University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Shelby Walters
May 24, 2023 | Softball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Georgia softball pitcher Shelby Walters missed most of last season with an injury. Having to watch the action from the dugout for 40-odd games was an enlightening and invigorating experience.
A graduate transfer from Duke, Walters pitched in six games last season before an injury cut the 2022 campaign short. After transferring to Georgia, the right-handed Walters leads the Bulldogs with a 1.45 ERA, has thrown a team-high 159.0 innings and allowed just 33 earned runs all season. She has come back strong, indeed.
Walters and fellow Georgia ace Madison Kerpics (2.40 ERA, 143.0 IP) earned All-SEC honors, marking the first time in program history that two Bulldog pitchers made all-conference teams in the same season. Starting Thursday, Walters and the No. 14 Bulldogs (42-13) will face No. 3 Florida State (53-9) in an NCAA Super Regional in Tallahassee.
After practice Tuesday, Walters, from Cohutta, Ga., sat down for a Quick Chat. She talked about coming back strong after missing most of last season with an injury, her love of the outdoors, her start in softball, and more.
Here's some of what she had to say:Â
Frierson: After missing almost all of last season, what has it been like to come back and pitch so well?
Walters: It's been very rewarding. I think that it is not only a testament to the work that you have to put in while you're hurt, not just checking out, but also the work that (the coaches and trainers) have put in. Coming back from something that takes you out, there's a lot of work that has to be done to get back into it — not only to be able to play, but to be effective.
I also think the mental side of it; I've talked before about how being hurt gave me like a third-person point of view on the game itself, and seeing a side of the field that I've never really seen before. I think it made me a better pitcher and a better competitor.
Frierson: Did you play a lot of different sports, or was it all softball?
Walters: It was all softball. Everyone's always talking about multi-sport athletes and I'm like, not me [laughs]. I just played softball.
Softball was just something that I picked up and loved right away. I didn't feel the need to look anywhere else. I would play basketball, but for me the running was a little much. ... I never really saw any reason to look outside of softball. I loved playing football, but of course there's not really anything for me to do with that.
Frierson: You went to high school in Chattanooga, at the gorgeous Girls Preparatory School, then you go to Duke for four years, and now you're here. You've been out on your own for almost half your life at this point; did going off to GPS help prepare you for being off at college? What has it been like to be off on your own for so long?
Walters: I think at first it really allowed me to grow and find myself. When you're at home, it's just kind of what you've been put into and you just adopt what's around you. I think my first two years at Duke, I really tried to explore myself and try new things. And then Covid hit.
I think going back home, it really made me appreciate that I didn't need to look anywhere else to find what I needed. This is what I needed, this is who I am, and I really got pretty deep in my faith during that time. My family, we have farmland and everything, and working in that was so rewarding. It was a chance to remember where you come from and all the work that's been done in the past to get you where you are.
I think it really made me appreciate who I am and where I'm from.
Frierson: Where you're from is a beautiful part of the state, so did you spend a ton of time outdoors and in the woods when you were young?
Walters: Oh, yeah. My brother and I, we had four-wheelers, we had dirt bikes, my granddad had a creek and we'd go fishing — we would do anything and everything outside. We were not inside kids at all. As soon as school was out, we were outside playing all day.
Frierson: Who is the funniest person on the team?Â
Walters: Shorty definitely makes me laugh a lot. Shorty is Jaydyn (Goodwin).
Frierson: Her name has come up a few times when I've asked your teammates that question.
Walters: Shorty is really funny, and Dallis Goodnight really makes me laugh. The two of them together, they'll make me absolutely die with laughter.
Frierson: In a perfect world, what are you doing in 10 years?
Walters: I'm sitting on my wraparound porch drinking a coffee, with my kids around me. And then I get to go drop them off at school, while I go to work, doing something I love, and then I pick them up from school and we go to a tee-ball game or something. And then we go home and go to sleep.
Frierson: Is this back in North Georgia somewhere?
Walters: Hopefully. I don't know. My mom and I discuss this all the time, and she's like, 'You've got to move home.' I don't know where I'll end up, but I would love to go back home. As long as it's somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
