At 13, Carmel softball phenom got full ride to Division I. Now, she's hitting bombs in the pros

Indianapolis Star

3 days ago

INDIANAPOLIS -- The lights were beaming across the field for a night time game when Stormy Kotzelnick stepped up to the plate, the score tied 3-3 in the top of the final inning with two outs.
Kotzelnick took two strikes. And then ...
"That's scalded at deep center field," the Women's Professional Fastpitch announcer boomed. "Sayonara."
It was a go-ahead two-run homerun for Kotzelnick, which gave her Orlando Monarchs team a 5-3 lead and a 5-4 win against the New York Rise last week.
As Kotzelnick rounded the bases, her Monarchs teammates surrounding home plate waiting to celebrate their rookie power hitter, she still felt like she needed to pinch herself.
How had this dream of hers to play professional softball, a dream that began when a tiny girl growing up in Carmel fell in love with a ball and bat, come true.
"Playing at the highest level is only awarded to so many people," said Kotzelnick, 23, a left fielder and power hitter for the Monarchs. "Just getting to be one of them, getting to wear that jersey across my chest has been such an honor and a blessing. It's a humbling privilege because not a lot of people even get to say that they played anything at the professional level."
In softball, less than 2% of college athletes make it to the pros, according to the NCAA. That's an estimated 200 women competing at the highest level.
But Kotzelnick, she showed signs very early that she would be one of the few to rise to the top.
It's been 10 years since Kotzelnick made national headlines as a 13-year-old softball phenom from Carmel who could deadlift 240 pounds, squat 185 and could have easily done more but trainers were worried about disturbing her growth plates.
At the time, Kotzelnick was clocking an unheard of speed -- running 60 feet from home plate to first base in 2.64 seconds. That was less than a tenth of a second off of Caitlin Lowe, a former U.S. Olympic softball player, who ran that same stretch in 2.55 seconds and was dubbed the fastest softball player in the world.
Kotzelnick started training Crossfit at 11 and spent countless hours perfecting her swing. Softball fields, batting cages and weight rooms were where she lived. And what she achieved at such a young age, her strength and skill, began getting noticed in the elite circles of softball.
Colleges, major Division I schools, were eyeing Kotzelnick as a seventh grader. Arizona State. Oregon. Washington. Plenty of other schools were flying out for unofficial visits.
"I really didn't understand how this would come to me very early," Kotzelnick told IndyStar in 2015 as an eighth grader at Creekside Middle School, "how I get this opportunity."
That opportunity ended with Kotzelnick verbally committing to Washington at 13, becoming the first player nationally to make a commitment for the Class of 2020. Her college recruitment was a rare feat for many reasons. Not just because of her age, but because of her position. Most early recruits in softball are pitchers.
Kotzelnick was a utility player. She played shortstop, second base and outfield, and for her elite softball team the Beverly Bandits out of Chicago, she handled third base. But often overshadowing her defense was Kotzelnick's hitting.
Shortly before she committed to Washington as an eighth grader, Kotzelnick led her Bandits team in hitting at a tournament in California, going 11-for-16 — .688.
"Whenever I'm out on the field, I feel like I am in total control and taking leadership," Kotzelnick told IndyStar as a 13-year-old. "I just get in this zone where I feel like no ball is going to get past me. No ball is going to get past me. No ball is going to get past me."
Kotzelnick continued impressing as she took the field at Carmel High School, hitting over .400 every season and producing 52 extra-base hits over the first three years. As a 16-year-old, she was ranked the 7th best player in the nation for her 2020 class and was a part of USA Junior National Team tryouts.
Kotzelnick was doing things most other high school players weren't. At a tournament in Colorado, she nailed the bottom of a 300-foot fence. And she had perfected another weapon, 'slapping,' a precise bunting technique of hitting the ball to a spot on the infield that's farthest from the place where the out needs to be made.
She is considered "one of the most dangerous hitters in the 2020 class," wrote Extrainningsoftball.com, which put Kotzelnick 15th in its Top 100 rankings at the time. "Stormy has been called by one elite coach 'the most prolific hitter in her class.' She is a hitting machine."
