciting that softball is back in the Olympics and there’s a possibility people my age might get an opportunity to play.”
After softball ends, whenever that may be, the student-athlete who has also been on the Homecoming Court all four years of high school, says she’s not sure what she’ll do for a career although her mother calls her a “Science and Math nerd.”
“Science and math are definitely my favorite subjects,” Kelley agrees, “but I’m not completely sure what I want to do just yet. Maybe something medical.”
Whatever she does, she has a lot of people rooting for her, parents and coaches included.
“Kelley has a list of goals and she’s met all of them so far, it’s just now happened with the (Jr.) Olympics and soon we’ll know where she’ll play in college. I’ll support her wherever she goes.”
“I’ve enjoyed seeing her grow,” says Coach Biele. “She is going to do great things in softball and, more importantly, in life and I know her father is looking down and couldn’t be prouder of the young lady she has become.”
Adds their mother:
“I’m so proud of Katey and Kelley, they have exceeded every expectation I had and they’ve never forgotten their dad. He was one of the greatest guys around.”
For her part, Kelley says that wherever she competes, be in the SEC, Pac-12, Olympics or professionally, she’ll never forget those who helped her including the coach who first got her on the fields.
“I know when I play softball, my Dad is proud of the person and athlete I have become,” the Georgia senior concludes. “I play every game with him in mind. I play a lot of games, so I focus more at the task at hand, but I definitely play every game for him.”