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By Lizzy Bailey, Xavier sophomore

CEDAR RAPIDS – “When you do something you love everyday, you never even realize your working.”

That’s how Cedar Rapids Xavier sophomore Erin Drahozal feels about softball.

“I don’t really have an off season,” he said. “I go and hit at Perfect Game about three times a week and I pitch two times a week with my pitching coach when I’m not in season.”

Drahozal is unique in that she is a prolific pitcher AND hitter. She has 27 career home runs, 13 with the Saints and 14 with the Eastern Iowa Barracudas, her club team..

“It’s very cool to have a teammate that can perform very well on defense and then go back and play outstanding offense,” teammate Claire Christianson said.

Combining Drahozal’s batting average between Barracudas and Xavier, she batted a .356.

“As a pitcher, you can’t let anything on the mound affect the way you bat and you can’t let anything in the batter’s box affect you on mound,” Drahozal said. “You have to remain emotionally stable throughout the entire game.”

This fall, Drahozal traveled to Florida, Chicago and St. Louis with her Barracuda softball team, and has a trip to Las Vegas this month. She played against a variety of competition and numerous softball coaches from around the country.

Her future plans still are undecided, but she definitely wants to continue her softball career  in college.