Artesia ace RyLee Crandall on path to softball stardom
ARTESIA, N.M. (BVM) — Kali Crandall won three state titles between two different high school schools, was named the 2018 Gatorade New Mexico Softball Player of the Year as a senior and earned all-state honors five times, including as an eighth grader.
But her younger sister, RyLee, might become an even better player.
“We’ve always been compared to each other and everyone asks me who’s going to be better and I say my sister is,” said Kali, now a college sophomore at Oklahoma Christian University. “She’s going to be really good. I knew from a very young age she was going to be.”
A year after Kali graduated, RyLee, as a freshman, picked up right where her older sister left off by leading the Artesia Bulldogs to their second straight state title. RyLee got the job done in the pitcher’s circle and at the plate. She went 22-1 with a sparkling 0.61 ERA while compiling 204 strikeouts in 138 2⁄3 innings pitched, and also batted .411 with 13 home runs.
Heading into her sophomore season, she was considered to be the best softball player in the state by MaxPreps, which also ranked the Bulldogs as the top softball team in New Mexico. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced the New Mexico Activities Association to cancel spring sports for 2020, meaning RyLee’s promising softball career and Artesia’s quest for a third straight state title were put on hold.
“When it finally kicked in that we weren’t going to have a season it was difficult for me,” RyLee said, “but not because I wasn’t going to get to play. It was more for the seniors.”
RyLee will have two more years to not only help the Bulldogs make another run at a championship, but also become an even better player than she already is at a young age. RyLee began developing her skills early and jumped on the fast track to stardom thanks to having an older sister like Kali to look up to and a father, Casey, who’s helped coach both of his daughters.
That’s one reason Kali believes RyLee will eventually be the better player.
“She’s going to have more experience,” said Kali, who attended Dexter High School as a freshman and sophomore, leading the Demons to consecutive Class 3A titles. “My dad coached us and he learned through me.”
RyLee said she’s always looked to Kali as a role model.
“I would go to all of her practices and all her games and I would be like, ‘I want to do that; I want to do what she does,’” RyLee said. “She really is the one who made me want to be a pitcher and everything she did impacted me on my journey and she’s really an inspiration for my softball career.”
RyLee hopes to take her career to the Division I college level. While programs are limited in terms of the access they can have to high school athletes until their junior year, RyLee is likely to attract plenty of attention over the next two seasons. It’s her dream to play softball at the highest level in college, with Texas and Oklahoma State being her two favorite programs.
“It’s been a dream since I was so little to go DI and play somewhere I was going to be impactful,” RyLee said. “Just like my freshman year (of high school), I want to have that impact on whatever school I go to. I really hope it’s DI because I want to play the best of the best in the country and that’s just something really cool and I want to be a part of it.”
Kali has no doubt in her sister’s ability to make that dream come true.
“I knew since she was little she was going to do great things,” Kali said. “Wherever she wants to go it’s going to be up to her. She’s very capable of playing DI softball and whoever gets her is going to be lucky to have her.”
