Athlete of the Week: Sequoia’s Ainsley Waddell

Waddell has been selected as the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week for her tireless dominance. In four appearances last week, the junior hurler earned four complete-game victories. Not that the 27-inning workload has her sweating much.

“I felt pretty good,” Waddell said. “I feel we’re working well as a team, so it helps me not throw as many pitches.”

Her week started with a 15-strikeout gem in Sequoia’s 11-2 win over Mountain View. She went on to shine through three low-scoring games, a 3-1 win over Los Altos, followed by back-to-back wins Saturday at the Live Oak Memorial Tournament — 3-1 over Sobrato and 3-0 over North Salinas — to lead the Ravens to the consolation championship.

All told, she racked up 44 strikeouts through 27 innings on the week. Yet Waddell showed no ill effects in the wake of the heavy workload, showing up Monday to fire a two-hit shutout against St. Ignatius, striking out 12, while facing just three batters over the minimum in her most pristine outing of the season.

“I feel pretty energized,” Waddell said. “I feel like I have a lot of adrenaline right now. Also, my team’s been helping by making a lot of plays.”

As of Tuesday, Waddell leads the Central Coast Section with 86 strikeouts, among team reporting statistics to MaxPreps.com. Not that she always considered herself a strikeout pitcher.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve always been a strikeout pitcher but it’s something I’m working on,” Waddell said.

Not so fast, says Sequoia head coach Michelle Sarrail, who has coached Waddell since she started pitching as an 8-year-old with the San Carlos Force.

“She’s always been dominant,” Sarrail said.

Sure, Waddell has refined her game. In addition to working with private pitching instructor Michelle Vargas, she has played with the prestigious Cal Nuggets travel-ball outfit since she was 13. The junior is now committed to play at UC Santa Barbara, and is one of two Ravens set to play at the NCAA Division I level. Senior outfielder Talia Tokheim is committed to play at University of Nebraska.

“[Waddell] knew from day one that she wanted to throw at the elite level, and she’s just been fantastic about it,” Sarrail said.

Waddell is a second-generation PAL standout. Her mother, Jenny Cretan Waddell, was a left-handed pitcher at Burlingame.

Now, Waddell has Sequoia climbing through the PAL ranks. The Ravens ran away with the PAL Ocean championship last season, rolling to a 12-0 league record. Sequoia relied on Waddell in primetime games, especially in non-league matchups against Bay Division competition. A highlight was Waddell’s four-hit shutout against Woodside in the final non-league game before Ocean Division play began.

“We went in hard and we knew that,” Sarrail said. “For us going out of the Ocean and into the Bay, some people are super hungry to play us because they think we’re an easy win, and some people don’t want to touch us because people have heard of Ainsley … and they don’t want to face her.”

Now, Waddell is acclimating to a new catcher — or, maybe it’s more accurate to say the battery mates have long since acclimated to the new lineup. Junior catcher Emerson Seevers has settled in behind the plate. Waddell has thrown every pitch for Sequoia thus far in 2022, and Seevers has caught every one of them.

Seevers, however, had never played catcher prior to this season. Last year she was an outfielder for the Ravens but got thrown behind the plate when the team graduated its second catcher in as many years.

“That was a big change for us to throw Emerson back there, and she’s been doing a dynamite job,” Sarrail said. “She’s caught every inning so far, and they have a really nice partnership.”

Catching Waddell is quite an assignment, seeing as there doesn’t seem to be a pitch invented the 5-10 southpaw hasn’t incorporated into her repertoire. Her long limbs and fluid mechanics already create a sneaky-fast release that helps conceal exactly how explosive her natural stuff plays.

But, hey, there’s nothing wrong with throwing everything including the kitchen sink at opposing hitters, if even the kitchen sink feels natural coming out of your hand.

“I’m working on everything all the time,” Waddell said.