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Periera keeps improving

Sports

Wednesday, 01 August 2012 13:45

OHS pitcher helped Kowgirls advance to regional title game

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Coming from a family that produces softball players the way Dole grows pineapples, it’s no surprise that Osceola High junior Kenya Pereira found a place in the Lady Kowboys varsity lineup in a hurry.

Kenya’s older sisters, Keisha and Kimberly, each played softball and earned college scholarships. Her dad, Keith Pereira, is a former OHS assistant coach who founded the Osceola Overdrive travel softball program.
“I started playing when I was around 5. I always was around the field,” Kenya said.
Like most elite-level players, softball is a way of life for her.
“We play most of the year, but I like it. It keeps me busy,” she said.
Pereira was extremely busy in late April and early May, when she was the team’s main option in the pitching circle after teammate Morgan Crapo was injured.
All Pereira did was pitch the Lady Kowboys to the 7A-2 regional championship game, Osceola’s deepest trip into the playoff bracket since the 1996 team played for the state championship.
Pereira, the Osceola News-Gazette Softball Player of the Year, won three of five postseason contests and pitched well in the games she lost.
Coach George Coffey said Pereira understood, that with Crapo unavailable, that she was the key to the team’s playoff success.
“I told her that we were going put the saddle on her and ride her as far as we could, and she responded to that challenge,” Coffey said. “Kenya made remarkable progress this season, and not only on the field. Mentally, she matured, and that made her a much improved player.”
Pereira was 11-7 with a 3.37 ERA; at the plate, she batted .374 and knocked in 28 runs, averaging one run batted in per game for a team that finished 19-9.
She enjoys hitting, but she loves being in the pitcher’s circle.
“You feel like you can control the game when you’re pitching,” she said.
Pereira has five pitches, she said, and it has taken years of work with her dad, also her pitching coach, to develop them.
“I feel pretty confident with all of them; I feel most confident with my curve,” she said.
An improved change-up made her more effective late in the season.
“I think I did use it a little more. I think I’m throwing it better now than I did before,” she said.
Coffey said Pereira is making the transition from a player who reacts to situations to one that plans her actions.
“You could see that in the last 10 or so games. She was thinking out there, she was remembering what batters had done earlier and planned how she was going to attack them,” Coffey said.
An important district win at East Ridge late in the season is a turning point in her career, said Coffey.
“We were up, but it was close and she was in a little trouble, so I went out to the mound and told her that I needed a little more giddy-up from her,” he said. “She told me she was giving me giddy-up, but I told her I needed more. Well, she got mad. She turned her back on me. But, she gave me more giddy-up. From that point on, she was a different player.”
Entering her senior year, Pereira has big plans for the Lady Kowboys in 2013.
“I want to play at the state tournament,” she said.
That would require overcoming a major obstacle in 7A Region 2 named Bartow. The Yellow Jackets, who have made consecutive visits to the state tournament, have eliminated OHS from the playoffs the past two seasons.
“We’re going to be good. We can beat them,” she said.
Coffey said with Pereira in the circle, the Lady Kowboys can play with anyone.
“Definitely. She can beat anybody in the state, absolutely,” Coffey said.
“She still needs a little work with her practice habits, but she’s going to get that taken care of. The thing about her is that she is very level-headed, she’s never way up or way down. And, she never pays attention to her stats. She has no idea.”