Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Brian O’Shaughnessy Senior Katie Noski throws a warm-up pitch last Monday. She threw a one-hit shutout in the 3-0 win.

After taking a two-year break from pitching, senior Katie Noski is back in top form in her second season as a pitcher for the 'Dogs.

Noski has emerged as the ace of the staff this season, compiling a 10-2 record and a 1.21 earned run average. However, she has not always been a pitcher.

In her first two years at Truman she played nearly every game at first base. She was one of two people to start every game during her freshman year, and she started in 49 of 54 games her sophomore year.

Noski said she was a pitcher her entire softball career until college, which made the switch back to pitching last year smooth. Her freshman season she pitched in two games, compiling a 2.00 ERA in 14 innings pitched.

"It really wasn't that hard - it was just getting back into the swing of things," Noski said. " ... I feel like I'm a better pitcher now than when I was younger, just because I had a little time off."

Last year was different from her first two seasons. She had to balance being a part of the pitching staff with starting regularly at first base and as designated hitter.

"Last year she kind of got thrown in there when we needed her to pitch," senior pitcher Katie Jeannin said. "This year she came in knowing that she was going to be a pitcher. [She] got to work on what she needed to work on to be ready for the season."

Noski had 24 starts at first, 16 at designated hitter and 14 at pitcher in her junior year.

She went 6-5 as a pitcher last season, with 14 starts and 83.2 innings, which were both second on the team.

This year, after 2006-07 staff ace Ashley McDougal graduated, Noski said she came in knowing she would play a big role on the mound.

Sophomore Erica LaCombe, who has started 54 games at catcher the past two years, said Noski has made improvements from last season in both location and in style of her pitches.

"Throwing the rise ball for a strike, like low in the strike zone, has been really big for Kate - we've changed that," LaCombe said. "Also, her curveball last year, it was effective, but it was kind of like a drop-curve, so she was throwing kind of a blend of the two pitches, and it worked really well, but for getting strikes, sometimes it was hard."

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