Sometimes, she isn’t quite sure of herself.

But there is one thing that Homewood-Flossmoor pitcher Kaylee Vitolka can count on.

Senior catcher Rachel Griggs will have her back.

“She is always there for me,” Vitolka said. “I get stressed out a little bit. I get in my mind a lot. But she can tell when I’m down and when I need that break.

“I also know that she can catch any of the balls I throw in the dirt or even all the way in the sky.”

Griggs was there Thursday when the Vikings needed her the most in a 6-3 nonconference victory over Providence in Flossmoor.

Vitolka, Griggs and Izzy Thurman each had two hits for H-F (13-13). Skylar Skinner reached twice and scored twice. Vitolka went six innings for the pitching win, while Thurman notched the save.

Bella Olszta and Angelina Cole both produced two hits for Providence (18-10), but Griggs offset that by having a big day against the Celtics at and behind the plate.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, she followed up an RBI single by Ana Weber with a two-run double to right field. That turned a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 lead for H-F.

In the top of the sixth, Providence had two runners on, two outs and a batter at the plate with a 3-1 count when Griggs made her biggest contribution.

She called timeout.

“Sometimes, you just need to reel it in with your pitcher,” Griggs said. “I could tell that Kaylee was frustrated. We just needed to take a minute, take a second and reset.”

Her words of advice?

“Ha ha … we just cracked jokes,” Griggs said, laughing. “We didn’t talk about anything important. We just wanted to calm things down.”

The senior right-hander followed with her best two pitches of the game, a pair of called strikes, to end the threat.Griggs pulling it together in the clutch has been a blessing for H-F coach Corinne Zimmerman.

“She is just the definition of resilience,” Zimmerman said. “The softball field is her happy place. It’s where she feels at home with her softball family, and that’s what this is all about.

“Rachel represents consistency, the resilience to overcome and showing up for your teammates, even when life throws you curveballs.”

Griggs, who will be attending Michigan and is contemplating playing on the club team, has been a catcher her whole life.

“I chose it because I wanted to step up,” Griggs said. “It was a position that was open during in-house (league). Nobody else wanted to do it. I was like, ‘Put me out there. Let’s do it.’ And it just kind of went from there.

“I love it back there. I like being in control. I get a different view of the field than anybody else. They are facing me and I’m facing out. I like that perspective, when I can see every single thing that’s going on.”

Most of her friends outside of softball don’t understand the fascination. Some of them who do play softball probably don’t understand either.

“It’s usually like, ‘Why?’ Oh, my God, your knees. Why do you want to do that?’” Griggs explained. “Yeah, it’s usually something along those lines.”

And mom?

“She paid for my first catcher’s mitt,” Griggs said. “She said that my knees are going to be gone by the time I’m 25. And they hurt now. But it’s the sacrifice that I’m willing to make.”

And Griggs does it with a smile.

“Rachel will come in every day in the brightest mood,” Skinner said. “She’ll crack jokes, dance around, sing music. If you’re down, she’ll get you up. She is the first person I go to when I’m down.

“She’s just like … the sun. When she comes up, she’s like, ‘Everybody wake up. Let’s go.’”

Tony Baranek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.