Daviess pitcher Roby heading to Murray State
Nov. 11—Raylee Roby will be playing NCAA Division 1 softball.
Roby, a standout Daviess County pitcher, signed with Murray State University on Wednesday.
The senior was able to connect with players and coaches at Murray, which led her to make that where she wanted to play college softball.
"I went to several camps at a lot of different colleges that I was interested in for the past several years," Roby said Thursday. "I went to Murray and Campbellsville for visits. I really enjoyed both visits. In making my decision to go to Murray I would have to say that at my camp there and during my visit the players and coaches felt like a close group and kind of like family. Murray is also a small town not too close and not too far from home. I really liked the campus and it all just felt right."
Roby is part of an 8-player signing class for Murray, which won both the regular season and conference tournament championships last spring in the Ohio Valley Conference. Murray will now compete in the Missouri Valley Conference.
"I am fortunate enough to know everyone in my class and I have played with all of them but two," Roby said. "Two are from Henderson County."
Roby had a 21-5 record in DC's 3rd Region championship season in 2022. She pitched 163.2 innings and recorded 245 strikeouts. Roby's ERA was 1.58.
"Raylee is Raylee, she wants the ball, probably would pitch every game if we let her," DC coach John Biggs said. "She did a great job of getting ahead of hitters, limited her walks, she was also able to increase strikeouts.
"Being a great teammate and the leadership she gave us, her confidence grew so much more from her sophomore year to her junior year."
Working on different pitches during travel ball and in the offseason has helped Roby.
"I have been focusing a lot on just being more consistent and efficient with my pitches," Roby said. "I have really been working hard on developing my changeup and feel it will really help me to have this pitch going into next season and into college."
Getting better with the changeup can increase Roby's overall pitching level.
"Raylee has worked hard to get command on her changeup," Biggs said. "If she can get the changeup it makes her other pitches effective."
Murray State will have to replace one of its main pitchers after this season, and there are two other pitchers in Roby's signing class.
For now, Roby wants to keep preparing for her senior season at Daviess County.
"I really just want to continue to work on consistency and also working on throwing my pitches in different planes," Roby said. "Also really having an off speed pitch that I can throw on any count."
Roby will be in a signing ceremony with teammates Jessie Daniels and Kaydence Hamilton later in November. Daniels will be playing at Campbellsville and Hamilton will be playing at Midway.
Daniels was DC's leading hitter last season with a .467 batting average, she also had 15 home runs and 39 RBIs.
