Baylor pitcher Syd Berzon in action during a recent contest.
photo by M.L. Locke/file photo
As an opposing hitter steps into the batters’ box, Syd Berzon '22, junior pitcher for the Baylor softball team, is thinking three words. Strike. Her. Out.
Berzon, who says she also enjoys art very much, has become quite proficient in the art of the strikeout. In her four starts this year, she pitched a total of 21 innings, recording 63 outs, 51 of them by strikeout.
All while allowing just three hits in the first three games and hurling a seven-inning no-hitter (with 16 Ks) against local and state rival GPS. That was followed by a seven-game tournament, in which she struck out 44 batters in 19.2 innings or 59 outs.
“She goes right at hitters – they might get three pitches,” says Baylor coach Kelli Smith '95. “She doesn’t throw many setup pitches. She wants to strike batters out as quickly as possible. Even the best hitters in the lineup that we might normally pitch around a bit – Syd wants to go at them.”
“I like having my strikeout numbers high,” says Berzon, who verbally committed to play at LSU when she was in the eighth grade. “My goal is to get ahead in the count against every batter and work each pitch the best I can. Facing the teams we do, I really try and push myself to strike batters out. You beat the batter by striking them out. I know if I throw my best stuff, it should beat them.”
One thing that makes Berzon such a phenom is the development of the rise ball pitch, basically a fast ball that curves upward as it reaches the batter making it nearly impossible for hitters to make contact.
“We’ve never had a rise ball pitcher,” says Smith, who played at Baylor, has coached here since 2000, and has been a part of all 13 state championships. “You have to have that velocity. It’s a very difficult pitch to throw, but she can really make it jump.”
“I’ve been told it is hard to get your hand in the right position to throw a rise ball,” concurs Berzon. “Oddly, my hand is naturally close to that position already, so it comes a little easier for me. When I first started learning it, I worked so hard. It took three or four years to master, but this year, I’ve figured out the perfect grip. The results have been really amazing for me.”
Berzon has even more weapons in her arsenal, however, and is becoming more and more adept at deploying them. “I work a lot on changing speeds,” she says. “Only two of my pitches are thrown at the same speed. I range from 48 mph to the high 60s with the five pitches I throw. I like doing that because it’s all about the batter’s perception.”
The dynastic history of softball at Baylor, of course, includes some great pitchers, but Smith can see something special about Berzon, and points out how pitchers from different eras do not really compare well. “The game has evolved and changed so much. When Amy Robertson (Whitaker) ‘94, who also got a lot of strikeouts, was playing, the pitcher was 40 feet away and might be releasing the pitch from about 35 feet,” Smith explains. “Everybody had a stud pitcher then and teams had to play great defense. It was one-run games, two-run games, a very pitcher-dominant game. Now the pitching rubber is 43 feet from the plate and with the introduction of composite bats, it’s much more offense oriented. The Baylor teams I played on might hit four home runs a year. Teams I coach now might hit four in a game. So you don’t see pitchers, especially at the high school level, dominating like Syd.”
A boarding student from Buffalo, N.Y., Berzon says she became acquainted with Baylor through summer softball as she travels with a team based in Chattanooga. The tryouts for that team were at Baylor and while there, she met Sophie Piskos ’20, who also eventually enrolled at Baylor. “My family looked at how often we would have to travel from Buffalo to Chattanooga, and we started to consider boarding. So we went through the admission process. I loved the campus, of course, but I thought having the academic opportunities along with the great softball tradition and with my travel team here in Chattanooga, it just really came together for me. ‘School-ball’ is a lot better here than in Buffalo and summer league softball is a million times better than at home. It’s competitive at home but it’s not like it is down here.”
“Boarding has been a bit of a roller coaster,” Berzon admits. “It was hard to move away from home at 14, but you get used to it. There is a lot of support here, all the dorm parents and the girls in the dorm. It gets better the longer you stay. You learn more about the campus, more things to do, you get out of the dorm a little more, and you’re getting older and more independent. You grow and learn. It was the right decision for me.”
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