Baylee Klingler (born September 20, 1999) is an American professional softball player for the

Texas Smoke Women's Professional Fastpitch (WPF) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States. The new league began its promotional campaign in 2021 and launched its inaugural season in June 2022. The league is unrelated to the ...

of the Women's Professional Fastpitch. She played

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

at Washington. As a senior in

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, she won the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

Triple Crown.

High school career

Klingler attended Dickinson High School in Dickinson, Texas. During her career she posted a .569 batting average and .638 OBP with 31 home runs, 18 triples, 41 doubles and 144 RBI. She was a four-time First-Team All District and four-time First-Team All Galveston County honoree. During her junior and senior year, she was a member of the All-State team. She was also named an Under Armor All-American, MaxPreps All-American and FloSoftball All-American. She was a two-time Galveston County Female Athlete of the Year finalist, Galveston County softball co-player of the year and 2018 Galveston Offensive MVP. She was ranked as the as the No. 4 recruit in the 2018 class by FloSoftball and No. 5 by Extra Inning Softball.

College career

Klingler began her collegiate career for the Texas A&M Aggies in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. During her first year in conference play she led the team in home runs (5), RBI (16) and slugging (.493), ranked second in batting average (.280) and third in on-base percentage (.325). She started all 55 games and finished the season with a .296 average, five home runs and 28 RBI. Following the season she was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team. On June 18, 2019, Klingler announced she was transferring to Washington. During her second year in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, in 25 games she hit .481, with 37 hits, eight doubles, five home runs, and 33 RBI in a season that was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In five games, she had 11 hits, four runs, two home runs, and eight RBI with a .733 average and .688 OBP. She matched her career high with a four-hit game against Fullerton and has had multiple hits in four consecutive games. She was subsequently named the Pac-12 Player of the Week for the week ending March 3, 2020. During her junior year in

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, she hit .416, with a .507 OBP, 72 hits, 17 doubles, 16 home runs, 53 RBI and 56 runs. She led the Pac-12 in runs scored, doubles and extra-base hits, and ranked second in RBI. She was one of three Pac-12 players with a batting average over .400 and one of two players with an on-base percentage over .500. She became the first Husky since

Ali Aguilar Alison Paige Aguilar (born August 28, 1995) is an American, former collegiate All-American, medal-winning Olympian, softball player at shortstop. She played college softball at Washington from 2014 to 2017 where she was named a three-time First ...

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with 50 runs and 50 RBI in the same year. Following the season she was named to the first-team All-Pac-12 and named a second-team All-American. During her senior year in

, she led the conference in batting average (.434), slugging percentage (1.007), home runs (24), RBI (71) and total bases (149). She became the third Pac-12 Triple Crown winner in history after

Jenny Dalton Jenny Dalton-Hill (born March 5, 1974) is an American former collegiate All-American softball player and current sports commentator. She played for the Arizona Wildcats softball, Arizona Wildcats from 1993 to 1996 where she won three Women's Col ...

(1996) and

Stacey Nuveman Stacey "Nuvey" Nuveman-Deniz (born April 26, 1978) is an American, former professional softball player and current head coach at San Diego State. She played for the UCLA Bruins at the catcher position on-and-off from 1997 to 2002, winning a Nation ...

(1999). Her 24 home runs were the second most in a single-season in program history, trailing Kristen Rivera's record of 25. Following an outstanding season, she was named Pac-12 Conference Softball Player of the Year, first-team all-Pac-12 and named a unanimous first-team All-American. She was also named a top-three finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.

Professional career

On April 17, 2023, Klingler was drafted second overall by the

in the 2023 Women's Professional Fastpitch draft.

International career

Klingler represented the United States at the

2017 World Cup of Softball The twelfth World Cup of Softball was held between July 5-9, 2017, in Oklahoma City. Japan defended their championship by defeating the United States in the title game. Participating teams Seven countries participated in the tournament with the U ...

where she hit .500, with two runs scored, six RBI and a home run and won a silver medal. She also represented the United States at the

2017 Junior Women's Softball World Championship The 2017 Junior Women's Softball World Championship was an international softball competition held in Clearwater, Florida from July 24 to 30, 2017. It was the 12th edition of the tournament. Participating teams A total of 26 national youth tea ...

. During the tournament she hit .393 with 10 runs scored, two home runs, and 12 RBI, and won a gold medal.

Personal life

Klingler is the daughter of former American football player

Jimmy Klingler Jimmy Klingler (born February 17, 1972) is a former American football quarterback who played one season with the Birmingham Barracudas of the Canadian Football League. He played college football at the University of Houston and attended Stra ...

. Her brother, Cory, played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at Rice, while her sister, Courtney, played college softball at Houston. Her uncle, David Klingler, was also a former football player.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klingler, Baylee Living people 1999 births Sportspeople from Houston Softball players from Texas Texas A&M Aggies softball players Texas Smoke players Washington Huskies softball players