Civic Memorial pitcher Kayla Kirkpatrick remembers last season all too well.
The senior right-hander didn't pitch after having surgery on her right (throwing) shoulder and it wasn't easy being the designated hitter for the Eagles.
"It was so hard," she said. "It was mentally tough to stay focused. I just had to come through for the team any way that I could. I called pitches for Jordan (Yates). But I just really had to stay focused for the whole game."
Kirkpatrick hit .360 with four home runs and 18 RBIs in 2010 for Civic, which finished 18-11.
Now healthy, Kirkpatrick is one of the reasons the Eagles (30-5) have earned their first trip to the Illinois Class 3A state semifinals, where they will face Marengo (31-9) at noon Friday at the EastSide Centre.
The winner plays for the state championship against either LaSalle-Peru (24-6) or Glenbard South (28-5) at noon on Saturday. Those two schools play at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the first semifinal.
The losers play for third place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Civic played in the then-Class AA quarterfinals in Pekin in 1985 but lost to Bartonville Limestone 1-0.
"It's just amazing to be healed completely and that I'm able to be where I'm at today because last year I couldn't even throw a ball," she said "It's really awesome that I'm able to throw now."
Kirkpatrick had a "loose" shoulder and a frayed rotator cuff and labrum that prevented her from throwing or swinging a bat. She played with pain two years ago before having surgery in August 2009. She didn't throw until November 2010.
"I couldn't lift my arm above my head," she recalled. "The doctors tightened everything up and they shaved my rotator cuff and labrum. I took a long time to heal, but it was worth it."
Coach Mike Eddy called Kirkpatrick's comeback "remarkable."
"That's exactly the word I use," he said. "A lot of people didn't know she pitched with pain her entire sophomore year and it wasn't any fun. It wasn't any fun for us to watch her endure all that."
Still, Eddy said there was a lot of "reservations and hesitation about this year" with his star hurler.
"You could just see it in her face because she was worried," he said. "We didn't know if she'd be able to pitch at all or be at 80 or 85 percent. We didn't know just exactly what we'd get from her."
What the Eagles got was a 20-2 season with a 0.79 ERA. In 159 innings, she has allowed just 85 hits against 38 walks while striking out 188. At the plate, Kirkpatrick is batting a team-best .434 with four homers and 37 RBIs. She has five stolen bases and has struck out just five times in 114 plate appearances.
"Here at the end, she's even pitching better than she was at the beginning of the season," Eddy said. "She's been dominating these teams. Just to sit there and watch that, I couldn't script that any better."
Neither could Kirkpatrick, who will attend Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill. in the fall.
"It's really exciting," Kirkpatrick said of being in the state semifinals. "It's also a little nerve-wracking, but it's still exciting."
