At nine years of age, Kyle Leahy was holding his first baseball in hand. Now as a junior at Colorado Mesa University, Leahy takes the mound as the ace of the Mavericks. Last year, Leahy was awarded Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year as well as First Team All-American. This year, he is continuing his domination.
“I really enjoyed playing games and being able to compete,” Leahy said. “I started playing in the yard with my friends and family when I was little and it went from there.”
Since he began throwing and catching a ball, Leahy had a dream of playing professionally. CMU is one step in the right direction to accomplish that goal.
Leahy is currently 3-0 with a 3.40 era, which is not the best it has been in recent seasons but Leahy had back-to-back games in which he allowed five runs in the first game and seven in the second.
Those two games were the only two hiccups for Leahy season as in his next outing, he had one of the best pitching performances of his career.
On March 9 against UCCS, Leahy pitched all nine innings and struck a career-high 17 batters while allowing no runs and only four hits. That was enough to give Leahy the National Pitcher of the Week honors.
Against UCCS, Leahy made the 17 strikeouts look easy and did not show close to any fatigue in the game. Many will say that is a testament to how mentally tough Leahy is despite all the difficulties and challenges that come with pitching.
“I don’t think there’s a single hardest thing, there are a lot of ups and downs and challenges in baseball, but I enjoy overcoming those challenges and getting better,” Leahy said.
Leahy has pitched a total 39.2 innings this season for the Mavericks, which leads the team. Through those innings, he has struck out a total of 44 batters and has allowed only 15 runs. Last season, the Boulder native ended the season with a 1.41 era and struck out 96 batters and went 13-0. He earned a plethora of awards from RMAC Pitcher of the Year, to Region Pitcher of the Year to RMAC Academic Player of the Year.
Leahy played for Erie High School before CMU. Not only was he pitching for the team but also played infield.
“I chose to focus on pitching in college because that’s what I saw my future in,” Leahy said.
Even though Leahy focus is mainly on the game, he is studying kinesiology fitness and health promotion. He does love the outdoors and skiing, fishing, camping, biking and hiking.
“I wanted to stay fairly close to home and Mesa is the best program in the area,” Leahy said.
With winning the extensive number of awards from the 2017 season, Leahy explained that those awards are pleasant and a nice way to show the work that he has put in is actually working, but on the other hand, those awards are not the main thing Leahy wants.
“The main goal is to win a national championship and that would be the ultimate award for me,” Leahy said.
With that goal in mind, Leahy never truly takes a break from baseball.
“I spend the majority of my time training. We practice or have weights almost every day. We train all throughout the fall and I also play summer ball,” Leahy said.
