Softball or volleyball?
That was the choice Aurora graduate McKennah Metzger faced at the end of her freshman year, determining which sport she needed to focus on to take her athletic career to the collegiate level. Her intuition to focus on softball paid off as she will compete at Coastal Carolina University.
“They have a great softball program, and it is something that initially caught my eye when I was looking to go there,” Metzger told The Weekly Villager on July 5. “I am so excited and I think I am ready for the new chapter as much as it is hard to close one, I think I have been ready since I have committed.”
The 2024 Aurora grad leaves the Greenmen softball program having been a four-year varsity starter and setting the single season record for most home runs in a season in her junior and senior years.
In four years, Metzger batted .547, drove in 173 runs while hitting 39 home runs and hurled 371.2 innings, striking out 496 batters and compiling a 54-11 record.
Metzger’s next challenge will be joining a new softball program that has not made the NCAA Division I College World Series since the 2012 season.
“It’s literally crazy to sit here and talk about because I would have never imagined being on a team that could possibly go there,” she noted. “I will do everything in my power to help them get there because that is one of my biggest dreams of my life.”
Metzger said she became involved with athletics at a young age because of a subtle push from her parents. She primarily competed in softball, volleyball and basketball but soon focused on volleyball and softball. Becoming a pitcher was not something she considered until her softball recreation coach, Sam Petrash, gave her the ball and sent her into the pitcher’s circle when she was only 7-years-old.
Metzger realized that she not only had a knack for pitching, but she also enjoyed it.
“I remember we were just playing and winning games and it was so much fun to be in my own zone when I had a team around me and I remember just honestly working together with my team,” she said.
She acknowledged that becoming a pitcher pushed her out of her comfort zone and forced her to have focus on her individual game a little more, but she discovered that although she was on her own when she was in the circle, her teammates still had her back.
“I think that is what me feel so at peace when I was pitching,” she added. “I could control things myself yet if things get out of control there are so many people behind me who can put it back in control who can calm me down and work with me.”
When she reached high school, she became a varsity starter on the volleyball and softball team. Although she was only a freshman, she already knew most of her teammates because they had played together in the recreation and travel leagues. She split time with upperclassmen McKenzie Krafcik in the pitcher’s circle her first two seasons before becoming the full-time starting pitcher in her junior year.
As dominant as she was as a pitcher, Metzger also carried a heavy bat and became a key player in Aurora’s resurgence. In her four years as a varsity starter, the Greenmen won the Suburban League American Conference outright in each season.
At the beginning of her junior season, Metzger committed to play softball at Kent State University but reopened her recruitment in the spring when the Golden Flashes’ softball coaching staff resigned. It did not take her long to find a new home and she inked a commitment to play at Coastal Carolina University to continue her softball career.
According to her, she made an instant connection with then-pitching coach Michelle Gardner, who recently left to become Bowling Green’s head coach, but she also developed a love for the program’s softball culture.
“The athletics are super nice. They are amazing and the coaches really care for you as a person and as a player which is so important to me,” she said. “It is just everything I wanted.”
Metzger said she could not have asked for a better senior season at Aurora, as she returned to the volleyball program and was a part of a squad that won the SLAC banner and advanced all the way to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II district championship.
Her softball season was even better as the Greenmen finally captured a district crown and was just one game away from earning a berth in the OHSAA Division II Final Four.
“Our one goal was just to make it out and obviously we wanted to go further, but it was huge for us and huge for our team and I think it will really help in the years going forward knowing that they can do that and have the potential,” she said.
With so many milestones achieved with the Aurora softball program, Metzger’s next chapter of softball will include her fighting for a berth to play in the biggest stage of college softball.
