Tracy O’Brien Lakeside Year: Junior Sport: Baseball Event: Pitcher

Lakeside junior pitcher Tracy O’Brien learned fast.

She is the No. 1 pitcher in coach Mary McAdams’ rotation in only her second year of fastpitch softball.

With the help of Larry Fountain (who conducts off-season clinics) and Lakeside assistant Jim Stockman, O’Brien has emerged as a pitcher to be reckoned with in the Northeast A league.

Two weekends ago she pitched the Eagles to 8-5 and 6-0 wins in a doubleheader against Colfax in which she held the Bulldogs to just five hits in both games. Just days before that, she pitched back-toback wins (15-4 and 12-1) against Chewelah.

What did it take to go from slowpitch to fastpitch?

“In the off-season I attended pitching clinics that started at 9 a.m. and went to 5 p.m. The thing that I noticed the most was that I couldn’t spend a lot of time away from not throwing, because when I started again I was just so sore.”

O’Brien, who sports a 3.65 GPA, pitches for 45 minutes between a class break, during practice and after practice.

“I think I’ve improved my accuracy and my speed has definitely picked up,” she said.

“I know looking back doesn’t do any good, but sometimes I wonder where I’d be now if I’d started earlier.”