Kasie at the bat

In many ways, Kasie Pace is your everyday nine year-old girl. She’s a good student who is going into her fourth grade year at Baker Butler Elementary, she enjoys spending time with her parents and grandparents, and likes to go camping and ride dirt bikes.
What sets Kasie apart is her passion for the game of baseball, which she got her first taste of while playing tee ball when she was four. She then played machine-pitch the following year, and her interest grew. It was a trip to Davenport Field to see the University of Virginia baseball team play that she discovered her interest in pitching.
This past season, Kasie was a member of the Northside Little League’s 9-10 year-old Indians team, the youngest in the division.
The Indians finished second out of six teams in the regular season with a 9-5 record, and Kasie was a big part of the team’s success. She had a .450 batting average and .659 on-base percentage, was one of the best pitchers on the team, and also played catcher and shortstop.
After the regular season, Kasie was chosen to the All-Star team, her third such honor in her short but successful baseball career. She has learned how to throw a slider, is working on perfecting her changeup, and is even in the process of mastering switch hitting.
“I had the opportunity to coach Kasie during the regular season as well as on the nine year old All Star team this year,” said Wes Pritchett, who admitted that he relied on her to be one of his main pitchers and most productive hitters. “She filled both of those roles for me better than I could have ever hoped for.”
Growing up, Kasie’s father, Alan, played third base for the Earlysville Hornets in American Legion, and has worked with her on a daily basis to help her improve in every facet of the game — whether it be hitting, pitching, base-running, fielding or just about anything in between.
“I’m the one who taught her everything she knows,” Alan said in a recent interview. “Every day I’m practicing with her, explaining things, showing her things, taking her to the batting cage so she can hit, and things like that.”
Kasie continued to hit the ball well while playing with the All-Star team, registering an average of .750. On July 3rd, in the second round of the All-Stars District V tournament, Kasie pitched a 12-0 no-hitter against Orange, allowing just three base runners on walks.
The next day, she hit a home run against Greene over the fence at Northside’s home field at Hollymead, something that only three 12-year-olds had accomplished all year. Keep in mind, Kasie is just nine.
“When she hit the home run, I measured it,” said her father. “It went 228 feet and the fence is only 195 feet.”
Pritchett added: “I have been involved with youth baseball for a long time now, and it is not very often that you see a kid pitch a no-hitter in one game, and then turn around and hit an over-the-fence home run in the next. I would say that it is pretty rare to see a kid accomplish these two feats, and extremely rare considering they were accomplished by a nine-year-old girl.”
When asked how her mom Renee reacted after the home run, Kasie responded, “She got kicked out, because she ran to home plate and touched me before I even touched the plate.”
Renee and Alan are proud of what their daughter has accomplished, and have hopes of watching her continue to play baseball as long as she can, and eventually make the transition to softball. Kasie started playing the sport last fall on Saturday mornings in addition to baseball at night.
In fact, that’s when she really started to concentrate on pitching, and some of the girls complained that she was throwing the ball too hard. Even in her free time, Kasie challenges her uncle to baseball games on the Nintendo Wii.
“I want to play softball for Albemarle High School,” said Kasie, who has already made friends with and caught the attention of Patriots coach Bill Hutchinson. “[Being successful] makes me feel like I can go on forever to play softball and baseball. I want to go to either Virginia Tech or UVa.”
Alan added: “I would like to see her go to UVa since it’s right here, close to us, but I think Virginia Tech is better at softball. But it’s her choice wherever she wants to go. If she could play in high school and get a scholarship and play in college, that’s our dream.”
When practice began in All-Star play for all of the age divisions, Kasie was not only working with her team of nine year-olds, but the 10, 11 and 12 year-olds as well. Alan said she would just stay on the field all day, and believes that all of the work that he and Kasie put in year-round, along with the other things she picks up in practice will pay huge dividends in the future.
“Unfortunately, most people seem to think that girls can’t play baseball with boys, that they should only play softball,” said Pritchett. “For anyone that has this opinion, I strongly encourage you to come out to Northside and watch Kasie play a game or two, then tell whether or not girls can compete with boys in youth sports.”
Kasie has the passion, the drive, and all of the tools to become a great player at either sport, and does something baseball or softball related every single day. When asked how she plans to spend the remainder of her summer, her response may not be too surprising.
“I want to just keep practicing and getting better.”