With 5 career no-hitters, this Oakmont alum is at the top of the Spartans' record book

When her older sister Lindsay began taking pitching lessons, 7-year-old Kalene (Wotton) Brown decided to tag along.

“I wanted to do it because she was doing it," Brown said.

Either Lindsay, the elder sister by one year, lost interest or perhaps she saw her younger sister soon getting better and better inside the circle. Either way, Lindsay moved to the outfield for the Oakmont varsity team, while Kalene became one of the most outstanding pitchers in Spartans' softball history.

Owner of the Oakmont record for strikeouts in one game (20), Brown, over a dizzying 15-day period in May of 2000, pitched seven straight shutouts and 56 consecutive scoreless innings.

Brown won 46 of 60 games during her three varsity seasons from 1998 to 2000 while posting a 1.18 earned run average as a junior and a 1.03 ERA during her senior season. She also recorded a program record five no-hitters, four of which occurred at the varsity level.

“I liked to be involved and a part of every play,” Brown recently said of her role as a pitcher. “I had great catchers. We also had a good group of girls that were together for a number of years and they played outstanding defense.”

Coming through the Westminster pitching pipeline under the tutelage of youth coaches Mo and Colleen Picard, she recalled learning to pitch in the Westminster elementary school gym.

“Pic would put a square of tape on the wall and we’d just throw to the square,” the 40-year-old Brown recalled.

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She grew up in an athletic family. Her dad Bob Wotton was quarterback for the 1972 Fitchburg High team that beat Greenfield 22-6 in the first Division 1 Super Bowl. Kalene and her sister both played softball as well as field hockey at Oakmont.

Catching a break early in 1997 when senior Jess Boudreau came down with a sore shoulder, Brown was called upon to pitch for the Oakmont varsity as a freshman. She had already caught the eye of coach Doug White as an eighth-grader when she no-hit the Westboro JV team, 15-0, on Apr. 22, 1996.

Upon earning the varsity starting slot as a sophomore under new coach Mike Pelland, she went out and pitched back-to-back no-hitters - on April 27, 1998 against Wachusett and two days later against Nashoba.

Then, a month later on May 28, she pitched her third no-hitter of the season in a 15-0 win over Algonquin that was very nearly a perfect game.

“I had a batter struck out, but the ball glanced off the catcher’s shin guards and went out of play (allowing the batter to reach first),” she recalled. “I’ll never forget that. I was like, “Ugh, there goes my perfect game!”

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For that 1998 season, she pitched the Spartans into the District E semifinals before an 8-0 loss to eventual district champion Notre Dame Academy.

The fourth no-hitter of Brown’s varsity career came in the 1999 season opener, a 1-0 victory over North Middlesex.

“We had great coaching with Mike Pelland and he did a great job of getting us runs,” she recalled. “If you got on base, he’d find ways to get you to score.”

With teammates like Marien and Trembley, who served as her catchers, as well as Emily and Becca Ferrazza, Sue Herriot, Kristen Kopley and Kylie Catlin, among others, the Spartans made the playoff each of the three years Brown was on the varsity team.

She threw a tantalizing riser as her “go-to pitch,” which she perfected under the tutelage of coach Steve Economos of Worcester.

“I lived off that (riser) pitch; it comes in belt high and rises,” she explained. “I wish I had a change-up, mine wasn’t that successful. Occasionally, I’d throw a curve or a screwball, but the riser was my main pitch.”

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In 1999, she was named Mid-Wach B Most Valuable Player and her excellent pitching in the playoffs allowed Oakmont to nip Southbridge, 2-1, and beat Quabbin, 1-0, in eight innings before dropping a hard-fought 2-0 loss in the District finals to Northbridge.

During her senior season, she put forth one of the most incredible runs ever witnessed on the local scene by a pitcher.

The streak finally came to an end on May 29 — after 56 consecutive scoreless innings — with a 4-2 loss to Shrewsbury.

The Spartans went to the playoff semifinals that year where Brown again encountered her mound nemesis, Northbridge pitcher Kara Massey.

“I played with her on our summer ball team and she and I always wound up against each other in districts,” she noted.

Despite striking out 16, including the first 10 and 13 of the first 14 batters she faced, Brown and the Spartans dropped the semifinal game to the Rams, 2-1, in eight innings.

After graduation, she accepted a scholarship to Franklin Pierce College where she continued her pitching excellence over four seasons. Her career ERA of 2.18 ranks second all-time in Ravens program history, while Brown also ranks fourth in wins (19), and sixth in strikeouts (165) while making 53 career appearances and totaling 301 2/3 innings pitched.

After college she worked as a pre-school teacher for seven years before starting a family with her husband Jeremy Brown, her Oakmont high school sweetheart. For the past seven years, she has taught at Fallbrook Elementary School in Leominster working with autistic students.

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The Browns are the parents of three: 14-year-old son Desmond, who plays baseball and basketball; 12-year-old daughter Nora, who plays softball on the Overlook Middle School team as well as the 12U Westminster Major team coached by her mom; and 9-year-old son Kellen, who enjoys fishing and biking.

“We’re hoping to make a pitcher out of her,” Brown said proudly of Nora.

And if she can develop a riser of her own, and maybe add a change-up, Nora just might one-day challenge her mom’s pitching records.

(Do you have a suggestion for a future “Where are they Now” segment? Please contact Mike Richard at mikerichard0725@gmail.com or in writing Mike Richard, 92 Boardley Rd. Sandwich, MA 02563) 

This article originally appeared on Gardner News: Where Are They Now: Kalene Brown threw 56 scoreless frames for Oakmont