Kleist Armed For Success As Ducks Begin Practice For 2018 Season

On the Oregon softball team's December foreign tour in New Zealand, junior pitcher Megan Kleist participated in jet-boat riding and whitewater rafting.

When it came to bungee jumping, though, the Ducks' returning staff ace opted to watch from the sideline. The teammates who participated seemed to be having a blast, she observed, but just watching them frightened her "to death."

"I'm really scared of heights," Kleist said recently, in recounting details from the trip.

This week, Kleist and the Ducks began practice for the upcoming season, looking to build off last season's Women's College World Series appearance. Kleist better not be afraid of heights when it comes to softball, because she's achieved plenty already – and UO coach Mike White wants to see her ascend even higher as a junior.

"She's asked me, 'Coach, how can I get better?' " White said. "I say, 'Mechanically, there's not much else that I see that you're lacking. You've got good velocity. Your spins are as good as anybody out there. Your off-speed's great."

The last time Kleist was in the circle at Oregon's Jane Sanders Stadium, she showed off that full array of tools. Following a regular season that earned her first-team all-Pac-12 honors, Kleist pitched the game of her life to shut out Kentucky in the Super Regional round, helping propel the Ducks to Oklahoma City.

Once in OKC, Kleist recovered from an opening game loss by getting a clutch three-out save and throwing a complete game to keep Oregon alive with two wins in the same day. Defensive lapses hurt the Ducks as they were eliminated in the semifinal round, but Kleist still finished 21-5 with a 1.32 ERA, and a Pac-12-leading nine shutouts.

94902

Then, earlier this month, Kleist was selected from a tryout to make her Team USA debut later this year, on a squad with UO teammate Jenna Lilley and alumni Jessica Moore and Nikki Udria.

Great heights, all of those are. White's goal for Kleist as a junior is to get comfortable with them, metaphorically on the softball field if not literally.

Despite all her physical gifts, and two years of success in college softball's toughest conference, Kleist still faces moments of doubt. In particular, she can overthink things when facing familiar competition – whether the second or third time through the batting order, or when facing a team twice in the same weekend.

Kleist handled such situations fine at times last season; against Arizona State, Oregon State and Stanford all, she was at least as good the second time facing them, if not better. But one day after limiting Washington to one run in seven innings last April, Kleist was touched for three earned in three innings of relief; the Ducks ended up opening WCWS play against UW six weeks later, and the Huskies beat Kleist and the Ducks again, 3-1.

In those situations, Kleist still had the same nasty stuff in her arsenal. She just needed to trust it.

"You start to give hitters too much credit," White said. "You start to think they know everything that's coming – and truthfully, they never really do. They don't know where the ball's going to go."

Kleist saw proof of that during the foreign tour to New Zealand. The Ducks played eight games, all against essentially the same roster, and their junior ace was consistently dominant. With sophomore Miranda Elish on the mend from injury, Kleist and sophomore Maggie Balint had to handle the pitching load, only increasing the frequency of facing familiar hitters.

A couple weeks later, in early January, Kleist was selected from the national team tryout to pitch for Team USA in an all-star series and World Cup event later this year. Trying out for Team USA was "a dream come true," Kleist said.

"Even just going to the tryout, I was happy to get there," she said. "But you don't want to just be happy to get there, you want to make the team. I'm one step closer. I made the team, and I'm really excited to play some international ball this summer."

96328

Last season's experience in Oklahoma City has helped Kleist learn not to overthink certain situations. The Ducks faced a boisterous partisan crowd in their elimination game against Oklahoma, and Kleist pitched them to a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth before the Sooners rallied.

White said Kleist in the past has had a tendency to "tighten up" in big situations. She faced plenty of them in the postseason last spring, and generally came through with positive results.

"Playing in the World Series really opened my eyes to keeping the game simple," Kleist said. "You don't want to make the game bigger than what it is. I think that's a little bit of what we did that last game. We got a bit caught up in the moment."

As her junior year nears, White wants to see Kleist approach pressure moments the way she does an offseason bullpen session – by trusting her stuff, and cutting loose. A fear of heights may be OK on a bungee-jumping platform, but it won't do in the softball circle. Getting over it will help Kleist achieve her potential, with the Ducks and Team USA, this year and beyond.

"I think in a couple more years she'll get there," White said. "And as we go along, hopefully she gets it sooner than that – like this season."