Her father, Billy, has been featured on a plaque on that wall since 2012. He was a three-sport athlete for Richard Montgomery in the 1970s, an All-Met football and baseball player who committed to Duke and enjoyed a successful college career.
Billy King died of pancreatic cancer at 65 in October. His daughter, Churchill’s young ace, has dedicated this season to his memory.
As King stared at his plaque minutes before retaking the field against her father’s alma mater, she reflected on the loss of her mentor.
“It meant something to her,” Coach Andrew Sonnabend said. “It meant that she was once again, for a minute, able to connect with her father and what he meant to her growing up.”
King remembers standing next to a tee in her backyard when she was 2 as her dad began to teach her how to swing a bat. She would swing, miss and spin in a circle before looking up and smiling at her chuckling father.
Soon, King fell in love with softball. With her dad as her catcher and confidant, she become a standout pitcher.
As a freshman last year, King quickly gained the respect of her older teammates. Billy King was present for most of those games, watching from the same spot in the outfield, as his daughter quickly emerged as one of the team’s top players.
“Every time I’d look at him, he’d give me a thumbs-up and smile at me, and it would always mean a lot to me,” King said. “It would just calm me down and help me remember why I’m playing and that it’s just a game, have fun with it.”
Billy King died before he could watch his daughter be named a captain or see her notch her 250th strikeout. Maggie King dons No. 31, which her father wore throughout his baseball career, as she tries to help Churchill win its first division championship since 1994.
King circled Churchill’s April 15 game against Richard Montgomery before the season. She had been to the Rockets’ campus dozens of times with her father to cheer on her brother, a Richard Montgomery football player, and was there for her father’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the school when she was 4.
King entered the game with urgency, Sonnabend said. She struck out the first four batters, keeping the Rockets off the scoreboard for the first two innings as the game remained scoreless.
“It’s always nice when you have a dog on your team, and that’s exactly what she is,” assistant coach James Taylor said. “As far as her demeanor on the mound, she’s like the freaking Terminator.”
Eight King strikeouts later, the Bulldogs held a one-run lead when the lightning delay occurred in the bottom of the sixth. It felt familiar: Churchill played Richard Montgomery on the road in the second round of the playoffs last season, and that game also had a weather delay.
King wanted to search for her dad’s plaque last season but stayed with her team to wait out the storm. This year, she went for it.
“I got to see his plaque, and it reminded me of why I’m playing and why I’m pushing through everything,” King said.
Her time for reflection was brief; she took a picture with the plaque and quickly returned to her teammates to refocus. King was back in the circle minutes later.
The lightning delay occurred with King two strikes deep against a Rockets batter. Her first pitch following the break whizzed past a swinging bat and into her catcher’s glove.
“She came out and after a delay got right back to work,” Sonnabend said.
Strike looking. Strike looking. Strike swinging. It took just three more pitches for King to end the inning.
She came back out for the seventh and kept rolling. Her 15th and final strikeout, on a high fastball that drew a whiff, sealed a 5-4 win. She turned to celebrate with her teammates before walking off the field, her tribute complete.
“It was almost like playing there was an extra way to honor him,” Sonnabend said, “to go to where he had starred and for her to show that she was there with him.”