By Joey Knight | Times Correspondent
Sift through the curve and screwball. Rummage around the 65 mph heater and low-50s changeup. For good measure, look beneath the riseball and above the dropball.
It’s not there, never has been. For all the variety and velocity University of Central Florida senior Mackenzie Audas regularly packs, one thing that is clearly missing from that expansive pitching repertoire is physical presence. The next batter she intimidates with that slender 5-foot-5 frame and homecoming-court countenance will be the first.
“I’ve never been the tallest or the strongest,” Audas said.
No matter. The unassuming former Plant City High ace never has been asked to frighten batters, just fan them.
Over four prosperous seasons, she has done that better than anyone in Knights history.
“She has that heart,” UCF coach Renee Luers-Gillispie said. “You can’t teach that. You can’t teach kids to be competitive, and she’s always had that.”
The Tampa Bay Times’ 2011 Hillsborough County Pitcher of the Year, Audas lugged a resume as diverse as her arsenal into the circle for last weekend’s three-game home series against USF. She owns UCF career records in victories (77), strikeouts (959), no-hitters (six), saves (10), appearances (146) and starts (122).
UCF, meantime, owns a 46-7 record and No. 15 national ranking in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll. Unless Audas (23-1, 0.98 ERA) and co-ace Shelby Turnier (22-6, 0.75) — nicknamed “Shake and Bake” — simultaneously lapse into a funk, a career spawned in Plant City just might culminate in Oklahoma City, site of the Women’s College World Series.
“Not everyone gave me the same shot that they’d give other people,” said Audas, a semester shy of earning her degree (with honors) in early childhood education.
“There were definitely moments where my confidence would wane a little bit. I think just believing in myself and knowing I did have the ability to become the pitcher that I am … if you don’t have the confidence you can’t go as hard.”
The Division I landscape is littered with pitchers who compensated for a lack of size with a gluttony of intangibles. In that regard, Audas, who led Plant City to within a game of the Class 5A state tournament as a senior, is no exception.
What is exceptional is her smorgasbord of pitches (no fewer than six) and the ability to locate them as proficiently as anyone in the country. It’s a skill initially honed by neighbor Joe Hood — a well-known local pitching coach — when Audas was roughly 8, and polished over the ensuing decade and a half.
“If you can paint the corners, then she’s definitely a Rembrandt for UCF,” Gillispie said. “She’s got great movement on everything she throws.”
Durant’s batting order saw it in triplicate in the waning stage of Audas’ prep career. In a 21-day span, the Raiders topped the rival Cougars three times, with Audas recording 42 strikeouts. The highlight: a 12-strikeout masterpiece in a 2-1 region semifinal triumph before a standing-room-only home crowd.
It highlighted a 20-win senior season in which Audas notched 19 games of at least 10 strikeouts and recorded nine seven-inning shutouts.
“That curveball and her screwball were my two favorite, curve especially,” former Raiders coach Heidi Kouveras said. “We ended up doing a lot of stuff at a young age with her throwing a curve-change and a backdoor screw. I mean, she was just able to throw pitches that, in our area, a lot of the kids hadn’t seen in high school.”
Nonetheless, major colleges hardly beat down the door of Audas’ house in the Walden Lake neighborhood.
“I didn’t get recruited very much out of high school either; I’m a walking 5-foot-3 1/2,” said prominent local pitching instructor Kaci Clark Zerbe, who pitched on UCLA’s 1995 national title team and has worked with Audas since her freshman year at Plant City. “A lot of people can kind of shy away from that.”
Gillispie didn’t. Smitten by Audas’ moxie, competitiveness and staggering strikeout totals, she not only signed the Raiders’ ace, but thrust her into a collegiate circle almost immediately. The result: Audas finished 21-12 with a 1.28 ERA, earning Conference USA Co-Pitcher of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors.
The highlights included a two-hitter (11 strikeouts) against then-No. 3 Florida.
“Nobody had seen her before and didn’t know what to expect,” Gillispie said. “You see this 5-5 kid on the mound and don’t think anything of it. Now she’s throwing 65 (mph) and she’s throwing these balls that bend on you and they’re like, ‘Who is this kid?’ She was lights-out her freshman year.”
Three full seasons later, batters still haven’t been able to fully flip the switch. Audas’ stature never has loomed larger.
“It doesn’t matter on size,” Gillispie said. “If you’ve got the heart and determination to go after batters, you’re gonna be a good player. And she had that even in high school. She’s just a true competitor.”
Contact Joey Knight at jknight@tampabay.com.