Friday morning, two-way star player Kasey Wood—a 2023 infielder and pitcher for KC Peppers – Wallace and the juggernaut Bentonville High softball program in Arkansas—announced that she would be staying in-state to play for the SEC Razorbacks.
“I am committing to Arkansas,” she told Extra Inning Softball earlier day. “I picked Arkansas because of the genuineness of the coaching staff, their facilities are incredible, they are the defending SEC champions and I felt the great kind of environment Arkansas has when I got to hang around the team.”
Playing college ball about 30 miles south of where she lives was a big factor too as family and friends will get to see her play regularly.
“I feel that it is something special to get to play for your home state at the highest possible level,” she said.
I couldn’t be more honored to announce that I have committed to play softball and continue my academics at the University of Arkansas. I am incredibly thankful to all of my coaches, teammates, friends, and Family for supporting my goals and helping me get here. #WPS @RazorbackSB pic.twitter.com/veswxZW9QA
— Kasey Wood (@kaseywood511) October 22, 2021
Kasey added she’s excited to help Coach Courtney Deifel and staff take the softball program to new heights.
“Arkansas just has it going on,” the high school junior continued. “They had 10 regular season and SEC tournament championships and there’s just a lot of excitement there now right now. From football to cross country… basketball, soccer, baseball, track, gymnastics, softball… they’re competitive in every sport.”
Hog fans can only hope that Kasey, ranked #36 in the 2023 Extra Elite 100, can bring to Fayetteville the same type of success she has had with her Tigers high school team.
Bentonville High has won four of the last five state championships at the 6A level including this year when the Tigers shut out Conway 3-0 on May 21. The title-winning team so dominated opponents that the run differential for the season was 176-7 with 10 of the 14 games being run-rule victories.
Kasey, of course, had a lot to do with the domination. In one April win, for example, she struck out 10 while giving up just one hit and helped her own cause by going 2-for-2 with an RBI.
Tigers win the State Championship! What an amazing group! #GoTigers pic.twitter.com/7FrQsf97Gd
— BHS Tiger Softball (@bhs_tiger) May 22, 2021
She’s also impressed playing on Jeff Wallace’s KC Peppers 18U team, even though the coach says her start with the standout travel ball program was a rocky one.
“I got her coming out of 14’s and she had a brutal first year playing 18’s,” the coach remembers. “But Kasey never made an excuse, she never pouted but just kept playing.”
What a difference a few years has made—today Coach Wallace attributes his player’s success individually and on a team scale to her “God given talent, her work ethic and the fact she’s a ‘Mental Assassin.’”
“Kasey also has natural leadership abilities and doesn’t need to say a word.”
He laughs when recounting a story from PGF Nationals, when the pressure was intense and the stakes high.
“We have a two-run lead and Kasey is pitching in the sixth inning but possibly tiring. I change pitchers and she says, ‘No, I can get these two outs!’”
“I make the switch and it doesn’t work out as we lose by a run. Later, Kasey says: ‘I understand the change, it makes sense… but I would have gotten the two outs!’”
Earlier in the year, when the then-Junior was recognized as a Top 40 prospect in her class, her bio write-up included the following:
Kasey is a 5-tool player who combines her ultra-athleticism with pitching arm talent, a great work ethic and uber competitiveness to give her a high, high ceiling. In the circle she offers a bulldog mentality and produces mid-60s velo, a plus curveball and a change-up contrasted with a solid riseball. Kasey can work both sides of the plate with all pitches creating solid swing and miss percentage and had 96 strikeouts in 82 innings pitched last year. In the field she could potentially play every position but occupies the “Hot Corner” when not pitching. Her quick feet and aggressiveness are an asset only matched by her 70-plus mph arm strength. At the plate she worked tirelessly, which paid off with a Fall slash line of .421/.516/.724. Most impressively, Kasey made the move to 18U from 14U and put it together in the Fall of 2021. “Kasey is poised to take a leap to the next level as a player, but she’s still only 16,” says Coach Jeff Wallace. “She has all the tools, the work ethic, and mentality to be an impact player at the next level.
She continued to work hard and impressed enough to be selected to the Extra Inning Softball 2021 “All Summer Team” at 18U after she recorded 13 wins and 90 strikeouts while producing a .400 on-base percentage.
