Somewhere on a Blacksburg, Va. field this past fall, Virginia Tech softball players were left seeing double – well, more like a mirror image.
Elon University interim softball coach Kathy Bocock walked to the mound to remove her pitcher, senior Erin O’Shea, from the game. In O’Shea’s stead stepped a look-alike. But the body double threw left-handed.
“I don’t know that when we switched the two pitchers that they realized that there was a different pitcher on the mound,” Bocock said. “They didn’t realize the ball was coming out of a different hand at that time.”
It’s a sister act for the Phoenix this year. Joining the program is freshman pitcher Caitlin O’Shea, Erin’s sister. The siblings were born more than two years apart, but if they told you they were twins you wouldn’t question it.
The O'Shea family has made it a tradition to play for the Phoenix. Corey O'Shea, Class of 2011, played football at Elon for four years. Erin followed in his footsteps, and there may be another O’Shea to don the maroon and gold before all is said and done. Shannon O’Shea is a junior at Allatoona High School in Kennesaw, Ga., with a dream of going to Elon to play volleyball. When asked if she thought about going anywhere else, Caitlin didn’t hold back.
“No,” she said, before immediately turning around and laughing.
They're a competitive family rooted in sports. Yet when asked who was the better pitcher, Erin and Caitlin couldn’t heap enough praise on to the other.
“Are you really asking me this question?” Caitlin said, laughing once again. “I’ll just say we have different strengths and different weaknesses. So she may be better at one thing, and I may be different at another.”
Erin agreed, with a caveat.
“Me and Caitlin are both different in many ways. We complement each other in how we pitch,” Erin said, before admitting that her younger sister might provide a little more heat on the mound. “She’s probably faster than me, which I can handle.”
The arrival of Caitlin to Elon transformed Erin, one of the team’s three captains, into a more vocal athlete. The fall schedule and winter workouts gave the older sister the platform she needed to step into a leadership role.
“She’s trying to set a great example for (Caitlin) and not let her see anything bad,” Bocock said. “That’s just being an older sister.”
Caitlin will certainly have a lot to admire. Erin pitched a no-hitter last year to go along with 14 complete games and four shutouts.
Depending on Bocock’s strategy, many of Elon's opponents could get stuck seeing double this season.