With a cousin like Troy Tulowitzki no wonder that Kayla Tulowitzki is a natural at throwing and hitting a softball.
The 7-year-old advanced to compete in the Giants Team Championship for the Pitch, Hit and Run competition and take second within her age group.
Though she was among the youngest to compete, she easily advanced out of the local competition to the sectionals, where she was the all around champion.
From there she was chosen to compete for the change to represent the Giants at the Pitch, Run and Hit competition at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in San Diego.
Kayla had only just picked up softball.
She joined the Spirit recreational team in February and enjoyed it enough to take part in the 8U competitive team that won at the Manzanita Mayhem.
Her mom Susan found out about the competition as asked her daughter if that was something she’d like to try.
“She said I could try it out and I decided it would be cool to try it,” Kayla said.
The competition, held by Spirit, tested the competitors on how fast they can run to home from second, how far and straight they could hit off the tee and if they could throw a strike.
For the hitting, there was a line extending out to second base and competitors had to hit the ball as far as they could within a foot of the line. If the ball traveled out of that zone, their distance would be subtracted up to a minimum of 50 feet.
Kayla hit hers 98 feet without a penalty and didn’t have deductions in any of the three levels.
For the pitching, each player threw six balls, either overhand or the softball pitching motion, and received 75 points for each one that landed in the standard MLB strike zone.
At the local level, she won the running and hitting competition to advance to the sectionals in Marina.
After sectionals, the top three from around Northern California went on to AT&T Park.
“It was a much bigger field compared to mine,” Kayla said.
At the team championships, the girls competed like normal, except when running the bases, instead of running the usual 60 feet between bases, they had to run the 90 feet between the baseball bases.
Because Kayla was in the youngest division and youngest in her division she had to go first.
“I was nervous for her because you don’t know how anyone else is doing,” Susan said.
Kayla said she was nervous to start, but once she got going she felt better, even though she slipped to start off.
Kayla said she wants to try again next year.
“Because I got the experience, I like doing it and I want to try to get first place,” Kayla said.
