Finally healthy, Latrobe grad Kiley Myers helps Marist softball team capture MAAC championship

The season didn’t end the way Marist softball pitcher Kiley Myers wanted it to end. But at least it ended in the NCAA Tournament, and it ended with the Latrobe grad throwing a game emblematic of her 2023 season.

Though Myers and the Red Foxes were roughed up in a 9-0 run-rule loss to third-ranked Florida State in the first round, Myers bounced back. Against South Carolina, she gave up only one earned run on four hits in going the distance of a hard-luck 2-1 loss that eliminated Marist.

But those two losses hardly define Myers’ spring. In her fourth season at Marist, she had a breakout year, heading into the NCAA Tournament with a 13-5 record and 2.37 ERA. After making only 33 appearances over her first three seasons, she made 28 — including the NCAAs — this spring.

“I always knew it was there,” said Red Foxes’ 15th-year coach Joe Ausanio, an 11th-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1988 who later pitched in 41 games for the New York Yankees over the 1994 and ’95 seasons. “Unfortunately, she’s had some bumps in the road with her knee. To see her reach her full potential has been amazing to watch, and I couldn’t be happier for her.”

The knee issue Ausanio alluded to dogged Myers for two years. Her freshman season was interrupted by the covid-19 stoppage. Then, toward the end of her sophomore season, she suffered an injury to her left knee — the leg she uses to stride toward the plate when she pitches.

She had surgery at the end of her sophomore year, but, she said, the knee never fully healed. Another surgery was required after her junior season.

“If it was the knee that I pushed off with, I might have been able to handle it a little better,” Myers said. “Resisting with the front foot is what makes all of your pitches move and get velocity, so that definitely was hard.

“I feel like I just kind of made it work with my knee injury, so I was never really at 100%. It was more like 80 or 90% So this year, being pretty much pain free most of the time, was great.”

And her return to health couldn’t have come at a better time for Marist.

The Red Foxes headed into the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed after going 12-8 in the regular season. In the opener against No. 6 Iona, Myers came on in relief of starter Calista Phippen and threw 3¹⁄₃ innings of shutout ball to get the win in a 2-1 Marist triumph.

Against second-seeded Mount St. Mary’s, which had defeated Marist twice in the regular season, Myers gave up two earned runs and struck out nine in six innings of a 4-2 Red Foxes victory.

Then came No. 1 seed Canisius, which Marist was required to defeat twice to win the conference title and earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In the first game, Myers wasn’t at her best, giving up four earned runs in 4¹⁄₃ innings, but the Red Foxes still pulled out a 6-5 win.

In the second game, Myers showed her mettle. She went all seven innings, scattering seven hits and giving up only two earned runs. She retired the last seven hitters as the Red Foxes triumphed 6-2 to win their fourth MAAC title and first since 2016.

Myers was named the tournament’s most outstanding player for her effort.

“I think there was a lot more on the line as far as the second game goes,” she said. “And then, after seeing the hitters the first time in that first game against them, I was able to make the necessary adjustments to be more successful in the second game.

“I was actually really surprised (about the MVP). … I didn’t really know it was a thing until the day of (the final). I just always pitched to the best of my ability.”

Said Ausanio: “She was phenomenal in the MAAC Tournament. It’s just perseverance. She persevered through some injuries and some ups and downs. We had another pitcher go down at the tournament, and Kiley stepped up. … She embraced the role and took over, and we just kind of jumped on along for the ride and she took us home.”

There is a silver lining in those seasons when Myers struggled. Because of covid and because of her injuries, she has two more years of eligibility remaining, and she plans to take them both.

With a full, healthy offseason to work, Myers is eager to see what next season can bring.

“The last two summers I have been in physical therapy for my knee, so I haven’t had time to really progress or get better as far as pitching goes,” she said. “And once you get back on campus, you kind of hit the ground running with your fall season and then you get into spring pretty quickly.

“So just working on my movement … getting my speed better, I really have this whole summer to really fine-tune my pitching. I think I will be able to come back even better next season.”

Specifically, Myers said she wants to work on perfecting her drop ball and make her rise ball more consistent. She also is looking to improve her changeup to add to her repertoire.

Ausanio is excited to see what more Myers can come up with after what she showed this season.

“Honestly, her improvement alone on some of her spin pitches this year has been phenomenal,” he said. “She’s been what we call an ‘east-west’ kid with curveball, screwball. But she’s really developed a rise ball now that spins well, and she gets a lot of swings and misses on it.

“And she is consistently working on getting her changeup better, which is a key pitch for pitchers at this level.”