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St. Al’s Kyleigh Cooper Surpasses 500 Varsity Career Strikeouts
Kyleigh Cooper has set another milestone in her softball journey as she has now surpassed 500 varsity strikeouts. The St. Aloysius pitcher returned to pitching on Monday after bruising two fingers a couple of weeks prior. She achieved her goal in a district match against Copiah Academy.
“It feels really good to finally reach it and I couldn’t have done it without my team, especially my catcher but I’m very happy and it’s an exciting moment,” Cooper said.
Kyleigh’s magnificent moment came in the third inning of Monday’s game when she struck out Avery White to hit the magic number.
Over the years, Cooper made sending batters back to the dugout look easy as it quickly became a part of her game. The extra work she had to put in only enhanced her skills more and she never got tired of getting better.
Cooper’s varsity journey began when she was an eighth grader at Porter’s Chapel Academy where she accumulated nearly 40 strikeouts at the age of 13.
“When I think about it, I’m proud of the pitcher that I’ve become because I didn’t pitch at all in seventh grade but once I finally got the hang of it and got the nerves out, it became a lot easier,” Cooper added.
Just a year later, Kyleigh made the switch to St. Aloysius where she will forever be known as the pitcher who put the program back together. She led St. Al through the dark days and stuck it out through the twilight years where teams quickly canceled games in fear of having to face her and the Lady Flashes.
During her first two years at St. Aloysius, Cooper pitched in every game and managed to get the Lady Flashes within one game of making the playoffs. After falling short to ACCS 6-5 two years ago eliminating her team from playoff contention, Cooper turned around and helped St. Al run-rule the same team just 24 hours later and proved how much fight she had inside her as she struck out nine batters.
Although Kyleigh threw for 152 strikeouts as a sophomore in 2022, she suffered a devastating blow shortly before the season when her grandfather, Gary Jones who introduced her to the sport, passed away. That affected the young pitcher mentally but she fought through the emotions and put the Lady Flashes on the map.
“Wanting to make him proud is what kept me going because he spent every day of his life for me to be where I am today and I would never want to let him down.” God says everything happens for a reason but knowing that he’s watching over me keeps me humble and in a great place.”
By the time her junior year rolled around, Cooper’s travel ball coach Mike Foley became St. Al’s new Head Coach. Together their bond grew and eventually, they saw the Lady Flashes to the school’s first winning season in 10 years while earning her first Division 1 scholarship.
“Coach Mike has helped me so much and got me back to enjoying the game and he’s never made me feel bad even when I played bad,” she said. “My teammates are very wonderful and I couldn’t have made it this far without Madison.”
Each year since her freshman season, Kyleigh has batted over .400 and she continues to prove that she can be an effective two-way athlete.
Today, Cooper stands as the lone senior and sits with a total of 502 strikeouts and a .429 batting average. Now that she is back from her injury, her eyes are set on leading her team back to the playoffs and setting new goals for her final year.
Cooper’s Accomplishments:
- Over 500 career strikeouts
- One of the top batters in Warren County for the last 3 years.
- Threw over 100 strikeouts in each of her high school years
- Named Team MVP every year in high school
- VDN’s 2022 Softball Player of the Year
- Named to VDN’s All-County Team every year.
- Named All-District as an eighth-grader
