Maine South graduate Kyle Richardson has sports in his blood.
Richardson, a senior-to-be on the Notre Dame baseball team, followed in the footsteps of his father. Timothy Richardson played college baseball at Illinois and was in the minor leagues for 6.5 years. Kyle Richardson’s sister, Courtney, will be a freshman on the Michigan softball team in the fall. Additionally, Kyle Richardson has uncles who played football at Illinois, Wisconsin and Illinois Wesleyan and another uncle played baseball at Iowa.
“Growing up from the earliest age I can imagine I was around athletics,” Kyle Richardson said. “After my dad retired from baseball, he kept playing baseball until he was 42 at a very competitive level, so I basically grew up in a baseball dugout. [Courtney] is a lot better athlete than I am. That’s for sure. … [Sports are] really fun and it’s what brings us together as a family and I love every minute of it.”
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Kyle Richardson is playing in the Northwoods League this summer for the Alexandria (Minnesota) Blue Anchors. The Northwoods League is a summer wood-bat league for college players with NCAA eligibility remaining.
The Blue Anchors are managed by Al Newman, who played in the major leagues with the Expos, Twins and Rangers from 1985-1992 and won two World Series with the Twins. He managed and coached in the minor leagues from 1996-2001 and served as the third base coach for the Twins from 2002-2005.
“I’m really blessed to have Al Newman as my manager for the summer,” Kyle Richardson said. “He knows baseball inside and out and he’s played and coached at every level there is. It’s fun to watch a game with him and play for him. He doesn’t miss a thing out there on the field and he’s got an idea of everything that’s going on at all times. Every pitch he’s got an idea of what’s happening on the field and he knows what player is where and where people need to be. You can learn so much from a guy like that.”
Kyle Richardson added: “He’s a player’s coach and he loves building strong relationships with the guys on the team. He loves encouraging everybody to succeed at their highest level and he coaches people as individuals. He knows what takes one guy to succeed versus another guy to succeed and puts everybody in a position to do so.”
As of Monday, July 6, Kyle Richardson was batting .236 with a .293 on-base percentage and a .330 slugging percentage (four doubles and two home runs) in 28 games.
Kyle Richardson was part of the Notre Dame team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament this past season for the first time in nine years. Notre Dame went 1-2 at the Champaign Regional and was eliminated.
“As a team we really came together this year,” Kyle Richardson said. “We worked hard from the first day we stepped on campus. We changed a little bit in the way we approach things from just physical and mental preparation. We brought in a mental conditioning coach, Brian Cain, and our coaching staff was on board with that as well. As a whole, it helped us with the mental part of baseball and encouraged people to work on it individually and collectively.”
One of the personal highlights for Kyle Richardson in 2015 at Notre Dame was when he hit a pinch-hit, walk-off home run to give the Fighting Irish an 8-7 victory over North Carolina on May 10. The win clinched a three-game series sweep for Notre Dame over the Tar Heels. The walk-off blast was his first career home run for the Fighting Irish.
“It was a well-timed first home run,” Notre Dame coach Mik Aoki said. “That’s for sure. It was an exciting game and an exciting moment for Kyle. I was really happy for him and he’s a hard-working kid.”
Another personal highlight for Kyle Richardson in his 2015 college season was a diving catch against North Carolina State on May 21 in the first round of the ACC Tournament to rob Joe Dunand of extra bases.
“That’s Kyle’s strength is his defensive abilities,” Aoki said. “He’s a really good defender and he really goes gap to gap. He plays with a lot of confidence out there and he’s got good defensive skills and he can run and he got a good jump on it. It was a really big moment for us at that point and the game could have broken pretty wide open. That was an important catch that he made.”
Kyle Richardson recorded 81 putouts without an error in 47 games for Notre Dame. He started 23 games. However, he struggled at the plate and finished with a slash line of .128/.200/.174.
Newman also praised Kyle Richardson’s defensive abilities, as well as his work ethic, and noted the offensive improvement.
“He’s made plays all year in the Northwoods League for my team and he has a strong, accurate arm,” Newman said. “So he has been an asset defensively for us and his offense has really taken off. I think he’s a very good player. He’s an aggressive player who is confident in his abilities when given an opportunity to play. He has a tremendous work ethic each and every day when we come to the park and you know he’s preparing to play regardless if he starts or not. He could be a pretty good player and hopefully when he goes back to college, my goal for him, as well as the rest of my team, is that I want them to go back as a better player for their next coach. Hopefully he’ll get the opportunity to show his skills for Notre Dame this upcoming spring.”
Todd Marver is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.