March 5, 2012
UCF Athletics Social Media Directory
By John Denton
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - There's flying below the radar and then there's being what some thought to be too short to even register on the radar.
That's what some college coaches thought about Mackenzie Audas, who despite being just 5-foot-5 has proved doubters wrong and has quickly become the next big thing for UCF's softball team.
A true freshman from Plant City, Audas has helped steady the UCF pitching staff with her overwhelming stuff on the mound as she's helped the Knights race to a 13-7 start to the season. UCF heads into Wednesday's doubleheader at home against Georgetown as the winners of eight-straight games.
Audas mowed down Ohio State and 2011 NCAA Tournament team Chattanooga early in the season and pitched well against No. 4 Washington and No. 14 UCLA despite not earning wins. She also has two one-hitters and a shutout in her last four outings. Audas has been so good - she has a 1.53 ERA and she's struck out 69 batters in 73 innings - that she's even surprised herself somewhat.
"Actually, I am surprised because college is a big step up from high school and even 18-and-under travel ball. I'm surprised at how well I've adjusted so far," she said. "In California, when we were playing Washington and UCLA, I was very nervous. But as the games were going on, by the third inning, I sort of realized that they are ball players just like me. I grew up watching them on TV, but I had never thought of it like that. That helped me to relax."
Hitters can't relax in the box against Audas, even though she hardly looks imposing on the mound at 5-foot-5. Audas has learned how to deal with getting overlooked, and she's come out for the better. Her Under-18 travel team, the Gold Coast Hurricanes, featured one of the top softball pitching recruits in the country, 6-foot-1 pitcher Leslie Jury, who ended up attending Alabama.
Audas was the No. 2 pitcher on that travel team, but UCF head coach Renee Luers-Gillispie saw something special in her. Audas also came highly recommended by coach Kaci Clark, who tutored former UCF pitching great Allison Kime. Luers-Gillispie didn't allow Audas' lack of height to detract from the fact that she has great movement on her pitches and is a gritty fighter on the mound.
"I felt all along bringing Mackenzie in that she could be our No. 1. She had the pitches, the presence on the mound and had everything except maybe the size," Luers-Gillispie said. "A lot of coaches got off her because of the size and we were very fortunate that she's a great athlete and a great competitor. She didn't get a lot of time to be seen in the summer time (on her travel team), but we watched her a lot in high school and we knew she was the type of pitcher we wanted in our program."
Audas started pitching by the time that she was eight years old even though she was often the shortest player on the team. She remembers those first few years of being exceptionally wild, but she always had the arm strength to rack up numerous strikeouts. She admitted that at times she's used her lack of height as a motivating factor when on the mound.
"Definitely, it motivates me," she said. "I've always been shorter and smaller for a pitcher. I'm 5-5, so that's always made me kind of work harder so that I can prove people wrong."
A big break came following her sophomore year at Plant City High School when she started working with Clark as a pitching coach. Clark, who is also 5-foot-5, was a star pitcher at UCLA and pitched professionally in Japan for several years. Her tips, which focused on tighter spins on pitches to create more movement, helped Audas become the pitcher she is today.
"Whenever I get a recommendation from Kaci Clark you know that player is very likely going to be a great player,'' Luers-Gillispie said. "(Audas) hates to lose and has great command of her pitches. The thing I like the best about her is that she has great movement on her pitches. Kaci knows a lot about getting a lot out of her small stature. She passed that onto Mack and got a lot out of her. (Audas) uses her legs well, her spins are tight and she gets great movement on her pitches.''
That was evident early on when Audas worked hard in fall ball and graded out at 89 percent on hitting her targets with her various pitches. And early in the season, she stood out with a nine-strikeout performance against Ohio State and fanned 10 more against Chattanooga. She was even more impressive on the West Coast, going 9.2 innings against Washington without allowing an earned run. And over the past two weeks all she has done is fire one-hitters against Florida Gulf Coast and Jacksonville and a shutout against Illinois-Chicago.
"It started for me in fall ball. We played some good JUCOs and Rollins is always pretty good and when I did really well against them I was like, 'OK, I can do this' and I started settling down," Audas said. "And then the biggest confidence booster was when we were in California and against Ohio State. Those games just let me know if I put my mind to it that I can do it."
And now Audas is letting many of the college recruiters who overlooked her because of her small stature know that she can do it. The way she sees it things couldn't have worked out any better for her because UCF is the only school she ever wanted to play for.
"I got some interest in some northern schools like UConn, but UCF was the only school that I was interested in,'' Audas said. "Coach Clark knows coach Renee well and I told her where I really wanted to go to college was UCF. So we both worked toward that goal and we made it happen."