Khala Taylor doesn’t have any Pac-12 at-bats under her belt, but that doesn’t faze the freshman outfielder.
Not much does.
Taylor will get her first taste of Pac-12 play this Friday as the Cal softball team (23-3) hosts Utah (13-10-1) to kick off its conference season.
She might be a freshman, but Taylor holds the highest batting average on the team at .354 and holds the team-high in triples with two.
Some might call it beginner’s luck. But for Taylor, it’s her mindset that has been instrumental to her success.
“Softball is such a difficult sport because it’s based off of failure,” Taylor said. “If you’re batting .300, you’re failing seven out of 10 times. For me, knowing that this sport is based off of failure, I knew that in order for me to succeed, I had to dig down deeper.”
Taylor hasn’t failed much this season. Typically hitting near the bottom of the batting order in the Bears’ star-studded lineup, the freshman was one of the anchors in Cal’s recent 22-game winning streak.
Thrust into the lineup after Cal’s first loss of the season back in February, Taylor has been a mainstay ever since. Combining a confident swing with blazing speed on the basepaths — she was a two-time sprinter of the year in high school — Taylor has played an integral role in restocking the Bears’ talent after they lost stars Valerie Arioto and Frani Echavarria to graduation last season.
Usually, freshmen playing Division I softball go through an adjustment period. But Taylor’s attitude has proved pivotal in responding to any setbacks this season.
In a four-game stretch earlier this season against Baylor, Saint Mary’s, Fresno State and San Diego State, Taylor batted a meager .200. She responded by posting a .625 batting average the next three games.
“Overcoming fear and adversity in hitting has made me so successful,” Taylor said. “When freshmen feel like they aren’t good enough … I feel like I’ve already overcome that.”
Taylor will look to continue her hot hitting against Utah in Cal’s first Pac-12 series. The Utes will send staff-ace Naomi Amu to cool down the freshman, as Amu boasts a 2.13 ERA. Collectively, the Utes’ ERA rests comfortably at 3.00, which should challenge the Bears’ offense, which averages more than five runs per game.
A sweep of this weekend’s series is imperative for the Bears because they won’t have many more easy games this regular season. In fact, this is Cal’s only Pac-12 series against an unranked team. The next seven series will feature teams all ranked nationally, including No. 2 Arizona State and No. 10 Oregon.
Still, Taylor insists that the Utes can’t be overlooked. She prefers to look at every opponent in the same light in order to limit the Bears’ chance of failure.
“We don’t overlook any of the teams that we face,” Taylor said. “We just know that there’s another team on the opposite side of the dugout that we have to play against.”
Sean Wagner-McGough covers softball. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @seanjwagner.