That two-way productiveness and versatility will be important at the college level and Kasey is excited for the challenge.
“(Playing at) Arkansas will give me the opportunity to bet on myself,” she concludes, “and by that I mean what position I play and when I get to play. That will be based on my attitude and effort.”
Here’s a blog from Kasey we posted before her high school season started as she details the prep that went into what would be a state championship season!
*****
Inside Pitch: Powerhouse Bentonville (Arkansas) High Begins the 2021 Season… From the Perspective of Extra Elite 100 Pitcher/Infielder Kasey Wood
Originally published March 3, 2021 on Extra Inning Softball
The high school softball season is here and we’re excited to introduce a new feature: an in-season report as we follow one of the top high school programs in the country, Bentonville High in Arkansas.
Kasey Wood is one of several 2023 Extra Elite 100 players who competes for the Tigers and will be providing an insider’s view this season.
Bentonville High is not just strong in softball, it annually wins multiple state in conference titles in sports ranging from swimming, golf and more. But in softball, the Tigers are especially strong and have been under the coaching of Kent Early, ranked in December as one of the Top 50 High School Softball Coaches in the nation!
From 2016 through 2018, the school won Arkansas state titles and has finished as state runner-up finishes in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2019.
Here is our introductory look at the Bentonville High softball program in Kasey’s words as the 2021 season gets underway!
*****
Growing up in Bentonville as a softball player, nothing excited but scared me more than reaching the highs school level and playing for Coach Early and the Tigers!
It was almost as if I was a football player grown in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and dreaming of one day playing for the Crimson Tide and Coach Nick Saban.
Going to Tiger Camp as a 10-year-old with my closest friends Tallulah Pascucci, Kadence Stafford, and Sara Watson and having the opportunity for just a glimpse of what the team was like was what we all looked forward to every summer as kids.
Growing older, we saw Bentonville High win six conference championships, making it to state seven times and collecting three state championships. The dynasty Coach Early had built got bigger as we did and as we got to 8th grade the decision to go to Bentonville High over another local school was clear.
Although we also grew up hearing of the horrors about how hard playing softball for the Tigers was, we knew that what we were walking into was going to make us even better players than we ever thought we could be.
I clearly remember the first day getting into the facility with my life-long friends, looking at each other and thinking we finally made it here; we couldn’t have been more excited to be a part of—and carry on—the legacy past teams had built.
Our freshman year (pre-COVID) we spent at least two days a week running, conditioning, doing Navy Seal workouts and hitting the weight room. We spent the year learning more about how far we could go and learning how to keep the same mindset about getting to our goal no matter if it was the first lap, or the fifth when we still had five more to go.
I gained more knowledge about myself and how to play the game than I even knew was inside me. As March approached, we were ready to do whatever it took to get to the championship. Flash forward to after five months of lockdown—it was time to make sure that when COVID allowed us to play we’d be ready.
This offseason was different.
We got our minds to where they needed to be to win it all last year but didn’t get to play so this year it was about making sure that when the time came, we weren’t going to make mistakes. We did scrimmages, pitching, hitting, and defense every day.
This year we are bringing to the field four Tigers who were included in the 2023 Extra Inning 100 player rankings in Audrey Lacina at 89th overall and 25th ranked catcher; Kadence Stafford at 75th as an outfielder, me at 64th and 38th as an pitcher/infielder (third base) and Tallulah Pascucci at 82nd as an infielder.
With Coach Early being ranked 35 out every high school coach in the nation, make that five Tigers who are ranked!
We also have several other standouts including Kenzie Derryberry who plays short and is committed to Missouri State, Emily Perry who lines up at second and is committed to Central Akransas, McKenzie Vaughn who is our starting pitcher and also going to Missouri State and Sara Watson who is another talented catcher.
We couldn’t be more excited to perform at the highest level this year and we are all looking forward to making our only purpose carrying on the tradition of Bentonville dominance and bringing more greatness to our title.
As much as we all owe it to ourselves and the legacy, we put even more passion into making sure we win a state title with this team before our seniors leave their mark for good seeing as we got our opportunity taken away from us last year.
We couldn’t be more excited to show the amount of greatness that we can play this spring.
— Kasey Wood, Bentonville High
*****
