As the winning pitcher in the past two NJSIAA Group III state championship games — albeit in different ways — and with a veteran cast surrounding her this year, the whole New Jersey softball world seems focused on Steinert’s Katie Simonka.
That’s a lot of pressure.
“Coming off the past two years there’s not an article that’s not saying something about her, so she’s gotta keep her head level and clear,” Spartans coach Jen Melker said. “Her mindset is all about this year. She knows moving forward to play at the level she wants to play.”
The senior hurler doesn’t seem fazed by it all. She just focuses on needs.
“In order to keep a level head I ignore all of the outside voices and focus on what the team needs and what I need to do in order to help us get to where we need to be,” Simonka said. “I focus on taking it inning by inning, game by game, and only controlling what I can control.”
Whenever entering the circle, she seems in complete control.
Through Steinert’s 6-1 start this year, Katie was 4-1 with a 0.93 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 30 innings. She had allowed 10 walks and 11 hits for a remarkable 0.70 WHIP.
Simonka has been more dominant than in her junior year, where she kept getting in and out of jams after coming back from off-season injuries. But even then, she went 17-4 with a 1.25 ERA and 172 strikeouts in 128-2/3 innings. In the state tournament the lefthander went 5-0 with a 1.11 ERA in 38 innings. She struck out 38 and was able to survive 22 hits and 22 walks with downright clutch pitching in tight situations.
It was in the 2023 state final where Simonka first drew statewide attention. After throwing just 12 regular-season innings, the sophomore got the win in the Group III semifinal win over Shawnee with 2⅓ innings of scoreless relief.
She was like a Marvel superhero in the state final. When starting pitcher Izzy Bonnaci injured herself at bat in the top of the second, Simonka entered with a 3-0 lead and allowed one earned run in six innings to win the biggest game of her career at that point.
It became quickly obvious that Simonka was a big-game pitcher.
“Thinking back on those huge moments I really do wonder how I did it,” she said. “If you told me my freshman year that any of that would happen, I wouldn’t believe you. I wouldn’t say that I had no preparation (as a sophomore). I would consider it more of a challenge that prepared me for the next coming years. By the coaches putting me in these challenging situations, it helped me come out of my shell and blossom mentally in the game.”
Melker just shakes her head in amazement.
“How she’s grown is incredible,” the coach said. “Coming in for Izzy her sophomore year in that circumstance, it’s not easy. It’s a hard toll to put on somebody.
“And then to come out big like that and carry it into her junior year and doing what she did. I sat down with her junior year and had that discussion about how that target just keeps growing. People are gonna just keep talking and saying things and keep expecting because of what you’ve proven. It’s a matter of putting in that effort mentally and not just physically.”
Simonka has been thinking about baseball since she was a 5-year-old recreation player. She actually started as a catcher and played first base in 8U travel. Since she was lefty her dad, former CVC baseball ump George Simonka, had her take pitching lessons with the highly respected Jerry Herrera Sr., and there was no turning back.
She started travel with the Hamilton Hurricanes at age 7 and remained there until joining the New Jersey Outlaws 18U Gold Skelly team last year. Both were key to her progress.
“Growing up in the Hurricanes organization helped me learn the game and develop my skills,” she said. “My dad was not only my coach but my number one supporter thought it all. I truly cannot thank him and Mike Walsh enough for giving me the tools I needed to be successful and putting in the time.
“The Outlaws, specifically Dan Berg and Jamie Skelly, gave me the confidence I needed to play to my full potential and were a huge part in helping me make my dreams of becoming a Division 1 pitcher a reality.”
Simonka is headed for FDU of the Northeast Conference next year. Her recruiting search took her to numerous schools at Division I, II and III levels “but my eyes were always set on FDU. I thought that I would be perfect there and I am beyond excited to go there.”
But first there is the little matter of trying to pitch the Spartans to a record third-straight state title, something no Steinert girls program or CVC softball team has ever done. Simonka, however, does not look at it that way.
Her mindset is only on performance, knowing that the results will take care of themselves.
“It has personally never been about the titles for me,” Simonka said. “I truly believe that you get what you put into it. At the end of the day, we aren’t worried about titles. The titles come with our focus of taking every game and inning one at a time and having small successes which eventually lead to bigger ones.”
They also come with hard work. After her injury-plagued junior year, Simonka did ample physical therapy this past year which has made her stronger. Combine that with a change in her windup that helped increase velocity (and take pressure off her arm) and her strikeout rate has exploded to just over two per inning.
“She’s throwing some serious gas,” Melker said.
Having a veteran catcher like Addison Hassan also helps.
“”My relationship with Addison has always been a huge, positive influence in my life on and off the field,” Simonka said. “Having her call the game relieves a lot of the stress that comes with being a pitcher.
“We agree almost 100 percent of the time and we have a certain trust within each other that we will always put the team’s needs before ours. She has always had my back no matter what, and I can’t thank her enough for being there for me, not only physically on the field but mentally off the field.”
That mental outlook will be important on the field in the high-pressure games that Steinert is likely to play again this year. Simonka makes sure a state final in June is the same as any April non-conference contest.
“In order to lock in on big games, I treat it like any other game,” she said. “I treat every single game like a state final, so it becomes routine and natural to always feel like the stakes are high. Then, when the state games come, it feels like any other game.”
Much of that attitude is imbedded by Steinert’s coaches, who know the secrets to winning.
“As a coaching staff we try to stay on top of it all around; not just her pitching but the mental part of it too,” Melker said. “If a walk gets on, or if she gives up a hit, the mindset has to be that if you aren’t perfect, if you have one misstep, how are you challenging yourself to get back to what you know you can do?”
Melker knew what Simonka could do the minute she first tried out.
“Right off the bat you saw the talent,” the coach said. “We had to work on the mindset a little but the talent was easily seen.”
Simonka pitched nine innings and had 48 at-bats as a freshman, which was all she was looking for. She also studied Bonacci.
“I had so much respect for Izzy and learned so much from her that prepared me to take on a huge role in the circle,” Simonka said. “I never expected any pitching time as an underclassmen but was grateful when given the opportunity.”
Flash forward three years and as her high school days wind down, she hopes to gear up for possible CVC and state runs. Whatever happens in the months of May and June, Simonka will have no regrets.
“I have absolutely loved playing softball for this group of people that I am so lucky to call my second family,” she said. “I have grown so much as a person and the coaches are a huge part of that. They have pushed me to be the best player I can be on and off the field. They taught me how to handle failure best, how to overcome adversity and challenges, and brought me out of my comfort zone in order to break me out of my shell and get me to my full potential as a player.”
More potential than her coaches even realized.
“She met it and rose a little bit above it,” Melker said. “For where we set the bar for her, she blew the head off of that.”
Katie Simonka in the pitcher’s circle for Steinert softball. (Photo by Amanda Ruch.),
