Former all-SEC Lady Bulldog Iyhia McMichael, top overall pick in the National Pro Fastpitch draft, capped her stellar rookie season with some significant hardware.
The All-American and twice-elected SEC Player of the Year who now plays for the Akron Racers in Ohio received the league’s highest honor Sunday when she was named the Player of the Year. She also beat out fellow former Bulldog Kellie Wilkerson for the league batting title.
McMichael clubbed .349 for the season. The two were the only two players in the league to bat above .300.
“Iyhia has (already) established herself as a star,” said MSU head coach Jay Miller. “She and Kellie are both representing MSU well at the next level, and both should be strongly considered for an Olympic bid in 2008.”
Though she had a stellar season, McMichael, speaking from her home in Nacogdoches, Texas, says the transition to the pro level was a harder one than she had anticipated. She started out 1-5 at the plate in her first three games.
“It was very frustrating in the beginning. The pitchers really went at your weak spots a lot more than they did in college,” McMichael explained. “Also, the field is bigger, so defense was a problem at first.”
McMichael played all four years of her college ball at Mississippi State, two under Miller.
She said Miller and her teammates are the people she misses most about MSU.
“I miss my girls and Coach. It’s not the same (on a professional team). Some players are much older than you, some have kids; everyone has their own life. You just don’t connect like you do in college.”
One of the biggest challenges McMichael faced was the adjustment from a student-athlete to a professional. She went from splitting her time between class and practice to doing nothing but softball all day every day, and doing it not for fun or for a release, but as a job.
“It’s a big difference from college,” McMichael laughed. “It’s weird to think of yourself as a professional softball player, to think of it as a job. It’s not that you take it more seriously, but you have to dig deeper. You try harder. You try to impress the fans and put on a show. You have to sell tickets.”
When Mississippi State softball reconvenes in the spring, it will be without its centerfield anchor for the first time in four years. McMicheal brought star power and recognition to the Maroon and White. That and her 182 career RBIs will be nearly impossible to replace, said Miller.
“Iyhia is someone you can never replace. I’ve been coaching for 25 years and I’ve never seen a player with the total package like Iyhia has. And I probably never will again. It’s definitely a big loss for the program.”
McMichael’s Racers lost out to Wilkerson’s Juggernauts in the semifinals of the NPF playoffs but she is already looking forward to defending her batting and Player of the Year titles and chasing a championship when play resumes in June 2005.