ELON — Taylor Apple arrived at Western Alamance’s first game of the softball season with a fresh look.
The Warriors junior pitcher walked up to the plate for her first at-bat of the season against Eden Morehead sporting an East Carolina decal on her helmet.
“Our travel coach makes us put where we’re committed on our helmets,” Apple explained while laughing. “It didn’t fit on my travel ball helmet, so my dad was like, ‘Oh, I’ll just put it on your school ball helmet.’ I was like, ‘Oh, gosh. No one else is gonna have one of these.’ And then he was like, ‘Oh, well. Just, roll with it.’ ”
Underneath that helmet was a new hairstyle, particularly picked for the new season, that she was confident in — one that would start a wave of superstition in the following weeks.
“The beginning of the season, I go with one hairstyle,” Apple said. “The first game, I pitched a no-hitter, shutout, perfect game. I was like, ‘OK, that’s my hairstyle.’ Then, I kept doing good, then I decided to switch (the hairstyle) up and got in a slump and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ so I went back to (the original hairstyle) and finally got out of the slump.”
Apple’s perfect game in Western Alamance’s 4-0 season-opening victory against the Panthers included her striking out 19 of the 21 batters she faced, setting the tone for the season to come.
More: Western Alamance pitcher Taylor Apple voted Times-News Athlete of the Week for Feb. 28-March 6
Whether superstitious, a little stitious, or somewhere in between, it’s working for Apple, who has been dominant in the circle this season with a 0.28 ERA and 166 strikeouts with just three earned runs and 27 hits allowed in 76⅓ innings pitched. At the plate, Apple leads the team in home runs (three) and doubles (seven) while being tied with Jillian Brunton in RBI (16). Her .457 batting average ranks second among Warriors batters, just behind talented freshman Ryan Justice, who’s batting .478.
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“The kid’s been doing it probably since she’s seven or eight years old, working and she continues to put the work in outside,” Western Alamance coach Scott Bell said. “Working to get better and better and stronger. You can see it when she steps out on the field. She’s one of the best athletes out there.”
Back in November, a few months before the start of her junior season at Western Alamance, Apple announced her commitment to ECU.
“I had never thought about it. It had never been on my list,” Apple said. “Then, I got a text from the coach and I went down there and I fell in love with it. I love the coaching staff. I love the way they coach. I love the place. It just felt like home whenever I got there.”
She said she also considered Appalachian State, Elon and South Carolina, among other schools.
Apple’s commitment to the Pirates program is the culmination of a dream that began as a little girl watching talented girls in the area succeed while also seeing college softball on television, she said.
“I started playing seriously when I was seven,” she said. “I was seeing all the older girls, and I looked up to them, obviously, and most of them were committing to go to colleges. I was like, I want to do that. That’s my dream. That was my goal. That was everything I worked for. And my dad (Craig Apple), he put in a bunch of work for me, too, and I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done to get me toward that goal.”
While watching college softball, she said she fell in love with the Florida Gators program.
“I was always watching all the games,” she said. “I loved Florida, just because they had sunflowers in their hair and that’s where I always wanted to go. I had always watched it. I was always in love with the game.”
As she progressed in age and skill, Apple said she began to realize that dream could one day become a reality.
“I was probably around seventh grade,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m just as good as all these people. As long as I keep working on it, I could be just as good as them, maybe better. As long as I keep putting in the work towards it, I can go there one day.’ ”
David Kehrli is a sports reporter at the Burlington Times-News and USA Today Network. You can reach him at david.kehrli@thetimesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidKehrliTN. Subscribe to the Burlington Times-News here.
