Softball Player of the Year: ‘She wants to do well in everything she does’ Pitching, hitting, Katie Arrambide did it all for St. Charles East

ST. CHARLES – Katie Arrambide is “one of the most competitive people” St. Charles East softball coach Jarod Gutesha has been around.

“That’s one of the things people don’t see: Katie, she doesn’t need to be told ‘This is what you need to do,’ ” Gutesha said. “She is so internally competitive. It’s something that watching a game, you might not see it because she is so straight-faced and goes about her business … she wants to do well in everything she does.”

“It goes from her schooling, her academics, softball, training, and all the extra hours she puts in.”

Arrambide, who will play collegiately at Harvard, went 12-3 in 16 starts this spring, with a 1.42 earned run average and 172 strikeouts and just 13 walks in 98 2/3 innings pitched. She was named the DuKane Conference Pitcher of the Year – but was much more than a pitcher.

When she wasn’t sparkling in the circle, Arrambide, named all-conference and first-team All-State by the Illinois Coaches Association, played outfield and mashed her way to a .333 batting average with seven home runs and 32 runs batted in.

Arrambide, who led the Saints to a conference title and sectional final appearance, is the 2021 Chronicle Girls Softball Player of the Year. Arrambide also won the award in 2019.

“I think everybody knows her as the pitcher that kind of led the team down state in 2019, ate up all the innings in the postseason,” Gutesha said. “This year … she obviously pitched and did a great job for us in the circle, but I think, especially – other teams know – but people that follow the game don’t also understand just what a great [overall] softball player she is.”

“She’s a great outfielder, wonderfully athletically, but also she hit some huge home runs this year against very quality pitching. So, when she wasn’t pitching, she was also contributing offensively. The whole package that she has … offensively and was as in the circle, she was able to perform.”

Arrambide dedicated similar time and energy into hitting as she did pitching.

That offseason hitting work paid off.

“I don’t think it has shown until this year, so kind of the work ethic on that part has been very consistent for me. I’ve always worked hard at it,” Arrambide said. “I think the product that people saw this season with me in the batters box was a lot of the work I did over the winter [and] throughout COVID.”

Beyond the stats and memorable wins, the most rewarding part of her senior season was sharing it with the six seniors, four of whom were on varsity as freshmen.

“I’m a very sentimental, emotional person so I like to take feelings and exaggerate them so I feel it completely, so all I thought about all season was the people I [was] sharing the field with,” Arrambide said.

“During a game while [I was] pitching, I would turn my head and look at Kati [Gheorghe] without saying anything and tell myself ‘You’re never going to share the field with this girl again wearing the same uniform. So, make the most of it.’ I think having moments like that all throughout the season was what made it so special for me. Because I love my teammates to death and I really loved getting to round out my senior year with some of the girls that I’ve been playing with since we were freshmen.”