Brinkley Kita didn’t enjoy having so much free time.

That was especially true since the 2022 Crown Point graduate believed she had more softball to play.

“I couldn’t just sit back and do nothing, and I wasn’t really ready to be fully done with softball yet,” Kita said.

After struggling to make a home at Lipscomb as a freshman, Kita spent a year out of the sport. But she has revived her softball career at Ball State.

A 5-foot-11 right-hander, Kita went 5-4 with a 4.36 ERA in 43 1/3 innings for the Cardinals (33-18) this past season. Her best day came near the end during a doubleheader against Central Michigan on May 3, when she pitched three innings of scoreless relief in Game 1 and then threw a shutout in Game 2 — a performance that earned her Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Week honors.

“That was a big confidence booster for me,” Kita said. “I went into that game thinking that I didn’t need to be stressed or worried about anything, that I just needed to play my game and know that my teammates were behind me. I didn’t really think about it too much. I just kept going.”

Kita raved about her first year at Ball State overall.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I feel like that school is what I needed. Ball State is exactly what I thought college was going to be like.”

Crown Point coach Angie Richwalski received frequent updates from Kita’s younger sister Ashlyn, a junior on the Class 4A state championship team.

“From talking to her family during the season, they all said she was absolutely in love with Muncie,” Richwalski said. “Knowing Brinkley, I’d assume that her mental comfort probably had a big impact on her performance at Ball State.”

That comfort level was harder for Kita to find during her first year of college. She went 6-6 with a team-best 2.74 ERA in 74 innings for Lipscomb in 2023 but wasn’t happy in the new environment in Nashville, Tennessee.

“It was a lot on me mentally,” she said. “The people there really weren’t my people, and being so far away from home was really hard on me too.”

By the time Kita decided she wasn’t returning to Lipscomb, however, the transfer window had closed. So she spent the 2023-24 school year in Crown Point, where she picked up the first job of her life and took online classes at Ivy Tech. There were trips to the gym and pitching lessons, too, but Kita wasn’t satisfied.

“I wasn’t really seeing a bunch of people because everyone else was away at school, and I wasn’t playing softball for the first time in my life,” she said. “So I didn’t really know what to do.”

Kita’s time at home led to countless conversations with her mother, Jennifer, who said she always believed more opportunities would be available.

“I just want a happy child,” Jennifer Kita said. “If she wasn’t going to play anymore, that was OK. But I knew they’d want her because she has a lot to offer. She never stopped working on her skills.”

Brinkley Kita eventually gained the motivation to enter the transfer portal when it reopened in December, and she discovered her skills were in high demand. A visit to Muncie helped Kita commit to a future there.

“There’s such a strong bond with the girls there,” she said. “We just didn’t have that same chemistry at Lipscomb that I feel like we have at Ball State.”

Kita hopes she can continue to thrive during her final two years of eligibility.

“For the first time in a long time, when I was pitching, I felt so confident,” she said. “If I can just keep my head calm, then I’m calm and my pitching is good.”

Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.