Kayla Tulowitzki may just be a year into playing organized softball, but the improvements are showing and she has the hardware to prove it.
For the second year in a row, Tulowitzki advanced to the team finals in the Pitch, Hit and Run competition at AT&T Park.
After taking second place a year ago, Tulowitzki took first and likely called her shot to get there.
While her father Kevin was quick to point out that Kayla was likely noting that she was going to be on the older end of her age group rather than at the bottom end of her group, Kayla did note a year ago that she was coming back to win.
“I like doing it and I want to try to get first place,” she told the Times last year.
Tulowitzki said she was less nervous this year and knew what to expect.
“I knew what it was like, so I had a better feeling for it,” Kayla said.
This year, she improved her hitting distance by 25 feet, going from 83 feet a year ago to 108 feet this year.
Her overall score also jumped from 513 to 593, putting her in contention to be considered to fly out to the All Star game.
The top 3 from each age group are eligible to advance to the All Star Game, which was held in Miami on Tuesday.
While Kalya came up short of the national finals, she does have a mark to shoot for next year.
She attributed her improvement to her softball practices being a little harder plus she is also playing soccer to help her get faster.
“It helped because instead of me doing it at home, I could do it at softball practice,” Kayla said.
It did help that the aura of AT&T Park was not new to her, even if she said she still found the stadium to be awe inspiring.
“Not that much,” Kayla said when asked if she walked in with high confidence, “but at the same time, I felt like I knew the place, so I was fine with it.”
She added she loved how everything is put together.
“I also really liked how they have everything so organized,” Kayla said. “And it’s so pretty. The grass is so green.”
