A nasty thunderstorm loomed as a young Baylee Douglass addressed her parents outside on their front porch. As an 8-year-old, Douglass already had her life planned. It seemed simple: She wanted to be a Division I college pitcher.

“It’s one of those things dads don’t forget,” said Lynn Douglass, Baylee’s father. “I remember asking her, ‘Do you want to just pitch, or do you want to be a real pitcher?’”

Thirteen years later, Baylee Douglass enters her first year as a junior transfer pitcher for the Orange. She projects as a complement to Syracuse’s established hurlers, like Sydney O’Hara and AnnaMarie Gatti. Douglass hopes SU will be the calm on the other side of the storm. The rain cloud approaching that day when she was 8 years old foreshadowed her journey through the college softball ranks.

“I’m willing to pitch however many innings I need to,” Douglass said. “Last year, I pitched a majority of the innings, and that was pretty tough physically and mentally.”

For two years at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Douglass shouldered most of the load in the circle. She appeared in 82 of her team’s 113 games (73 percent). The former Ohio Valley Conference freshman of the year succeeded in the extended outings, posting a 2.04 ERA across 374.1 innings.

But throwing for SIUE wasn’t her first choice.

She was a three-time All-State pitcher and tallied 17 strikeouts on two separate occasions at Centralia (Missouri) High School. She had drawn interest from North Texas, SIE, Missouri, Western Kentucky and others. Southeastern Conference power Alabama had set two dates to watch her play. Both of those games were canceled due to rain.

At SIUE, transfer talk started right away for the Douglass family. She had once eyed a better situation with more competitive play. Alabama had been her dream school and she had taken a visit to Missouri, Lynn said, but that fell through because the Tigers could not offer her a scholarship.  Still, Douglass decided after freshman year to stick it out and see if things improved. They didn’t.

“I didn’t completely mesh very well with the coach,” Douglass said, “I had a lot of success, and I loved my teammates, and I loved my school. But the coach and I kind of butted heads.”

After a difficult sophomore season, Douglass requested a release. Her father supported her decision to change universities. He thought his daughter should have transferred after freshman year.

“Baylee is extremely softball savvy,” he said. “She didn’t need someone going out there and screaming at her and not making her better.”

The problems didn’t end once SIUE granted her partial release. College coaches can “block” players by prohibiting other schools from offering players scholarships in his or her first year. Douglass asked to speak with eight and her school blocked four of them, including Kansas and other schools that SIUE team could’ve potentially played in the future, Lynn said.

SIUE coach Sandy Montgomery declined to comment.

Douglass was, however, able to speak with Syracuse and three others. She immediately clicked with SU head coach Mike Bosch.

“We actually remember Baylee prior to being at (SIUE),” Bosch said. “She’s somebody we’ve known for a little bit.”

Schools who had once dismissed Douglass because of her size were ready to pry her away from the Orange. Her family, however, knew all along that they wanted someone who had complete faith in her ability.

“We told you she’d be able to do this, and you didn’t believe us,” Lynn said, “We’re probably just going to politely pass you by.”

Published on February 6, 2017 at 11:24 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary