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Canfield native Keller growing with Northwestern Ohio
Canfield native growing with Northwestern Ohio
By charles grove
A lot of high school athletes are recruited by coaches wooing them with team histories, program traditions and a winning culture. Canfield native Kayley Keller chose a school with a blank canvas.
The University of Northwestern Ohio Racers weren’t even an active program when the school recruited Keller. Her freshman year was the program’s inaugural season and she was one of 13 freshmen and a handful of transfers laying the foundation of a program rather than continuing to build on one.
“I wanted to be part of something not many people get to say — to be like, ‘I was the foundation of this team and program’ and come back in 20 years and see where they’re at and say, ‘I was there at the beginning.’” Keller said. “It was attractive to be part of something new.”
Coaches made promises of new facilities after a few years, but Keller, a junior outfielder, said it took an awful lot of trust when there wasn’t even a current team at the university.
“Initially it was different,” Keller said. “We have fantastic facilities now and the coaches were like, ‘Here’s what you’re coming into and here’s what we’re going to be doing the next couple of years. Now we have an indoor practice facility, a new gym, brand new apartment-style dorms and our baseball and softball fields are unbelievably beautiful. You just had to be trusting for what was to come.”
The NAIA school, located in Lima, has seen initial success in their first three years. The Racers’ first season, played mostly with freshmen, ended with a 17-23 record. The following year the program had its first winning season at 25-17 and this past season the Racers went 27-18 overall and went 10-8 in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
Individually, Keller has seen a comparable amount of improvement in her hitting as well. Keller improved from a .229 batting average her freshman year to a .366 average this past year. She also improved her on-base percentage from .393 freshman year to .478 this season.
Despite just a three-year-old record book, Keller does hold school records for most hits in one game (5) and most RBIs in a game (7). Keller credited hitting coach Tom Riepenhoff’s countless hours of individual attention as the main reason for her personal success and the success of the team.
“He is very focused on the process,” Keller said. “In preseason we do a lot of video and attention to detail. He spends hours with us individually. He’s made me a very confident hitter at the plate.
“We don’t want to get down in the count. We want pitchers to know we’re hitting anything and we don’t want them feeling comfortable throwing to us.”
Keller has the unique distinction of batting left-handed, but throwing right-handed — providing a nice change of pace in the lineup.
“I’m left-handed in most things I do, but my dad taught me how to throw righty,” Keller said. “It just came a bit more naturally for me. When I played volleyball I was an outside hitter and I hit right-handed. But pretty much all aspects of my life I’m a lefty. I write left-handed and I golf left-handed. I would have no idea how to bat right-handed.”