‘Turtle’ Nickname Gets Thrown a Changeup by Argonauts’ Taylor

To her teammates on the Garden Grove High softball team, pitcher Kim Taylor is affectionately known as “Turtle.”

“It started my freshman year, when I was playing JV (junior varsity),” Taylor said. “I’m not fast at all and I tripped over second base in one game. I had to crawl back to the base. Now I got turtle stickers on my car and my license plate says KMZ TRTL. They (teammates) even gave me a live turtle.”

But to opposing batters, there’s nothing slow about Taylor’s pitches.

The senior right-hander combines a blazing fastball with several other pitches to get batters out with a mixture of power and finesse.

Last season, her first on the varsity team, Taylor was 13-4 with an 0.48 earned-run average and 92 strikeouts. She pitched two no-hitters, three one-hitters, two two-hitters and had nine shutouts. Those numbers earned her a spot on the all-league team, and she was named a Times’ second-team All-County player.

Her record included two victories over league rival Kennedy and its ace, All-County left-hander Cheryl Longeway, who now attends Cal State Fullerton.

Taylor was one of the driving forces behind Garden Grove’s undefeated league season (14-0) in 1991 and is one of the mainstays on this year’s Argonaut squad.

“We are pretty lucky to have someone such as Kim, who’s experienced at throwing a variety of pitches,” said Paula Cervantes, who has coached two other outstanding pitchers--Leslie Osterman and Stephanie Smith--during her nine seasons at Garden Grove. “She (Taylor) has a choice of around six pitches.”

Her repertoire includes a fastball, riser, drop, changeup, curve and screwball. And she can throw them all for strikes, particularly the changeup, which she’s not afraid to use regardless of the count.

“My best pitch and my favorite pitch is the changeup,” Taylor said. “I like to fool batters with my changeup.”

Taylor has been trying to get one up on batters since age 6, when she pitched for a Garden Grove girls’ team coached by her parents, Sue and Ed. At age 13 she progressed to traveling clubs, then on to high school ball.

“My mom and dad got me involved, but they didn’t push it on me. They are very supportive,” Taylor said.

Once she showed promise as a pitcher and a desire to continue in the sport, her parents enrolled her in private classes with Bill Owens, a local pitching coach.

“All my success goes to him (Owens) and God,” said Taylor, a born-again Christian. “God gave me the talent and Bill helped me excel. I’ve been going to him since I was 9.”

Nine years later, Taylor continues to refine that talent and is learning to cope with the pressures of being a softball pitcher.

“Filling in Stephanie’s shoes last year was an honor, but it was so scary,” Taylor said. “The team wasn’t expecting I would do the same as her, but hoping I would. There’s definitely a lot of pressure being a pitcher.”

Some of that comes from the circumstances of a game, and some from Taylor’s competitiveness.

“My biggest goal in each game is not walking a batter. I don’t care about strikeouts, but those walks can score real fast,” she said. “Another reason I don’t want to walk anybody is that I might lose a perfect game. I walked (Jennifer) Surface in a game against Pacifica last year and lost a perfect game.”

Taylor preserved the no-hitter, however, and won, 1-0. But that was one walk this turtle could have done without.