By Ed Piper
Batting in the third slot since she entered La Jolla's lineup as a freshman two years ago, Kyra Ferenczy has hit .451, .357, and a whopping .512 in successive seasons for the Vikings, providing a thunderous counterpoint to leadoff hitter Josie Sinkeldam, whom she has driven in many times over the past three years.
There was a game in the last two weeks, before the Vikings' season ended with a CIF play-in game loss Tues., May 15, when both hit home runs.
In 2016, her freshman year, Ferenczy had 51 hits in 120 plate appearances, with only three strikeouts. The 51 hits were easily her highest total in her three years at LJHS. She had 22 RBI's, with 11 doubles and four home runs. She scored 38 runs.
The freckled pitcher struggled a little in the transition from the Viking soccer team's CIF championship season to softball a year ago, starting slowly at the plate but finishing with a .357 batting average, her lowest of her three seasons. Her hit total dropped to 30, her doubles to 28, RBI's to 16, doubles to eight, and homers to two.
Her strikeouts at the plate nearly quintupled to 14.
She had to deal with the inevitable dynamic of now being a known quantity by opponents, as well as heightened expectations from her performance as a freshman star.
Still, Coach Andrea Denham's squad was thrilled to take home the CIF title, with Ferenczy pitching the complete-game victory in the championship game on UCSD's softball field.
This year, there was no sluggish transition, as Kyra blistered the ball to record her highest average, and by far her highest RBI total with 37--over double last year's production, and nearly double her freshman output. She smashed five home runs to eclipse her sophomore year total of four.
With clean-up hitter Linda Brown graduated, she had to pick up more of the responsibility for driving in runs at the top of the order.
Ferenczy's On Base Percentage (OBP) zoomed to an outstanding .565, far above her previous .475 and .415 figures. In the same way, her slugging percentage (total bases divided by at bats) reached .825, far beyond her previous .654 and .523 numbers.
Her On Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OBS) elevated to 1.390 this season, up from an excellent 1.130 her freshman year and .939 last year.
The junior's career batting average, with one season to go, stands at .440.
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