The pitches are leaving the ballpark on wings, when Kaitlyn Doucette comes up to bat.
The Correlieu Secondary School graduate, who played her Junior softball with the Prince George Thunderbirds and White Rock Renegades, is now in her first year with the Grays Harbor College Chokers based in Aberdeen, Washington.
This past week cemented why she is a standout not only for the team, but across the 36-team Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC). A relatively lukewarm start has now been blasted over the fence.
“Doucette had a great week at the dish for Grays Harbor, helping lead them to a win on the road at Clackamas. The sophomore slugger went 9-for-15 with four home runs, eight RBIs and nine runs scored. She also had two doubles with one walk and no strikeouts,” said a statement from the league in naming her the NWAC Hitter Of The Week.
“Every ball she hit this week was on an absolute line somewhere, including her outs,” said head coach Jacob White. “Kaitlyn also had a walk and a Hit By Pitch giving her an On-Base Percentage of .647 and a Slugging Percentage of 1.533.”
In addition to the league award, she was also named both the Choker Glove (she plays First Base and Pitcher) for her defensive work, and the Choker Player Of The Day.
The team has played 28 games so far this season. Doucette was brought in sparingly at first, but has now appeared in 22 games and is in sole possession of the team lead in home runs (9), her 30 hits are good for third on the team (first is 38), her 24 runs rank third on the team only three out of first place, and her 25 RBIs are only two back of the team lead.
This after only 68 at-bats, while two on the team have more than 90 and two others more than 70. Her .494 on-base percentage is also third on the team (tops is .526) and her slugging percentage of .912 is tops on the Chokers.
As of April 27’s double-header, there are eight regular season games remaining, plus a tournament.
READ MORE: Quesnel’s Kaitlin Doucette blasting bombs in college ball