“Going out to Palm Springs this time of year (for the prestigious Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic) is exciting because it’s like the opening of the college softball season,” explains Taylor McQuillin, the talented pitcher and No. 5 rated prospect in the 2015 class. “It is usually the first time that many softball recruits get to see their future colleges play.”
The Southern California standout has committed to the Univ. of Arizona and plays for one of the premier club teams in the nation, the OC Batbusters-Haning. She is also a standout student with a 4.2 GPA at Mission Viejo (Calif.) High School where she earned 1st team All-Orange County honors in 2013.
Perhaps Taylor’s greatest accomplishment is she has done all this despite having to overcome birth defects making her completely blind in the left eye and with only partial hearing on the left side.
Here is her latest blog for Student Sports Softball in which Taylor talks about watching college pitchers to see how she compares.
Be sure to check out Taylor’s previous blogs and those of our other standout bloggers!
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Recently, I had attended the College Softball Classic in Palm Springs, Calif. and got to watch many of the colleges play.
It is always an enjoyable experience when I go out there, especially since I get to see my future college play as well. I go every year and this year was a different experience than before being that I was there supporting a different team.
Going out to Palm Springs this time of year (for the prestigious Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic) is exciting because it is like the opening of the college softball season and it is usually the first time that many softball recruits get to see their future colleges play.
The level of competition is always high in college from the very start so all of the games are truly amazing to watch.
Being that I am a pitcher, I enjoy watching each of the pitchers out there and how they work to get batters out as well as each of their different strategies on working through collegiate batting orders.
For some pitchers, it is one of their very first games if they are just entering college. I like to see them play because it shows me that they worked hard to get to be on the mound pitching against some of the top teams in the country.
Each pitcher is different, like I had talked about in my last blog, and it is great to see each of them bring something different to the circle. The young pitchers motivate me that much more and make me even more excited to be on the mound pitching in a college game.
It shows that they have worked so hard and they push me to work that hard as well because someday very soon I hope to be in their position on the field, experiencing the same thing as them.
There were so many teams that impressed me out there and all the athletes are truly talented in their own unique ways. Watching Arizona play for the first time since verbally committing to play there was exciting as I was able to see them do exceptionally well.
It just makes me happier with my decision to play there and reminds me how blessed I am to be able to be a part of their program very soon. It also reminds me that I need to continue to be on the right path and work harder to make sure I will benefit their program just like all of their previous and current athletes have done.
So many people go to watch the colleges play and it brings a whole new experience as well just seeing the crowds that attend each individual game.
To know that colleges have that much support behind them just makes it even better to go out there and watch, especially since you get to participate and be a part of the crowd too.
I also got to watch colleges play that my friends and current teammates now will be attending and it shows that I am surrounded by a tremendously talented group of girls who all have the same drive and motivation to play in college and be a part of it as well.
Seeing all of the new faces on the college teams is great because it shows that they have finally made it to college and it just means that every second you get that much closer to being on the field with them.
— Taylor McQuillin