April 29, 2010
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Here is the latest installment of SamfordSports.com's monthly feature stories which highlight the Bulldogs' talented athletes. April's piece features Samford Softball's freshman Anna Kimbrell and was written by Assistant Sports Information Director Katie Walden.
Anna Kimbrell - A Whole New Ballgame
Her love affair with baseball started when she picked up a ball at the age of two. And for 16 years, she hasn't put it down.
Samford's softball's freshman catcher Anna Kimbrell was the first girl in the state of South Carolina to play junior varsity, varsity and American Legion baseball. She played first base, catcher and pitcher and was also the first girl in the state to pitch and earn a win on the baseball diamond.
Although she dabbled in just about every sport - except for cheerleading and golf - and was even a very accomplished swimmer for about nine years, she always went back to what she knew.
From a very young age, Kimbrell, a freshman from Ft. Mill, S.C., knew she would much rather play baseball than any other sport - including softball. And backed by two very supportive parents, she did everything she could to make that happen.
"I remember, every year we would sign up for baseball and we'd get a call back from the recreation department saying what softball team I was on and who would be the coach," Kimbrell said. "So my mom would have to call back and tell them that I didn't want to play softball. I wanted to play baseball."
Eventually, Kimbrell ended up having to go across the bridge to Rock Hill because the people in Ft. Mill wouldn't allow her to keep playing baseball past a certain age. It turns out that the bridge to Rock Hill would also be her bridge to success.
She made it through the first cut for the junior varsity squad as a seventh grader and made the team the next year. She played junior varsity her eighth, ninth and tenth grade years before making the varsity team as a junior and senior at Nation Ford High School.
As a freshman in high school, Kimbrell tried out for the Women's National Baseball team and made it but wasn't able to travel to Taiwan with the team because of a torn ACL. Two years later, she made the 2008 team and got to travel to Japan. There, she got to know Samford head coach Beanie Ketcham, who was the pitching coach for the team.
Ketcham started recruiting Kimbrell and despite offers to play baseball at Holy Cross College, an NAIA school in Notre Dame, Ind., and at Springfield College, a NCAA Division III school in Springfield, Mass., Kimbrell was drawn to the Samford campus much like many Samford students and she decided to make the switch to softball.
Ketcham comes from a similar background as Kimbrell. She pitched two years of varsity baseball at Vestavia Hills High School before going on to Oklahoma State to become a four-year letterwinner for the Cowgirl softball team. After college, she played one season of minor league baseball and played four years with the Colorado Silver Bullets, a women's professional baseball team, before starting her career at Samford.
As a result, Ketcham has a different perspective on Kimbrell's overall growth and adjustment to playing college softball than any other student-athlete who comes in already trained in the game of softball.
"Ultimately, I think going from baseball to softball is a much easier transition than the other way around," Ketcham said. "Having said that, there are some adjustments to be made. Overall, Anna has done a good job of adjusting and will continue to get better as her career moves along."
The plan for Kimbrell coming in as a freshman was to redshirt her and give her a year to get used to the game. However, other plans were in store for the young Bulldog as injuries to two players forced her into a role as the team's starting catcher.
"She has handled herself very well and has the potential to become an all-conference caliber catcher if she continues to grow and mature in the finer points of the game," Ketcham said. "It's remarkable that prior to coming to Samford, she had only played in one softball tournament."
Kimbrell agrees that she still has some more adjusting to do.
"I remember the first time I played softball this summer," Kimbrell said. "I was so used to the longer throw to second from the plate that I threw it to center field. I've also had to adjust to the way the ball moves. All the pitches are different. Instead of looking for the right hand to come up off the shoulder, I have to look for it to come from the hip now."
However, Kimbrell has done remarkably well for a first-timer and a freshman starter. With seven games left in the regular season, Kimbrell boasts a .208 batting average and seven RBI on 20 hits. Two of those hits have been home runs and three have been doubles. Her best performance so far this season came last weekend when Samford traveled to Elon. Kimbrell went 3-for-3 at the plate, with one run and one RBI. She also leads the team on defense with a .988 fielding percentage and 139 putouts.
Playing baseball has not always been a smooth road for Kimbrell by any means. She has faced her share of naysayers and hecklers. Oftentimes, pitchers would hit her with a pitch because they didn't want a girl to get a hit off of them.
"Growing up in the South, it's always been one way - Softball is for girls. Baseball is for boys," Kimbrell said. "But I've been fortunate enough to have parents who are supportive and teammates who accept me as the player that I am."
Most players take the negative thrown at them and turn it into motivation. Kimbrell isn't even bothered by it. Her down-to-earth attitude and confidence in her ability are the things that allow her to be successful on the field.
At the end of the day, Kimbrell is just a farm-raised four-wheeler riding, bonfire-having, hunter-fisher who is a die-hard Yankees fan. And that's just fine with her.
