Mead Infielder On Deck For High-Mileage Summer

Mead second baseman Kelly Kinder would travel hundreds of miles to play a softball game. In fact, she often does.

As a member of a Seattle-based all-star team composed of players 18 and under from throughout Washington, Kinder spends most of her summers on the road.

“I live out of my bags pretty much all summer,” Kinder said.

This June, for instance, she’ll spend a month on the road, traveling to Tacoma for a tournament, taking her senior graduation trip to Mazatlan, Mexico, and playing in two more tournaments, one in Colorado, before coming home.

The all-star team plays 60 to 70 games and is a cut above the typical select 18-U teams, said Kinder. She will be Spokane’s only representative on the team.

Last year Gonzaga Prep graduate Alana Klaus, now pitching for a college in Florida, was a teammate.

“Sometimes, when there are no rides, I stay over there,” said Kinder, who has an aunt in Lynnwood. “Last year Alana and I would fly over with ‘friends fly free’ tickets.”

Unfortunately, one non-trip she wanted to make, to the State AAA softball tournament in Spokane this weekend, eluded Kinder and the Panthers during a series of one-run regional games last weekend.

Top-seeded from Spokane, Mead lost 3-2 to the Big Nine’s fourth-place team, Wenatchee, and then defeated Eisenhower of Yakima and lost to Richland by identical 4-3 scores.

With her accelerated softball background, Kinder has been one to step up in the clutch for her Panther softball team.

The second-year starter and AllGreater Spokane League second baseman was instrumental in helping Mead win the league title with a 15-1 record and the district championship. The Panthers posted three wins over preseason favorite and regional champion Rogers.

“She’s not our top batter for average, but the majority of her hits were critical,” said Mead coach Bridget Monahan.

In each league win over Rogers, Kinder hit a home run. In the first game, her first-inning homer opened the scoring. Her two-run homer in the second game completed a rally that beat the Pirates.

“How can you replace the tone she sets?” asked her coach.

During the district championship game, the Panthers trailed Rogers 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh when Kinder singled in a run with one out and eventually scored the game winner.

“I just play to the best of my ability and try to help the team,” the .422 hitter said. “Winning league was not so much a surprise as winning district.”

Kinder began playing T-ball in Colville 13 years ago and worked her way through various local select teams before landing on the Seattlebased team, on which she plays center field.

After this summer it will be off to college to major in criminal psychology and play softball competitively for four more years before shifting gears and becoming a recreational player.

“The part I get burned out on is practice,” Kinder said. “I could play every day of the week.”