Kaitlin Lee recently completed her first season as a member of Samford’s softball staff, where she serves as the team’s pitching coach.
Lee, a former star pitcher with Ole Miss, was hired onto Mandy Burford-Johnson’s staff in July of 2019.
“Kaitlin exhibits the qualities in a coach that we are looking for in our program and I believe she will have an immediate impact on our student-athletes,” Burford-Johnson said at the time. “I am excited to watch her take our pitching staff to new levels of success.”
In her first season on staff, Lee helped guide freshman pitcher Abby Swaney into the role of staff ace. Swaney finished the shortened 2020 campaign with a team-best 2.02 earned run average and a SoCon-best .197 batting average against. Lee also contributed to junior Emily Barnett’s career-best season that ended with her sporting 2.36 earned run average. Swaney and Barnett finished second and third, respectively, in the Southern Conference in ERA.
“Lee is able to relate to our pitchers after playing at the JUCO level and then transferring to the SEC,” Burford-Johnson said. “She also has played for several of the best pitching coaches in the nation, and is able to pull from many different teaching styles. She has a relentless attitude to be successful and a desire to win that is unmatched.”
Prior to joining Samford, Lee spent the 2019 season as a graduate assistant coach on the Ole Miss staff, where she helped lead the Rebels to a 41-20 record and a Super Regional berth.
Lee played at Ole Miss in 2017 and 2018, and departed the school ranked second in program history in career earned run average (2.03), third in career shutouts (13), fifth in career wins (39), and fifth in career opponent batting average (.240).
In 2017, Lee tied a school record with 23 wins, and set school records for single-season complete games (27), shutouts (10), innings pitched (249.2), and starts (37). For her efforts that season, she earned second team All-America honors.
That season, she helped lead the Rebels to the SEC Tournament title while earning Tournament MVP honors. She also helped lead the squad to an NCAA Regional title and Super Regional appearance.
During her senior season in 2018, Lee won 18 games, giving her two of the top three single-season win totals in program history. She also set a school record by pitching 18.2 innings and tossing 256 pitches in a single game at LSU. The Rebels again made an NCAA Regional appearance that season.
Following her senior season, Lee was selected in the fourth round of the 2018 National Pro Fastpitch Draft by the Aussie Spirit.
The Gulfport, Miss., native came to Ole Miss after two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. In her sophomore season at MGCCC, she earned NJCAA Division II All-America honors after posting a record of 22-4 and an ERA of 0.84. As a freshman, she finished with a record of 20-4 and a 1.79 ERA.
