Parents look back on Beaver’s journey to WCWS

Kayla Beaver grew up playing softball and cheering for the Alabama Crimson Tide in all sports.

She especially loved the softball program that won a national championship in 2012, when she was just beginning to get into the sport and pursuing a possible future as a pitcher in travel ball.

Her parents, Shane and Jessica, have watched her grow up from the 4-year-old that first picked up a ball into the travel ball player that was obsessed with the game to the high school athlete hoping for a chance to play the game in college to now a second-team All-American pitcher for the Crimson Tide preparing to play in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

“Honestly it’s all just kind of surreal at this point,” said Shane, who spent many early mornings working with Kayla on her pitching before school and late Sunday nights getting back to Jackson before school and work on Monday after travel tournaments all over the South. “To know everything she’s come through to be at this point, enjoying this moment, it’s a lot to take in.”

Shane and Jessica were doing a phone interview Monday evening after having returned home from Knoxville early Monday morning after watching Kayla and the Crimson Tide hold on to beat the University of Tennessee in the NCAA Super Regionals, a three-game series in Knoxville in which Alabama dropped the first game and had to win two on the road against a team that took three of four from Alabama in the regular season.

This season is the only one Kayla has played for Alabama. Upon graduating from South Side in 2019, she went to play for Central Arkansas, where she helped lead the program to the NCAA regionals last year, where they played at Alabama.

“Everybody thinks that she’s at Alabama now because of how she played in that regional,” Jessica said about a weekend performance in which Kayla pitched 9.2 innings, struck out eight and gave up three runs. “But it may have been a factor, but it wasn’t the only thing.

“It wasn’t like that regional was also her tryout for Alabama softball, because at the time, Kayla didn’t know what she was going to do after that.”

With another year of eligibility remaining because of the fifth year the NCAA granted all athletes in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shane and Jessica had a conversation with their daughter about her future before she left Tuscaloosa that night on the team bus.

“She had a seven-hour trip where she was going to be alone on a bus, so she had time to think about it, but whatever it was, we told her it was her decision and we’d support her,” Jessica said.

Two days later after a conversation with the coaches at Central Arkansas, Kayla entered the transfer portal.

“She said she wanted to see what was available to her and wanted to play for a program where she could contend for a championship, play against the best and not wonder ‘what if,’” Shane said. “The UCA coaches understood and were great about it, and we appreciate the time they invested in her there too.

“Because she had a great career and got to do a bunch of good things there.”

Kayla made visits to five schools before landing in Tuscaloosa, and she was viewed as the probable replacement for Montana Fouts, arguably the best softball player in UA history who led the Crimson Tide to the WCWS last year.

“We told her the comparisons would come, but they didn’t matter,” Shane said. “The only person she needs to compete with is yesterday’s version of herself. If she’s constantly trying to beat that girl, she’ll be OK.”

Kayla has gone through a year in Tuscaloosa now with everything coming down to this national championship tournament in Oklahoma City.

Crimson Tide head coach Patrick Murphy confirmed during one of the postgame press conferences that she actually had surgery on her non-pitching hand during the season and was back on the field three days later.

“This is what she’s wanted to do – all she’s ever wanted to do,” Shane said. "She’s loved it since she was 4, loves it now and we’ll see what happens in Oklahoma City.”

Kayla is coming off a 10-inning performance to help the Crimson Tide get past the Lady Vols on Saturday then got out of a bases-loaded jam to preserve the win in Game 3 to get to the WCWS. For the season, her record as a starter is 18-9 with a 1.58 earned-run average.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news