Perry junior pitcher Emma Olejniczak was recognized before Tuesday’s game with Des Moines North for recently crossing over the 750 career strikeout club. Olejniczak was presented a plaque by head coach Tina Kenney and her teammates commemorating the milestone achievement. Olejniczak has been Perry’s main arm since her 8th grade season. She currently has 223 strikeouts this season and was among the state’s leaders last year finishing with 261 punch outs.
“I really want to thank my two catchers through the years,” stated Olejniczak. “I wouldn’t be here without the help of Kylie (Brandt) and Brooke (Huntington) and all of their hard work through the years making me a better pitcher. I have spent so much time in the offseason trying to get better whether it was at camps or working with my dad or pitching coach Misty Michael. It was just a combination of all of the work I put in during the offseason.”
There hasn’t been much downtime for Olejniczak the past few years as she traveled the Midwest to learn more about her craft.
“I took about a month off last year after we lost to Boone in the Regionals. After the quick break, I went to as many camps as I possibly could and hit them all hard. I was in Wisconsin, Minnesota and attended all the camps in Iowa, whether it was at the Community College, D3 or D1 level. I just wanted to put myself out there and hear from as many pitching coaches as I could and find my niche and make myself better.”
Olejniczak has been the main arm for Perry through the years and continues to get stronger as she gets older and like so many pitchers, has tweaked a few things when it comes to mechanics to try to be the best pitcher she can be.
“It is little minor things that I picked up along the way. It’s not necessarily changing one big thing but rather several little things I’ve tried to tweak such as changing my leg drive or changing something with my wrist snap.”
Like so many pitchers, Olejniczak has developed into a power pitcher with the buildup of both time and experience.
“I was so little in my eighth grade year that I didn’t strike many people out. I have gotten bigger and stronger over the years which has obviously helped. This year I felt like I have had a little more jump on my ball and it moves more than in past seasons because I put so much focus on learning how to spin the ball rather than throwing harder. I know when I go to college that I won’t be able to overpower everyone so I think that has been the biggest change for me in focusing on spinning the ball and not just throwing hard.”
Olejniczak and the Jayettes will be in action tonight when they travel to Bondurant for a RRC showdown with Bondurant Farrar.