BILLINGS — Camden Susott is a pitcher besides being a prodigious power hitter, so she feels a bit of sisterhood with whomever is standing in the circle against her team on game days.
Especially during those games last year when she and her Billings West teammates pounded home run after home run in a record-setting season. On occasion, Susott couldn’t help but think: “Thankfully, I don’t have to face us.”
On the flip side, and to give Susott a bit of credit, who knows how she would have fared throwing against her teammates? After all, other than the mindboggling season from Billings Senior’s Kennedy Venner (16-1, 1.09 ERA, 262 Ks in 112.1 innings) and the super-solid campaign from Helena Capital's Nyeala Herndon (15-3, 2.12 ERA, 151 Ks in 109 innings), Susott was the next-best thing in the circle last year.
Susott went 12-1 in helping the Golden Bears to a Class AA state runner-up finish to Venner (she handed West all four of its losses) and the Broncs. Her ERA was a very good 2.95 and she struck out 97 batters in 83 innings.
She did all that, she said, without much confidence. Last season was her first at the AA level after transferring from Class B Huntley Project, and it took her awhile to believe she could navigate the much deeper lineups.
“I remember my first game … I stood on the mound and was just shaking the whole time,” Susott said while watching the West junior varsity play against Helena Capital as the softball season began last weekend. “It was a lot of proving last year that I could be playing at this level.”
While facing AA batters might have left her shaken, staring down pitchers wasn’t an issue. Hitting is her “jam,” Susott said, and her numbers proved that.
She batted .457, and, egged on by a little good-spirited home run competition with teammate Marleigh Nieto, clubbed 16 home runs to go along with 42 RBIs. (Nieto, now at MSU Billings, hit 18 round-trippers).
When Susott first arrived at West practice last season, coach Preston Sanders had no idea what type of player he had. It didn’t take him long to figure it out, however.
“She can play a little bit,” he said.
Proving that she could play at the AA level wasn’t just something Susott needed to do for her new coach or herself. She said she heard from a lot of doubters about her intentions to test her skills at the highest classification.
And some of the hesitancy came from her family. Susott said her grandfather, Duane Hansen, was among those who helped Jim Knapp start the Project program years ago. Susott even pitched for the Red Devils in the 2021 game at Worden the day the school memorialized the late Knapp by naming the field after him. Hansen, said Susott, couldn't understand why she would want to play at West.
“He was not happy at all, not a happy camper,” Susott said of her grandfather.
And now?
“He’s happy, he’s so excited,” she said with a smile. “He’s like, ‘when’s the next game?’ Like, it’s not even about softball anymore. ‘I’m going to the West football game.’”
Susott’s offensive production helped the Bears shatter the state’s team home run record. Along with Susott and Nieto, now-junior Mya Boos hit 12 homers and graduated senior Avery Martin went deep 10 times to give the Bears a total of 74, easily besting the 47 hit by Great Falls in 2016.
Even with all that, and with Susott and Brooke Thompson being steady in the circle, Sanders called the season “bittersweet,” following the championship loss to the Broncs.
But, sights are set high again this year, despite the lost home runs to graduation and the loss of Thompson, who took her 10-3 record and 3.42 ERA to Billings Central for this season.
Sanders said there’s plenty of pitching to back Susott up. And the Bears have always had hitting, no matter how many players graduate.
“I can’t go out and tell you, yeah, we’ll hit 70 home runs again,” Sanders said. “I don’t know. But the talent is there to keep going, and there’s some real good young players who came in.”
As for Susott, there’s another reason she transferred to West. It wasn’t just to be able to prove herself at a higher level and attract college interest. She’s done that, though she hasn’t yet picked a college destination.
Susott also wants to be a state champion, which means at some point that feeling of sisterhood with an opposing pitcher can only go so far.
“If anything, we’re going to come back wanting that first place more than ever,” she said. “We do want it.”