For the last 17 years, Kylee Fahy’s life has always been about softball. Bakersfield College’s right-handed softball pitcher is ranked No. one in strikeouts in the state for the last two seasons now. Her earn base average (ERA) this season, so far, is currently 1.46 and is 13-0 for conference wins. 

How long have you been playing softball?

Fahy: My mom put me on a team when I was three. 

What does softball mean to you?

Fahy: I was born with a diaphragmatic hernia. 

I had a hole in my diaphragm and my intestines filled up and my heart was pushing to my back. 

I wasn’t supposed to survive and there was a one percent chance of me surviving. And if I was supposed to survive, I would have to live with an oxygen tank and not be able to feed myself. I wasn’t supposed to live a full life. 

Apparently, I was supposed

to have a patch, where my hole was, experimentally and have it replaced every four years but I have not been back since. So softball means a lot to me. It’s been my whole life. I don’t know where I would be with softball. With everything, I’ve been through softball is the one stable thing I had with my life. 

Was there anyone special in your life that helped you become the player you are today?

Fahy: My mom and dad [made] me to become the player I am today, but with Coach Casy and Coach May, they made me fall in love with the game all over again last season. They taught me to be a better person and how to be a better teammate. Like sometimes the team pisses me off but I’ve just learned that some things are just not worth saying. I’ve matured a lot because of them.

What are some of your favorite softball memories?

Fahy: [During High School] I played travel ball and I was in between teams because I had a love or hate relationship with the game. I didn’t want to play-then I did then I didn’t. I was going to play for a team and when I got there they were already playing a game. So I put someone’s jersey on and I hit a home run. I haven’t warmed up or nothing.

[With BC] I had so many good memories but my first no-hitter last year was pretty good.

What was the greatest struggle you have had to overcome in your playing career?

Fahy: I have family problems. I lost my mom and my dads to drugs. So dealing with that was the hardest thing I had to go through in my softball career. I was in the eighth year when my mom started using and I was just a junior in high school when my dad started using. 

You threw two no-hitters this season. What was going on into your head during those games?

Fahy: So the last no-hitter that I had I was so pissed about it because I was going to have a perfect game. I was one batter away from having a perfect game and I walked her! I was so burnt-everyone was like ‘you got a no-hitter, you got a no-hitter,’ but I was like ‘no, I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care.’ I was so pissed but I just have to not think about it because then I’ll try harder and that’s when something bad happens. I believe things can get jinx, so we [the team] don’t talk about it. Nothing is said during it because if you said it you jinx it. I don’t really think about it or talk about it just because I don’t want to ruin it. We’re superstitious.

Do you have any athletes you look up to?

Fahy: No. I’m an athlete but I don’t like watching sports. Everyone likes watching softball but I hate watching softball. It irritates me. Because like you’re a division one athlete, why are you making errors? You’re getting everything paid for you to do this.

How do you feel when you out pitching a game?

Fahy: Softball is my release. It’s my gateway. I don’t really feel anything when I’m playing. I’m just happy to be there and love playing the game. Everything that’s going on outside of softball I don’t let in on the field for it won’t affect me.  

Did you have any goals this season, and have you achieved any so far?

Fahly: I didn’t really have any goals. 

I just wanted to do as good as last year because I was rank No. one for the state with strikeouts. 

So I wanted to do that good. 

I’m ranked No. 1 right now, but someone is catching up to me. If we don’t go further than state or regionals than they do, then she’ll pass me.

Are you happy with the season so far?

Fahy: I’m happy with our conference games. 

I wish for our non-conference games we did better because I believe we are better than a lot of the teams we played and lost to them. So I feel that we should have done better in that aspect. But I’m pretty happy with the season overall.