Softball took Emma Kavanagh around the world in her final summer before officially joining Arizona

Emma Kavanagh will officially move to Tucson this upcoming week, but her summer was full of bonding experiences with her new teammates that took her around the world. Arizona softball’s incoming freshman catcher joined current, former, and future Wildcats on a trip to Italy then met future teammates Dakota Kennedy and Aissa Silva at the PGF All-American game in Irvine, Calif. to close out her prep career.

The trip to Italy gave the entire team, including the freshmen and transfers Sydney Stewart and Saya Swain, an opportunity to get on the field and work together. They spent part of each day sightseeing and the rest playing against a group of players trying to make the Italian national team. Both the bonding experience and the welcoming attitude of the Italian fans made the 10-day trip something to remember.

“It was super special to be able to put on the Wildcat uniform out there,” Kavanagh said. “We got to represent the Wildcats out in a whole other country. And the people out there were just truly amazing to us, and we were loved by them. Even though maybe they weren’t cheering for us…they would cheer when we did something cool. It was an amazing experience.”

The Illinois native is about to move across the country for college. As one of five children, that means leaving a big family behind.

“I’m the middle child,” Kavanagh said. “I have three sisters and a brother. And I know my brother—because I drive him everywhere on God’s creation—I think he’s gonna miss my Uber services a little bit. But I know my parents will come visit, and I know I’ll be calling them probably daily, just to keep them in the loop with life. I’m very family-oriented, so going far was a tough decision, but it’s something I wanted to explore. It’s so different from here, and I’m excited.”

Adapting to those changes will have to wait another week, but Kavanagh and her family got a taste of what it will mean to play for the Wildcats on the trip to Italy.

“I was lucky,” Kavanagh said. “My parents got to come out and watch the first game in a uniform. And that was an incredible experience. I love it, and I feel like that’s just a little sneak peek of how we’re going to be this next year. I think we were lucky to have that team bonding couple of weeks, and I feel like it’s going to go really well this season.”

While Kavanagh and her teammates got to see the sights, that wasn’t what stood out the most to her. Joining the battery with fellow freshman Sarah Wright was her favorite part.

“Catching Sarah when she threw a shutout,” Kavanagh said. “That was pretty cool.”

There was also time to learn from players who Kavanagh won’t get to play with in college. Former Wildcat stars Allie Skaggs and Carlie Scupin won’t be on the field at Hillenbrand next season, but the incoming freshmen got to see how they go about their business.

“It was amazing,” Kavanagh said. “They have an incredible amount of knowledge… [Skaggs] was extremely good with how she spoke to all the incoming freshmen about just different things, like nerves…Scup was absolutely amazing. She’s like the mom of the group. I absolutely adore her…It was just so thrilling to play with everyone.”

At PGF, Kavanagh joined forces with junior Dakota Kennedy again. Kennedy served as a coach for the East team Kavanagh was on.

“I talked with her throughout Italy, and she’s just such a cool, calm, and collected player and person,” Kavanagh said. “You’ll never know if she’s had 10 grand slams or [is] 0-for-20. You just would never know. She’s a player that I look up to, with how calm she’s in the box, and she was super cool too, just super calm, in the dugout during PGF.”

On the field at PGF, Kavanagh’s team lost to the West side in a close game. She was the starting catcher for the East. It was a challenge since the catchers only got to work with the starting pitcher before the game but all of the pitchers got to throw at least one inning.

“That was tough,” Kavanagh said. “It was definitely going through all the catchers’ heads, like, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s four pitchers per team.’ I caught only the first girl, Audrey Lowry, who’s going to Oklahoma. She was the only girl I warmed up and I got used to. Everyone else is kind of last minute. I get the five pitches and that was it…had to make them good.”

The catchers were also kept on their toes because they got to call the game.

“I love calling games,” Kavanagh said. “I got to when I was young. On the Illinois Chill 14 team I got to call occasionally. It’s probably one of my favorite things to do because it keeps me so in tune with the game. I kind of approach it as you know, if I was in the box, what would I least expect, would I be expecting, etc? And as a catcher, I just kind of get to use that. So I love calling games. I always have, and hopefully, I get to in the future.”

In the near future Kavanagh will be getting used to wildly different weather in Arizona and the change in training possibilities that come with that. In the Midwest, she said high school games were often canceled due to weather, although it was uncommon in travel ball. During the winter, they were forced to practice indoors.

“We stop playing probably super early November or late October,” Kavanagh said. “We play pretty deep into the fall, early winter area, which can get extremely cold. But we do have a lot of warm gear that we get, so it’s okay. And then all we do is practice. We practice indoors, in a super small facility. It only has like four cages and…just infield, no outfield. And we kind of do that every Tuesday and Sunday, and then we go off into high school. And we usually practice outdoors for high school, unless it is a danger or some sort of safety hazard, which usually it’s not. But we practiced with some snow in the outfield before. Nothing we can’t do.”

It’s unlikely to snow in Tucson during softball season this year. That’s just one thing Kavanagh has to look forward to. She definitely has goals.

“I think trying to make it all the way to the World Series,” she said. “Get there and win it. I think we have a really good group. I know we do actually. I am excited to see how we do, and I know everyone wants to chase that. I think we’re all in the same boat of just trying to get there. I’m really excited. I’m also excited for Big 12. I think that’s going to be super cool, too.”

Lead photo courtesy of Emma Kavanagh.