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Last Friday (July 28, 2023), Ohio State softball announced that Kelsey Stewart-Hunter, one of the top players in the sport over the last decade, was hired as an assistant coach for the Buckeyes.
Here what the official release said:
Ohio State Adds Kelsey Stewart-Hunter to Coaching Staff
Was an All-American player at Florida who competed at the 2020 Olympic Games
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Kelsey Stewart-Hunter, a two-time national champion at the University of Florida and 2020 United States Olympian, is joining the Ohio State softball staff as an assistant coach, head coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly announced today.
“We are thrilled to add Kelsey to the Buckeye staff,” said Kovach Schoenly. “Her knowledge from competing at the highest levels of our sport will be instrumental in our program taking the next step. She is a natural teacher and who loves competition. I know she’ll thrive in this role.”
Stewart-Hunter was the 2015 SEC Player of the Year for the Gators and won national championships as a sophomore and junior in 2014 and 2015, respectively. One of the all-time great players in school history, she played in 264 games and had a .391 career batting average with 357 hits, 259 runs scored, 113 stolen bases and 148 RBI. She remains Florida’s all-time leader in hits, runs scored, total bases, batting average, stolen bases and on-base percentage.
Stewart-Hunter has also represented the United States in a number of international competitions. She was a member of Team USA beginning in 2014 and won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Her resume also includes gold medals at the 2017 and 2019 Pan American Games in addition to a silver medal in 2015.
“I’m grateful to Coach Kelly and the staff for this opportunity to coach at Ohio State,” said Stewart-Hunter. “I can’t wait to serve this program and help these student-athletes reach their highest potential both on and off the softball field.”
Stewart-Hunter’s professional career began with the NPF’s USSSA Pride in 2016. In 2020, she joined Athletes Unlimited and is currently in her third season. Two years ago, in 2021, Stewart-Hunter finished third on the league leaderboard with 1,612 points and batted .375 in 15 games.
A native of Wichita, Kansas, Stewart earned her degree from Florida in telecommunications.
𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐓-𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑 🌰
An All-American, national champion, professional athlete and Olympian, we’re thrilled to add @stewartkels7 to our coaching staff!
📰: https://t.co/B6xGv8n2Gw | #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/Rjd71bb00p
— Ohio State Softball (@OhioStateSB) July 28, 2023
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Going back to her prep days, Kelsey was the Kansas Gatorade State Softball Player of the Year in 2009-210 when she played at Arkansas City High and, jumping forward all the way to this week, as mentioned in the OSU release, Kelsey has starred in the Athletes Unlimited league as noted by this tweet released just a few days ago (Monday, July 31, 2023):
.@stewartkels7 secured MVP 3 recognition with two hits while accounting for three of the team’s four runs.
She scored in the seventh inning while driving in a pair of runs, closing the game with 160 points.
Read the Game 6 Recap ⬇️https://t.co/IrdDbzFaEg pic.twitter.com/IMBEn5bmDL
— Athletes Unlimited (@AUProSports) July 31, 2023
For this Throwback Thursday, we go back two years ago when Kelsey came up big for her home country in international play… here’s that story:
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Breaking Olympic News: Team USA Beats Japan on Bottom of the 7th Inning Home Run by Kelsey Stewart
originally published July 25, 2021
After trailing most of the game, the USA scored single runs in the bottom of the 6th and 7th and closed out the Qualifying Round with a walk-off 2-1 win as Kelsey Stewart hit a solo home run to give the Red, White & Blue the huge win.
The top seed finishes pool play 5-0 and will be the home team in the Gold Medal game with Japan Tuesday local time.
Ally Carda pitched five innings and gave up the only run to the Japanese on a first inning error by Stewart that allowed Saki Yamazaki to score on a passed ball.
Japan’s starting pitcher Yamato Fujia went the distance in the loss and for the first half of the game held the American team hitless.
Team USA finally got on the board in the bottom of the 6th inning when Haylie McCleney, who has had at leas one hit in every game in the Olympics so far, singled to left with one out. She moved up to second on a Janie Reed single before advancing to third base on a fielder’s choice by Amanda Chidester.
Valerie Arioto tied up the game with a two-out, two-strike single that plated McCleney and gave the American new life.
Monica Abbott came in for the 7th and pitched a 1-2-3 inning before Stewart wasted no time giving the U.S. the win as she lead off the bottom of the inning with a home run on a 0-1 count.
The two teams will now face each other for the biggest game of the Olympics in a showdown to determine who gets the Gold medal.
We’ll have more on the exciting win coming up…
A walk-off for @TeamUSA!@USASoftball beats Japan 2-1! They'll play Japan again Tuesday for GOLD! #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/lXGeo01mch
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2021
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