A team player, Kassie Humphreys seemed downright embarrassed Tuesday after being named USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Week by the Amateur Softball Association.
“I wish we could do a national team of the week,” said Humphreys, who pitched the Jayhawks to three victories at last weekend’s Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.
The Glendale, Ariz., junior struck out 25 batters in 22 innings, allowing six hits and no earned runs for KU, which stormed to the Big 12 title and a spot in Thursday’s first-round NCAA tournament contest against Brigham Young in Provo, Utah.
First pitch is set for 5 p.m. local time.
“If I could nominate a team for coming together and being a shining moment in the nation, I’d nominate our team,” Humphreys added. “Our team was amazing last week.”
Humphreys and her teammates hopped on the team bus for Kansas City International Airport at 4 p.m. Tuesday, pumping their fists and waving to staff members – an energetic bunch following a seven-game win streak.
“Right now our confidence is at an all-time high,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said. “They are so pumped up from the positive experience of the weekend.
“I’ve gotten calls from many coaches in the conference. Everybody is telling me, ‘Tracy, nobody wants to play Kansas right now.’ That’s a good feeling for my coaching staff, myself and the team. We do feel we are the hot team. Oklahoma (last weekend) kept talking about themselves being hot, hot, hot. All we said in the background is, ‘Nobody is talking about us. That’s fine with us because we’re the hot team.”‘
KU, which beat Oklahoma, 4-2, in the championship game, will take a 34-24 mark into Thursday’s game against BYU (42-20). The second game of the day in the double-elimination tourney matches Southern Utah (34-20) versus Washington (32-23).
The winner of the tourney (KU plays its second game at either 2:30 or 5 p.m. Friday) advances to the super regionals May 26-28 at a yet-to-be-determined location.
“We’ve been sent to a place where we feel we have a chance,” Bunge said. “We very much respect the opponents who will be there. We’ve seen BYU before (KU fell 2-1 to Cougars on Feb. 18 in Las Vegas). We know they are a good offensive club. Washington playing in the Pac-10, that’s a pretty tough softball conference. We feel we have a shot; that’s all we can ask for.”
Bunge hasn’t officially named the red-hot Humphreys (17-16) as the starting pitcher for the BYU game over Serena Settlemier (16-6).
However …
“Obviously it will not take a rocket scientist to figure Kassie will get the ball an awful lot,” Bunge said. “We’ll use Serena as much as we can. We want to have a fresh arm in there as much as we can. It’s a nice situation we have, two quality pitchers we feel good about.
“We are not a team that has to rely on one arm, but if we have to give Kassie the ball a lot, I feel good about that. Last weekend she showed me she can get the ball three to four straight days and do a good job. Her best game was against Oklahoma (in the finals).”
“We will still split time,” Humphreys noted. “Serena is doing an awesome job hitting and pitching. She definitely will get the ball, too.”
Settlemier, who has bashed 22 home runs, would welcome the chance to pitch.
“I think Kassie will pitch a little more than me. I think I’ll be good in relief,” Settlemier said. “I may have a little more movement; she has more speed. We are a good combo.”