Kaelyn Deckerd of
Oak Ridge (Mo.) has continued an immaculate April by throwing consecutive perfect games while slugging three home runs to cap the stretch.
In eight starts this month, the sophomore hasn't allowed a hit in seven of them and has thrown five straight no-hitters along with the consecutive perfect games. In the batter's box, she has a .750 batting average with 28 RBI and 10 home runs in 28 April at-bats.
"Kaelyn is on an incredible stretch right now and it's a direct reflection of how hard she's been working," Oak Ridge head softball and volleyball coach Starla Pulley said. "She has so many goals in sight and she's putting in the daily effort it takes to reach them."
On the season, Deckerd has a state leading eight no-hitters with six perfect games while striking out 2.54 batters per inning.
Deckerd has the lowest ERA in the state while also pacing Missouri in home runs, batting average, on-base percentage and RBI. She is in the top three in strikeouts, wins and runs scored.
"I balance it by putting the work into both," Deckerd said. "I trust my fundamentals and take the same approach into the circle and into the plate and just hoping everything works."
Players can start receiving offers in September of their junior year but the interest from colleges has been heavy for Deckerd with trips that include Alabama, Mississippi State, Purdue, UCLA, Florida State and Nebraska for college camps.
At Nebraska, Deckerd got to work with her favorite college player
Jordy Frahm.
"Jordy is one person I look up to a lot," Deckerd said. "She's a great pitcher and does a lot of good things offensively. She really inspires me to be like her."
Deckerd is a three-sport star who averaged 20.4 points per game in basketball and has 623 kills over two volleyball seasons.
Her catcher
Ella Hobeck played both of those sports with her to build chemistry and is a freshman hitting .489. Before this season, Hobeck had never caught. Now she is catching a pitcher who can hit 62-65 miles per hour with an arsenal of pitches including a rise ball, screwball, curveball and changeup.
"I'm very proud of her for stepping up and wanting to catch me," Deckerd said. "Ella is doing great and I appreciate her a lot. We are really good friends."
Deckerd has starred on the high school softball diamond since her first career game as a freshman when she pitched a shutout with 16 strikeouts. Offensively, she had two hits and two stolen bases that day.
She threw a 20-strikeout no-hitter and hit a home run in one of the best outings of her freshman season.
The team reached the 2025 Class 1 state semifinals before narrowly falling 4-2.
"It was a hard loss," Deckerd said. "We came from districts happy and thought we could just come into state and it was going to be easy. It wasn't easy."
The loss lit a fire under the team and this year the Blue Jays are undefeated and ranked No. 10 in the state while outscoring opponents 218-10.
"What's made us click is all of us have played another sport with each other," Deckerd said. "In the fall, we all played volleyball together, in the winter, we all played basketball together. Now, we're all playing softball."
Deckerd is 13-0 with a 0.23 ERA and 155 strikeouts. She rips off a .787 batting average and has 15 home runs. On April 6, she again struck out 20 batters and hit a home run. This time, she threw a perfect game.
"Kaelyn works on her craft as a pitcher every single day," Pulley said.
Not only has she reached base every game this season, Deckerd has been on base every game in her career, recording a hit in all but three of them.
While she jumps right into travel ball after the softball season starts, the wins and losses mean more to her at the high school level.
"I've learned that trying to win something for your school is better compared to travel ball," Deckerd said. "It feels more special doing it for your school, for somewhere you've been your whole life."
Her family is local and she even plays on the same field that her mother, an Oak Ridge alum, played high school softball.
Kaelyn started playing softball when she was seven and hit her first home run at the age of 13. It was memorable because it was a grand slam and she did it on her father's birthday.
Her dad is the reason she wears jersey No. 31, his number when he played high school baseball about 20 minutes away at
Perryville (Mo.).
"My dad pushed me since I was seven and always took me to the field, caught for me, pitched me front toss and hit ground balls and fly balls," Deckerd said. "He always wants to see the best out of me and always pushed me to be better than I was the day before."
