If sophomore catcher Kaylyn Castillo ever needs a quick boost, all she has to do look down at her bat.
When she steps up to the plate and sees the word that sits just above her hands, she is instantly reminded of what she needs to do.
“I want to keep my confidence up, so on my bat I have the word ‘swagger,’” she said. “No matter what, you have to have swag when you walk up to the plate. You can’t be cocky, but you have to be confident you’re going to get the job done. I like to keep the swagger.”
The idea that came from a motivational talk with ASU assistant coach Robert Wagner stuck, and the rest is history.
As a first year Sun Devil transfer from Louisville, Castillo has made it a point to make an impact.
“Honestly, I’m ecstatic to be here [at ASU] and I think that helps a lot,” she said. “I’m just trying to learn as much as I can. I feel like I’m doing well but I don’t like to look at it that way. If I feel like I’m doing well then I feel like I’ll get complacent and I don’t want to do that.”
Already this season she has four home runs and boasts a .378 batting average, as well as four doubles and 23 RBIs.
But the 5-foot-2-inch athlete from California has never had it easy.
Because of her size, other athletes and coaches found it hard to take her seriously — they were afraid she might get taken out if there was ever a collision at home plate.
But now, Castillo plays for a Division-I softball team, where her performance on the field has spoken for itself, and her play has measured up to the standards she has set for herself.
“I just kind of laugh, especially now,” she said. “You think I’m small? Look at [junior infielder Caylyn] Carlson. She is small and she hits the ball just as far as anyone on the team. That’s just given me more of an edge — it gives me more of a motivation.”
Her style has never been to settle, and she even considers her determination to get better when there’s an obstacle.
“Once I start doing well I think I have to do better, instead of just being happy with how I am and keep going at the same rate,” she said. “I push too far and I kind of screw myself up. You have to keep yourself in check.”
But that intensity continues to be evident in both her position as a leader behind the plate and in the batter’s box.
“I would think I’m more intense,” she said. “I try to be a leader because my position calls for a leader, and you have to be strong. I would think being a catcher you have to be selfless. Your team needs you so much to be the battery with the pitcher. If you’re mad because you didn’t get a hit, then the pitcher might feed off that and the whole team feeds of them.”
Castillo’s smooth transition from softball in the Big East to softball in the Pac-10 was a decision she feels was in her best interest.
“I got close with a few of the girls in Louisville but honesty, my heart wasn’t in it over there,” she said. “It was somewhere else, and I knew I wouldn’t be happy if I stayed there. I followed my heart and I came here, and everything fit like a glove — I couldn’t be happier.”
Reach the reporter at emiley.darling@asu.edu.
