After sitting out a year with injuries, Seton Hill softball's Kassidy Wittig aims to build on award-winning 2024 season

Kassidy Wittig spent her entire freshman season in the Seton Hill softball team’s dugout. It was a fate she could have accepted if she’d been sitting because other players had proven themselves to be more capable.

But Wittig didn’t even get a chance to show what she could do in the months leading up to that first season. Injured on two separate occasions in the preseason, Wittig was forced to take a redshirt without playing a single inning.

“I was very frustrated. It took a big mental toll on me, that’s for sure,” said Wittig, a North Hills grad. “I’m sitting here like, ‘Now what?’ ”

But rather than feel sorry for herself, Wittig remained fully engaged with the team. Coach Cassie Moore often joked that Wittig became another assistant coach: offering to retrieve something from the office, setting balls on the tee for batting practice, giving a teammate the occasional pep talk.

More importantly, she got a chance to observe. She watched the opposing teams’ pitchers, read their tendencies. She watched her teammates at the plate or in the field, trying to pick up on something that might help her whenever she could play again.

Wittig proved to be an astute learner. When she got healthy for her redshirt freshman year, she more than made up for lost time.

Wittig led Seton Hill, which finished 37-17, 23-9 in the PSAC last season, with a .427 batting average. She drove in 27 runs, scored 43 more, had 15 multi-hit games and finished second on the team with 22 stolen bases.

It all added up to PSAC West Freshman of the Year honors and a spot on the all-conference first team.

“She could have very easily been an injured girl on the sidelines pouting about not playing,” said Moore, in her third season as the Griffins’ coach. “She was so engaged. … Anytime I needed somebody, she was always right there and always willing to help.

“She didn’t just sit on the sidelines and pick daisies.”

The injuries that put her on the sidelines occurred one on top of the other. In September 2022, she suffered a partially torn labrum that snuffed out her fall season. The good news was, it was an injury that didn’t require surgery, so after a couple of months of rehab, she would be ready to go.

Then, in January, the team was working out indoors, and the outfielders were practicing diving, using mats to cover the floor. Two of the mats were pushed together, and, on one of Wittig’s dives, she ended up tearing ligaments in the thumb of her glove (right) hand.

“My body kept going, but my glove got caught in between the two mats,” she said.

Again, no surgery was required, but Wittig was forced to keep her hand in a removable cast for three months. That meant her freshman season was done.

Moore, who was hired after Wittig had committed to Seton Hill under the previous coaching regime, said she saw Wittig in action “for about a week” that first year.

“So I really had no idea what she could do,” Moore said. “When she came back in the spring (of 2023), we were like, ‘Whoa, she’s pretty good.’ Then she got injured again.”

That’s when Wittig turned into a student of the game.

“I used (the time off) to my advantage,” she said. “I didn’t say, ‘Oh well.’ I took it into a better perspective and thought of the outcome I could get from learning the game from the other side: what the parents see, what the coaches see.”

Wittig admitted she was nervous when she came back. After all, it had been a year without seeing live pitching and a year without defensive reps in the outfield.

She went hitless in her collegiate debut last February but then had seven hits in her next 10 at-bats and was on her way. During one seven-game stretch of PSAC West games from March 26 to April 6, she went 12 for 17 (.706) with nine runs scored and nine RBIs.

Included in that stretch was her first collegiate home run. And after starting the year hitting out of the No. 9 spot, Wittig was moved to leadoff.

“I definitely was surprised, especially having a whole year off,” Wittig said. “I took it literally one day at a time. Getting those injuries … we don’t realize how much we take for granted the sport we play.”

Moore, on the other hand, wasn’t necessarily surprised. She said the quality that sets Wittig apart is her tenacity and refusal to give up on an at-bat.

With Wittig being a left-hander, Moore is always able to watch her facial expressions at the plate and usually knows when something good is about to happen. In a recent game, Wittig smacked a double, and Moore told her she knew she was going to get a big hit.

“She has multiple tools in her belt,” Moore said. “She can bunt, she can slap, she can hit. If she has a long at-bat, she can grind it out and foul balls off until she can get one she can drive.

“If she goes 0-2 (in the count), I still have faith that she’s going to get it done.”

Defensively, Wittig played left field as a redshirt freshman but is playing more right field this season. While she said she prefers left field, she is getting more comfortable playing in right. Moore, meanwhile, said she has no qualms about using Wittig at either corner outfield spot.

She also is confident there will be no “sophomore slump” for Wittig. Heading into Tuesday’s games, Wittig was hitting .370 with three RBIs and nine runs, and the Griffins were 6-4.

Wittig said she has set the bar higher for herself this season. She doesn’t want her accolades to stop at freshman of the year. And now that she is healthy, she is determined not to let anything slow her down.

“I want to continue to succeed, continue to get better and do better,” she said. “To me, that’s last year, so what’s this year going to be?”