WSN: Welcome back to ‘In the Huddle,’ a podcast by the Washington Square News. I’m Kiran, sports editor at WSN, and here with me today is Katie Antosiewicz,  a left-handed pitcher from Grosse Ile, Michigan.  In her first year with the softball team, she’s started 12 of 22 games on the mound. Happy to have you here, Katie.

Antosiewicz:  Thanks for having me.

WSN: Of course.  So, how did you get your start with softball?

Antosiewicz:  I actually started playing when I was about six years old, but I played baseball. So it was just ‘little kid baseball,’ wasn’t very serious or anything. And then once I was old enough, my parents signed me up for the rec league for my city, and so I played that a few years. I started my first travel ball season in fifth grade. It was just like our rec team, but we played tournaments and we just had fun. It was like a bunch of dads coaching, and we didn’t really win, ever, but it was really fun.  

And then after that, in middle school, I went out and actually started getting serious about softball. I decided I wanted to play in college, but then COVID happened, too. I was playing on a team about an hour and a half, two hours from my house, and that was crazy during the pandemic because practices were far, and then we couldn’t practice. And then in high school, when the recruiting process started getting more serious, I joined a team in New Jersey.

WSN: Okay, wow. 

Antosiewicz: I live in Michigan, so that was quite a big jump, but I wanted to play at a high-academic school on the East Coast, and none of those schools were coming to the Midwest, so I needed to play in front of them.  The best option for me was just to play on a team out east, and now I’m here.

WSN:  Awesome. Were you always a pitcher, or did you get your start a little bit later?

Antosiewicz:  Well, originally I played first base because I’m left-handed, so that’s just naturally where they put lefties. And then I’m not fast, so I was not in the outfield. But then on that first travel team I was on, we had three or four pitchers, and they all got hurt.

WSN: Oh my god. 

Antosiewicz: One girl got mono. And it just happened that my mom worked at a middle school with the pitching coach. So they were like, ‘Okay, yeah, Katie, you’re gonna go take lessons.’ And I just stuck with it after that.

WSN: Glad to hear it worked out.  Have you found a difference between the college style of play and the high school style?

Antosiewicz:  Definitely. My high school team was not good. Even just on my team, I couldn’t throw any pitch besides a fastball because we didn’t have players that could catch the ball. It was very hard in high school playing around that.  And now here it’s just — everyone is at another level, and it’s been really nice to not be the best person on a team for once. 

WSN: Of course.

Antosiewicz: It challenges all of us. It makes you play to a higher level when you are not the best one. We all push each other, and yeah, it’s been really good.

WSN:  Now, you’ve started a fair amount of games, but you also play a bunch as a reserve. When you are sitting as a reserve, and you know that you might go up and pitch, do you have that in the back of your mind? Or do you just keep it out of the way, and when it comes, you actually focus on it?

Antosiewicz:  Yeah, it’s hard, because when they need you, they need you. It’s hard to be on the bench and be mentally present still, and then you get put in — and when you get put in, it’s a big situation, like it’ll be bases loaded or something — you have to pretend like you weren’t on the bench, like you were in the game the whole time. So that’s a thing we’ve been working on, always being focused and mentally in the present, and ready for whenever our name’s called.

WSN:  And do you have any favorite warm-up activities or pregame rituals?

Antosiewicz:  Recently, our team’s been trying to get better at hacky sack.

WSN: Alright.

Antosiewicz:  That’s been the thing we’ve tried to improve on over the season. We’re still not very good. We get two or three touches in a row, maybe, but that’s fine because we do have a long warm-up. We get there like two hours early, and you’re not warming up the whole time, but you wanna stay moving.

WSN: Of course. 

Antosiewicz:  If I know I’m starting pitching, just something weird with me is I won’t take ground balls before I start a game. I don’t know. I had one travel game where one time I took a ground ball, jammed my finger up and it was on my pitching hand, so then that messed me up pitching. I just like to sit and relax and get my mind ready to pitch. But yeah, if I know I’m not pitching, I’ll definitely play hacky sack.

WSN: What do you tell yourself on the mound to really keep yourself focused and in the present?

Antosiewicz:  I have this thing on my glove that says ‘demoralize,’ and it’s kind of become a joke on the team. But it started with, I think I had maybe a coach in 14-U who just said it randomly, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, demoralize the competition.’ Yeah, beat them so bad that they’re demoralized. And it’s just kind of been my thing when I’m pitching now — just crush ‘em. Most of the time you won’t crush them, but you have to have that overconfidence in yourself to even compete.

WSN:  Now I’ve heard that you’ve met the new recruits. What are they like, and how do those visits typically go?

Antosiewicz:  Yeah, so we met a few of them — I don’t think we’ve met all of them because we have a few in California — but we met the local ones. They’re all super nice. I’m one of the fewer girls on the softball team that’s been in Stern, so we have another one coming into Stern next year. I’ve talked to her a lot, even before she committed here. I got on a Facetime call with her, just to tell her why she needs to come, that Stern’s so great, a great opportunity.  I’ve gotten to know them a little bit more, and I’m really excited for them to all come in.

WSN: You have one more series left against the University of Chicago, it’s your last of the season. What are you hoping for, personally? I know it’s been a lot of ups and downs, but just to close out strong. 

Antosiewicz:  We know they’re in the lower end of the conference, too, so I think it’ll be some good games. I’m hoping for our first conference win. 

WSN: Yeah. 

Antosiewicz: That would be a great way to end the season. My parents are coming in, so that’ll be nice because it’s pretty close to home. 

WSN: Oh, exciting. 

Antosiewicz: Chicago’s also just a great city, so some exploring would be fun.

WSN: Perfect. And to close off, I have to ask about your walkup song. How did you choose it, what was that like? Tell me about the whole process. 

Antosiewicz:  Okay, so my walkup song, it’s like a joke. It’s ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.’ And I’m not that big of a country person at all, but we’ve played it in the vans before, and it always gets everyone going and it’s just like — it’s not really a good song, but it makes everyone laugh and it gets the mood up, and I love that. 

And then my pitching song, it’s ‘Narco,’ and I don’t know, I just love those trumpets. There’s some MLB player, I forget who it is, but he would always walk out to these trumpets and I was like, ‘That’s so cool.’ And  that just gets me like, ‘Yeah, I’m the coolest person here.’ I love it.

WSN:  Awesome. Well, it was lovely to have you. Thank you for coming.

Antosiewicz:  Thank you so much for having me.

Contact Kiran Komanduri at [email protected].