Comet pitching legend to be inducted into IGHSAU Hall of Fame

Ask anyone around the communities that make up BCLUW about Comet softball, and three words are bound to come up: the Fisher twins. In this area, the names have become synonymous with athletic success and an unprecedented level of dominance during their high school years, and one half of that dynamic battery, pitcher Jamie (Fisher) Kruger, will be inducted into the Iowa Girls’ High School Athletic Union Hall of Fame on Friday at the state softball tournament in Fort Dodge. 
           
“It’s a huge honor, and honestly, I can’t take all the credit for it,” she said. “I had great coaches and catchers that helped me (get to this point).”
           
Kruger, who led the Comets to back-to-back state championships in 2009 and 2010, had a record of 150-15 on the mound, including a gaudy 109-7 in her final three seasons, and posted Earned Run Averages (ERAs) of 0.40 in 2008, 0.14 in 2009 and 0.37 in 2010. She averaged over one and a half strikeouts per inning and fanned a total of 1,796 batters while wearing a Comet uniform.
           
She wasn’t any slouch at the plate, either: in her career, Kruger batted .374 with 167 hits, 17 home runs and 128 RBIs. She was named first team all-state in 2008, 2009 and 2010, made the elite all-state team in 2009 and was the team’s defensive MVP all five years that she played varsity (she was also the offensive MVP in 2009 and 2010). Jamie was also named the 2010 Gatorade Iowa Softball Player of the Year.
           
Softball was in the family’s blood: the twins’ mother, Linda, pitched on the first BCL team that longtime coach Dave Lee ever took to the state tournament in 1982, and she encouraged both Jamie and twin sister Nicole, who caught for her throughout their high school years, to pursue the sport from an early age. Though they also excelled in cross-country, basketball and track and field, softball was always king.
           
“I was probably in kindergarten when my mom first showed me the flick,” Jamie said, in reference to the pitching technique that puts movement on the ball. 
 
Read the full story in this week's Grundy Register.