Kaia Oliver emerges as potential ace in Syracuse’s pitching rotation
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When Kaia Oliver played her first season of club softball with the 10U Washington Kaos, she would throw some pitches with her eyes closed. She always had a knack for finding the strike zone, and at 10 years old, it was rare for her to give up hits. So her father and coach, Rob, wanted to challenge Oliver during games.
“We’d have her close her eyes and pitch during the game,” Rob said. “She would actually close her eyes and just visualize the pitch (as she threw it).”
The tactic caused her to give up an occasional hit or two, but it helped her refocus her pitching abilities, Rob said. She became one of the best youth pitchers in Washington.
Now in her sophomore season at Syracuse (4-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast), Oliver is a consistent starter in the Orange’s pitching rotation. Through her first 21 ⅓ innings with the Orange this season, Oliver leads the team in ERA (2.53) and has helped SU secure two wins. Head coach Shannon Doepking utilizes Oliver as her No. 2 starter, behind graduate student and four-year starter Alexa Romero.
“She’s a bigger kid, taller, got long levers. You knew that there was going to be some availability to put some strength on in the future,” former SU coach Mike Bosch said. “She had a lot of potential.”
Bosch compared her competitiveness to that of Romero, who was playing in her rookie season at Syracuse when Oliver committed. He believed the two pitchers would complement each other in the long run.
“I saw them very similar in the competition standpoint, just very different as far as the way they pitch,” Bosch said. “You always want to have that pitching staff that can bring differences.”
At Ridgefield (Wash.) High School, Oliver was one of three pitchers in the Spudders’ rotation and earned a reputation as the team’s most reliable pitching option. Through four seasons at Ridgefield, Oliver went 44-12 with a 1.03 ERA and 603 strikeouts through 375 innings.
“She pitched the majority of the games and went through many situations,” her twin sister, Karli, said.
Karli, a women’s basketball player at George Fox University, had played with Oliver both in high school and on nearly every club team. As an infielder at Ridgefield, Karli knew that her sister trusted fielders, allowing her to step up when the pressure increased on the mound.
That pressure accumulated whenever Ridgefield competed in the postseason. Oliver led them to three Greater St. Helens 2A District championship games and one Washington Interscholastic Activities Association 2A state semifinal appearance, which came during her senior year.
Ridgefield faced Ephrata High School in the opening round of state competition during her senior season, and Oliver pitched a complete game. She led the team to a commanding 6-0 victory, allowing only five hits and throwing a career-high 20 strikeouts.
“She always wanted the ball in her hand,” Rob said. “(Even) if she was injured, you couldn’t get her off the mound.”
And the stakes were high in her first start of 2021. Oliver hadn’t pitched more than two innings since a season ago, but Doepking left Oliver in the game heading into extra innings with the score tied at two. In the top of the ninth, Carli Campbell’s RBI single gave Syracuse a 3-2 lead over North Carolina going into the bottom half of the inning, leaving it up to Oliver to round out her second complete game in an Orange uniform.
Kaia Oliver pitches for the Orange. She leads the team with a 2.53 ERA this season. Courtesy of SU Athletics
Oliver struck out her first two batters, and next up was Hannah George, her 35th batter of the afternoon. Three pitches into the at-bat, Oliver was ahead of the count — one ball and two strikes — when a high-rising fastball caught George swinging for Oliver’s ninth strikeout of the game and her first win of the season.
“She loves the pressure, always calm,” Rob said. “She doesn’t like losing.”