Kaci West’s Strong Faith, Endurance & Loyalty are a Beacon for Baylor Softball
With unlimited transfers and no restrictions, it’s been harder than ever to keep up with a roster on a yearly basis in college athletics. For Baylor Softball, however, one consistent cog has been fifth-year senior Kaci West.
Her commitment to the program began long before she enrolled with the Bears, as she had expressed her intent to sign with Baylor as far back as the summer of her eighth-grade year, in 2017.
“I actually started getting recruited before the recruiting law got passed, where you had to wait until junior year (to get recruited), so I started getting recruited in eighth grade,” West said.
Playing since she was five, she made a ton of history during her four years at Liberty High School, about 45 miles outside of Houston, where she helped the Panthers win the 4A state championships as a freshman and senior. Prior to that, the program had never made it past the third round.
During the recruiting process, she saw Baylor as a place that would invest in her as an athlete and a person.
“Especially meeting with all the coaches, I see how much they value their faith and their relationships with the players and how they see more than just an athlete on the field,” West said. “Even meeting with all the different staff, you can just see that everybody here wanted to see you succeed, and they were going to help you, and they want to see you be the best version of yourself.”
She also saw Baylor as a place where she could openly express her faith, adding, “Not all other colleges allow you to openly express your faith like [Baylor does], and so I wanted a place like Baylor because I knew that was really important to me,” West said. “I wanted a place that was going to allow me to grow in both, and you could just feel the presence of God when you stepped on campus.”
As a junior at Liberty High School, she was offered the chance to play on the U-17 Junior Olympic USA Team and traveled to Colombia in South America for a week and a half to compete against other countries.
“It was just a really cool experience, getting to go out there, see the different countries come in,” West said. “They were just so excited to play softball, and it was just a really eye-opening thing that a sport can connect all of us.”
Many athletes have to wait until their junior or senior year of college for a truly special moment that would last a lifetime, but West had hers way back in her first year in Waco, becoming the first player in Baylor history to throw a perfect game, mowing down Prairie View A&M in just her second career start.
“I would say it wasn’t just my perfect game, it was the whole team’s perfect game, because I didn’t have all the strikeouts in the game. I had everybody behind me making great plays,” West said.
She continued, “I remember there was one ball that was hit deep to left in that game, and I was holding my breath. I was like, ‘No!’, and our left fielder made an unbelievable catch to keep the runner from getting on. So it wasn’t just me in that game, and I think that was just a great game for all of us to play.”
For Baylor assistant coach Meagan Diaz, it’s her favorite moment of West, which showed a sign of things to come, adding, “She is a competitor, she’s a leader, she’s strong in her faith, she’s loving, she has a servant heart, and she’s just a team player.”
West spent her first few years in Waco as an everyday player, finding her way into the circle, but also getting some work in the outfield. It wasn’t until heading into her fourth year that it came to a screeching halt.
Over the course of her tenure with the program, she felt wear and tear in her throwing shoulder and decided to finally get it checked out by a trainer during the off-season. She was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which required surgery.
TOS is a nerve injury in the shoulder that can lead to numbness and tingling in the hand. West couldn’t throw a ball, as it would just fall to the side, and she even got a rib removed due to the surgery.
“It was a very long process,” West said. “The recovery time is supposed to be like four to six months, but mine ended up being pretty close to a year. I didn’t pick up a ball or throw till probably about eight or nine months.”
Diaz underwent the same surgery during her playing days at Baylor and was able to relate to and help West on her road to recovery.
“She’s a fighter that took a lot of fight to get back to being able to play, and she’s able to play second base; she played a solid second base for us whenever we went to Super Regionals,” Diaz said of West.
Due to injury, West spent all of last season in the dugout, rooting on her teammates. This new experience gave her a peek behind the curtain of what her future could hold as a coach, an aspiration she’s had for years.
“I would do a chart for the hitters when they would hit during the game, and that’s something that our hitting coach does during the game,” West said. “He tracks the pitches in how we do and then also gets to help run the drills. I obviously couldn’t do the drills because I was hurt, so getting to run that, seeing all of that, it was really beneficial for me.”
She was also the designated bullpen manager, helping pitchers who were in trouble in the circle or trotting down to the bullpen to help the next reliever get warm.
Diaz took note of West’s aspirations, and having West as a player-coach was vital, saying, “She actually designed this bingo card to keep the girls engaged. It had different goals, like game goals that we had, and she was responsible for that as well. She was always very creative with how she could still be a big part of the program, and she poured into our younger players and kept our older players level-headed.”
West made her return to the field this year and has taken on a platoon role, but has gotten starts against UCF and Texas over the past week.
She’s thrown 1.2 innings in the circle, while going seven for 15 at the plate with a .467 batting average, collecting five RBIs and a pair of walks so far this year.
“This year, my biggest goal was just to come back and have fun in my last season,” West said. “I’ve played it for nearly 19 years, and there have been a lot of ups and downs in this sport, so my goal was — whether I'm playing or whether I’m on the bench — I just want whatever role God puts me in.”
The Bears are off to their best start in Big 12 play since 2017, going 5-1, and West believes their fight is a big reason for the success.
“We’re a team that refuses to lose,” West said. “We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to fight the very last pitch. And I know some people might see us as underdogs or something like that, or a young team, but we’re going to go out there, and we’re going to give you our best game.”
West’s impact through her work ethic, return to the field and strength in her faith has made a lasting imprint on the team.
“She loves the Lord, and the kind of character that she has sets the tone for a program, and you can’t replace that,” Diaz said. “She’s also someone who is the first call whenever I need a babysitter; she’s just amazing, and I would hire her on my staff if I ever could.”
