By John Raffel
Maison Kalina was a catcher and also played a little bit of third base during the 2015 Central Michigan University softball season.
She had 133 at bats and batted .241 this spring, with two home runs and 17 RBI.
The former Bullock Creek standout enjoyed success in her first season.
She had plenty of highlights at the plate and with her glove. She had 10 putouts in a 1-0 loss to North Florida on March 6 and 11 putouts in a 9-5 win over Maine on March 11. She hit her first home run in a 4-0 win over Penn later that month. She had one hit and 13 putouts in a 7-1 win over Detroit Mercy on April 1. “Freshman year was great,” she said. “I learned a lot from the upperclassmen, from my teammates, and from my coaches.”
Kalina said the teamwork aspect is especially where she learned the most.
She came off a successful high school career that included being the High School Sports Scene Dream Team catcher for three seasons. She was named United States Marine Corps Female Athlete of the year in 2014 and ESPN Female Athlete of the Month in May 2014. She’s in second place all-time for MHSAA home runs by an individual in a game with three.
The transition to the college game was definitely a challenge. “It’s so much faster,” she said. “From pitchers, the spin on the ball is crazy different. In high school, you have slow pitchers and fast pitchers. But in college, it’s the speed, location, height, different pitches, all those things.”
Kalina was happy with her game time as a freshman. “Whatever is good for the team is good for me,” she said.
A key highlight was an RBI double against Kent State University in the MAC tournament, for a 1-0 win.
“Definitely in the off-season, I’ll be working [on different aspects of her game]”, she said. ‘Having one year under my belt will help me to improve my game.”