Meet New England’s lone women’s pro softball player: Boston University pitching great Kasey Ricard
Kasey Ricard went to places no other pitcher ventured in college softball this season. The masterful, 5-foot-9-inch Boston University righthander, who grew up in Littleton, led NCAA Division 1 in starts (47), innings (248⅓), and wins (33, tied with UCLA’s Taylor Tinsley).
An important bit of context amid the math: Ricard finished 33-8 for a Terriers squad that played 62 games (47-15). Which means she started 75.8 percent of the games and was credited with the decision in 66.1 percent (41).
So what in the name of Cy Young and stitch-seamed sanity was going on all spring up the street from Fenway Park? Somebody clearly had to be cooking the Commonwealth Avenue scorebooks.
As a matter of fact … no.
The mesmerizing numbers are certified, BU coach Ashley Waters confirmed, and serve as fair reflection of a young woman committed to, and now continuing, a career built around a devilish assortment of four pitches as well as deft pitch location.
“Basically, from the start of the season, we’d play five games a weekend,” mused Waters, agreeing the numbers might be hard for some to fathom. “And out of those five games, Kasey would probably start three — sometimes both games of a doubleheader — and then [as a reliever] she might show up in four or all five. I’m not kidding, she was always on the mound.”
Ricard, added Waters, “is the best ever to come through here.”
Now, weeks after graduating with a degree in health science, Ricard has moved on to the next phase of her softball life, pitching for the Kansas City Diamonds in the Professional Softball League. The first-year PSL and the somewhat higher-profile Athletes Unlimited Softball League, in its second season, total 12 teams (six apiece), with some 200 women under contract. The typical PSL player will earn $10,000 for the two-month season that began Friday.
Softball has exploded in popularity and playing opportunities in recent years, the college game in particular becoming a frequent component of ESPN programming. The action is fast, and entertaining, and the players’ boundless on-field enthusiasm refreshing and infectious. It is a sisterhood of high fives.
Want to fall in love with glove, bat, and ball all over again? Watch the women play.
“I mean, it’s really cool to be able to be part of something that is new and other girls can look up to, right?” said Ricard when reached by telephone from Kansas City, where the Diamonds were preparing for a weekend trip to Puerto Rico to play the Atlanta Smoke.
Throughout her childhood, noted Ricard, she constantly heard that a kid from smalltown New England could not aspire to big-time Division 1 softball. It was more the domain of girls in Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, Texas, and California.
The pro game? What pro game?
She began to play at age 10, started working with a pitching coach by 12, and built her game to a point where Waters offered her a spot at BU without ever meeting her. Waters, who had been sent video from Ricard’s pitching coach and Terriers alum Robyn King, saw enough to make the offer.
When Ricard entered BU as a freshman in 2022, the only realistic path to continuing playing after college was to make the US Olympic squad. By graduation, the dozen pro teams needed rosters stocked. Based on a check of PSL and AUSL rosters in recent days, Ricard was the sole New Englander to land a contract.
Brooke Deppiesse, the Terriers’ second baseman for all of Ricard’s four years, signed with the PSL’s New York Rise. Deppiesse, from Redwood City, Calif., will step into the batter’s box vs. Ricard when the Diamonds travel to Long Island for a three-game series July 7-9.
“She’s my best friend,” said Ricard, “and, yeah, it’s kind of cool that two of us from BU made it and we get to share this together.”
Although, when it comes time to play the Rise, Ricard already has warned her old teammate, “You can’t tell them anything,” about her pitching.
Ricard detailed the elements of her success.
“I’m very much a locator,” she said. “I can put the ball where I want it — and I think that’s been the name of my game for however many years I’ve been pitching.”
Her four pitches are a riseball, curveball, screwball, and changeup. The secret sauce to each offering: the spin she applies and her ability to deliver the underhand serves on three planes — low in the zone, one on the batter’s hands, and another out of the zone.
“I love my riseball,” she said, when asked her favorite. “But if that’s not working, then I have to go with my curve or change. It definitely depends on who we’re playing and what’s working that day.”
Once her first pro season wraps up, Ricard will head home to Littleton and plans to work various jobs, including as a patient care technician at Tufts Medical Center. She also will fill out applications for grad school, in hopes of becoming a physician assistant.
Pro life will require Ricard to change approach and mind-set. The Diamonds have five pitchers on staff. Instead of pitching in 4-5 games per weekend, she might see action in only one game per series, maybe two in a week.
“No doubleheaders in this league,” she said. “So it’s going to be weird to see, having a true rest day, watch other people pitch, not being on the field all the time. But I’m excited for the chance to learn.”
It’s the big league life for Ricard. She’s in Kansas now, Toto, and not on Commonwealth Avenue anymore.
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