After graduating high school, Kotzelnick headed to Washington for college where she took a red shirt and then transferred after her first year to the University of Louisiana Lafayette.
"Deciding at such a young age that I wanted to go (to Washington) was probably something that I should have waited on a little bit longer," Kotzelnick told IndyStar this week. "But I'm honestly so glad that I did go there and I had that experience just to learn and grow so much as a person and a player."
At Louisiana Lafayette as a redshirt freshman, Kotzelnick was the leading run producer (51 RBI). She recorded 14 doubles, six triples, 10 home runs and 22 stolen bases. She led the team with 30 extra base hits while hitting .350-plus in 59 games.
During that season, Kotzelnick again made headlines with a spectacular defensive play.
"Kotzelnick is still out there tearing it up, doing the softball ... and turning out five-star web gems, like the one above from the Ragin' Cajuns' 10-3 win over Louisiana Monroe," IndyStar wrote at the time. "Heck of a job by the third baseman to read, react and snag that screaming line drive in the blink of an eye. The level of difficulty is raised by where Kotzelnick was positioned (playing in), and she gets bonus points for going full extension to get the out."
In her sophomore season at Louisiana Lafayette, while she played 59 games and performed at a high level, Kotzelnick said she realized something that would take her college career in a different direction.
"That was definitely the year that shaped me. I went through a ton of adversity and was just able to continue to grow even more," Kotzelnick said. "And I think that was the year that built the most skin on me and where I was able to kind of grow up and just figure out what I really wanted and where I wanted to be, where I would be able to perform my best."
Kotzelnick transferred from Louisiana Lafayette to finish her college career at the University of Central Florida where she fell in love with, not only the program, but the state. And with that, her college softball career soared.
"I definitely believe that every decision that I've made has been a part of my story," she said. "I ended up performing well, doing my thing and just being in Orlando and getting my name out there."
And people in the softball world were taking notice of Kotzelnick, just like they were 10 years ago. This time, it was the pros calling.
In the landscape of professional women's softball, getting drafted is mostly word of mouth, coaches who know coaches who know someone else.
"So, I had some people reach out to me and they had watched some of my games at Orlando, at UCF, and they were like, 'Hey, we want you to come play on the team,'" Kotzelnick said. "And I was like, immediately, yes. I didn't even have to think about it. I know I want to do that. I know I want to keep playing for a very long time."
In May, Kotzelnick signed with the Monarchs, an WPF expansion team that plays on very familiar grounds to her, the UCF Softball Complex where she spent the final days of her college career.
Her first season in the pros has been "super cool, super fun," Kotzelnick said, ultra competitive and eye opening.
"Definitely the competition is insane," she said. "I mean, in college, it's like you get to play against maybe one All-American every other weekend. Now, you're facing a 70-mile-an-hour All-American every day. So that's been a great challenge, but I love it because I know for a fact that I'm playing against the best of the best."
As a pro softball player, Kotzelnick is humbled to be at the forefront of the growth of women's professional sports. She is all in on the motto that is trending: "Everyone watches women's sports."
"It is still a growing thing which is awesome because it's come so much further along than what it used to be," she said. "You would be surprised in the sports realm, even the male athletes wanting to contribute and be a part of women's sports. People want to watch us because it is cool. It is cool to see how strong women are in their sports."
Like many women in professional softball, Kotzelnick has a second job away from the field. She spends her off time giving lessons to young girls for extra income. As Kotzelnick says, "We're not getting paid what MLB or NBA players get paid."
While Kotzelnick works with up and coming players, she often tells them of her journey, the ups and downs and how her dream as a 13-year-old of one day playing in the pros came true.
"My advice is you find yourself through the tough days where you don't want to get up but you do anyway, you persevere and learn to love the struggle," she said. "That's the separator from the good ones and the greats."