Kayla Kowalik (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kayla Kowalik continues to reap the benefits of her historic softball season — she led the NCAA in batting average with a .495 mark and also in total hits with 100. She won the Johnny Bench Award given to the top NCAA Division I softball catcher in Kentucky and had to be an easy choice for the selection committee since she was a first-team All-American.
But just a day after winning that award the junior was also named a second-team academic all-district second-team player and is now eligible for the national Academic All-America team. She had a 3.398 grade-point average to earn the academic honor along with teammates Renee Abernathy and Grace Baalman.
It’s hard to appreciate all Kowalik did last season coming off the shortened COVID 2020 season.
She was the first UK player to ever have 100 hits in a season. Think about that. The first Kentucky player ever in history to have 100 hits.
She caught every SEC game in 2021 and had a .993 fielding percentage and threw out four base steals. She even managed to steal a team-high 23 bases — the most steals by a UK player since Molly Belcher has 29 in 2009. That’s a huge feat for a catcher.
Kowalik had 11 doubles, six triples, a career-high 12 home runs, and 37 RBI. Her 27 walks combined with her batting average gave her a team-best .554 on-base percentage this season.
It was just an incredible season — one we may never see again — and it is even more impressive when you consider what she did academically along with her athletic prowess.
