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Here’s our TLI for Friday, March 25:
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EXTRA ELITE PROFILE: KEAGAN ROTHROCK
Florida-committed P Keagan Rothrock, #2 in the 2023 Extra Elite 100, recently talked to Extra Inning Softball about playing with the Lady Dukes organization, winning a state championship with Roncalli High in Indiana, recruiting tips and photography…
EXTRA ELITE Q&A
Name: Keagan Rothrock
Hometown: Whiteland, IN
High School: Roncalli High
Club Team: Lady Dukes 18U-Lamar
Graduation Year: 2023
Height: 5-foot-8
Position: P
Nickname: Kea or Keags
Twitter: @_Kea01
Honors: #2 in 2023 Extra Elite 100; National High School Player of the Year (2021); 1st Team All-Conference (2021); 1st Team All-County; and Junior Olympic Gold-Medalist
Travel Ball Highlights: won a PGF 10U national title (2016); won a PGF 14O Premier national title (2019); runner-up to the PGF 18U Premier national title (2021); 3rd place at the PGF 12U Premier Nationals (2017; and 3rd place at the JO Cup (2020).
High School Highlights: broke the record for most strikeouts in a game (24 strikeouts in 10 innings); Most games won in a season (24 wins); Most strikeouts in one season (364 strikeouts); broke the record for most no-hitters (7 total from 2021); broke the ERA record during a career (0.13 ERA); and won an IHSAA Class 4A state championship (2021).
Tell us about your travel team/organization and how you became involved with them?
The Lady Dukes is an amazing travel organization. They are all about the players and helping the players reach their highest potential as a player and a person. I originally got involved with them in the winter of 2020-2021. We were about to start high school ball and we were looking for a better team fit to move to.
The Lady Dukes had always been good and had always been on our radar of teams, so when we were looking, they were at the top. We decided to move there after talking to the coaches and talking as a family to figure out what the best fit was for me as a player.
Can you talk about your experiences at Roncalli and how you are approaching this high school season?
My experience at Roncalli so far has been awesome. It’s definitely not your typical high school softball experience that you would expect to have. I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to play with the best of the best players every day and every year. The school spirit at Roncalli is also off the charts. Everyone goes to everything. Every student is involved in something and when softball season rolls around, they all come out to support. The energy at our games is electric and unmatchable.
Personally, I’m approaching this season on a game-by-game basis. I’m going out every game to kick butt and do my thing, but I think it’s also important to take the season game-by-game and not get ahead of myself.
Can you talk about the recruiting process and how you chose Florida? Do you have any recruiting tips for younger players?
My recruiting process was extremely fun. In seventh grade, I guess I didn’t realize that having the opportunity to visit so many schools would be such a blessing. Every time I would go on a visit, I would make sure to make a pros and cons list of the school and list at least five good reasons as to why I would go there. I ended up choosing Florida ultimately because it has always been my dream school. I grew up watching players like Kelly Barnhill and Amanda Lorenz play and loved it.
I also picked Florida because of the amazing coaching staff. Their coaching staff is one of the best that you’ll ever meet or talk to. They are able to pull multiple talented skill sets together as one and make it work to succeed.
One of the other major reasons I chose Florida was because of the academics. I want to go into the medical field and possibly be a pediatric doctor and Florida has one of the top medical programs in the country. I think it’s important that the school has a good academic program because you are also going to college to learn and to go to school as well.
*** Scroll down to read more about Keagan including her team’s amazing run last year to the state title….
