High School Softball: McKeown helps CdM build
Corona del Mar High senior Sydney McKeown is not afraid of commitment, both on the softball field and in her personal life.
On the field she’s a four-year starter for the Sea Kings as a pitcher and outfielder. McKeown, who is headed to Ole Miss, has pitched all four years for CdM, despite abandoning that position years ago in travel-ball.
McKeown, one of just three seniors, has been an integral piece as the Sea Kings have built their program up under third-year coach Carly Smith. They have improved from 1-21-1 in McKeown’s sophomore year, to 9-16 last season, to 4-3 this season entering Friday night’s Costa Mesa tournament game against University.
One person who has seen the transformation first-hand has been McKeown’s boyfriend, Jared Dror. High school relationships are notoriously short-lived but McKeown and Dror, who is a freshman at Orange Coast College, have been dating for close to two years. They’ll celebrate their anniversary next month, April 27 to be exact, the date that both of them have on their Twitter pages.
“I personally think I do better when he’s here, just because I don’t want to look stupid in front of him,” McKeown said. “It’s really nice to have the support. Last year, he came to every single game. Every single one. Even the far ones, like JSerra.”
Work has gotten in the way of that this season. But Dror still managed to be in attendance March 3 at CdM’s home field, and for good reason.
It was a big game, the Battle of the Bay against rival Newport Harbor. And it was one the Sea Kings always managed to lose.
Not this year. McKeown, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, helped CdM prevail in the rivalry game for the first time since 2007. She pitched a complete game and went two for five as the Sea Kings’ leadoff hitter. She also scored the winning run in extra innings, as CdM walked off as a 9-8 victor in eight innings.
McKeown, who leaped into the arms of freshman catcher Maddie Tumbarello after crossing the plate, was clearly emotional after her first Battle of the Bay win. She wiped tears from her eyes as the Sea Kings exited their post-game huddle, and again the tears came a few minutes later during an interview.
McKeown apologized, which really wasn’t necessary. She knew how much it meant to win this game, both for herself and the program. And she was an emotional leader for the Sea Kings during the game. CdM fell behind 4-1 in the top of the third inning, but immediately responded with five runs in the bottom of the frame.
The Sea Kings had the Sailors down to their last out in the top of the seventh, but an infield error gave Newport Harbor new life. The visitors would eventually score the go-ahead run, but McKeown made sure the Sea Kings stayed calm. They scored the equalizer in the bottom of the seventh and won it in the bottom of the eighth with the international tiebreaker rule in play.
“It’s still really cool,” McKeown said Wednesday, more than a week after the game. “Some random people in my grade and random teachers at school would come up to me and be like, ‘Hey, congrats on the game.’ I would just be like, ‘How did you even hear about that?’ And my grandparents would email me, and my family friends. It was a pretty big deal, which is cool.”
It’s an interesting team for the Sea Kings this year. At the time of the Battle of the Bay, they had just two seniors playing with McKeown and first baseman Jordan Calvin. But that changed after senior outfielder Kelly Owen, who missed much of last season with mononucleosis, rejoined the squad.
McKeown and Owen have been playing softball together since they were 7 years old.
“It was senior year and I wanted to be with Sydney,” Owen said. “Sydney did a lot of persuading.”
This was also true in the offseason, when the Sea Kings weren’t totally sure they would have a team following the graduation of seniors Mylie Wilson (who now plays at Golden West College), Karley Johnston and Amanda Penna. CdM has just six returning players in the three seniors, plus sophomores Brooke Franson, Raine Finley and Lauren Oberreiter. There are no juniors on the team.
“We just did some crazy recruiting and got everyone we could,” McKeown said. “Now we have 15, and that’s a good amount.”
That number includes nine freshmen. Two of the nine players — Tumbarello and second baseman Samantha Mather — started in the Battle of the Bay. Franson and Tumbarello are dedicated travel-ball players, along with McKeown.
Franson went three for three with four runs batted in against Harbor, while Tumbarello was one for three with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
“I definitely think the program is building,” said McKeown, who also plays travel-ball for the Firecrackers. “Wins or losses, players are getting better. We have Brooke and Maddie and Lauren, and they’re all coming up and getting better. I think that in a few years we’ll be a winning team, rather than what it is now.”
Leaving a legacy would mean a lot to McKeown, who was the Newport-Mesa Player of the Year as a junior after the lefty batted .662 and earned first-team All-Pacific Coast League honors. She is off to a hot start this year, too. She was a combined eight for eight this week in two La Quinta tournament games, a 14-4 loss to Oxford Academy on Tuesday and an 8-4 win over Los Amigos on Thursday.
She said she gets a lot of the competitive nature from her older brothers, each of whom also went to CdM. Chase Presson played football for the Sea Kings before graduating in 2002. Wess Presson won a CIF title with the CdM baseball team as a junior, and earned All-CIF honors as a senior before graduating in 2005. He is third on the CdM baseball career list in RBIs (73), and tied for third with 113 hits.
Wherever Sydney McKeown’s edge comes from, her coach Smith, who also played collegiately at Concordia, is glad that she has it.
“I am very proud of Sydney and all that she has achieved,” Smith wrote in an email. “It is great to know that she has been rewarded for all her hard work and effort over the last 10-plus years by committing to Ole Miss. All those years of rec ball, travel ball, out of state tournaments and long practices paid off for her, because she is going to do nothing but exceptional things for the Ole Miss softball program. Her commitment to Ole Miss has represented a huge growth in the CdM program, and will encourage future athletes to play in college.”
There’s that “commitment” word again.
McKeown just seems to take everything that comes at her in stride. One more thing she wants to do is win a Pacific Coast League game, something the Sea Kings haven’t done since 2008.
“It’s my last year,” she said. “I want to go all out.”
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Sydney McKeown
Born: May 19, 1997
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-7
Sport: Softball
Year: Senior
Coach: Carly Smith
Favorite food: Grilled chicken
Favorite movie: “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
Favorite athletic moment: Helping the Pacific Coast Girls Fastpitch Softball 10-and-Under All-Stars (now Newport-Mesa Softball) place third at the ASA Junior Olympic State Championships in 2008.
Week in review: McKeown pitched a complete game and went two for five at the plate, scoring the winning run in CdM’s 9-8 eight-inning win over rival Newport Harbor in the Battle of the Bay game March 3.
