Catcher Kayla Kowalik has had a lot of "stress innings" behind the plate this season. (Photo by Vicky Graff)
There was no way Kentucky All-American catcher Kayla Kowalik was going to match the numbers she had last season when she led the nation in batting average at .495 and set school records also for consecutive games with a hit (26), runs scored in a season (79) and hits (100). She also had a career-best .993 fielding percentage.
This season she is hitting “only” .415 with 54 hits in 41 games but coach Rachel Lawson believes her senior has been playing well while dealing with some changes this season.
“Last year she had video game numbers,” Lawson said. “We knew that would be hard to replicate.”
That’s why Lawson felt it was not right last year for Kowalik to not get more national awards for what she did but the UK coach knew the thinking by some was that Kowalik still had another year to play. Lawson said award voters didn’t know how “special” Kowalik’s season was in 2021.
This year Kowalik has had more “stress innings” — a term Lawson likes to use.
“She has had to catch new pitchers, different pitchers. That keeps her mind at a high level and she never gets to relax during a game,” Lawson said.
“In the new era of NIL (name, image and likeness), she is incredibly popular. At Louisville there were a ton of kids coming up to say hi to her. She gets that all the time. Before games, during games and after games. She loves it and is an incredible ambassador for the game.”
“I am not saying it is a level of distraction. She is handling it fine. She just has a lot on her plate.”
She went through a six-game stretch against Ohio State, LSU and Ole Miss where she had only two hits and went hitless in four games — a rarity for her.
Kowalik responded with two hits in the final game against Ole Miss and then had a double against Louisville.
“I am just hoping she remembers what she is capable of doing and takes that forward,” Lawson said. “We certainly believe in her and know what she means to our team.”
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Kentucky (30-11) opens a three-game series with Missouri Saturday. The Cats are 9-6 and tied for fifth in the SEC but a sweep of Missouri (25-7, 5-9 SEC) would propel UK to at least third in the SEC.
