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Sports

Horowitz is Patch Top Female Athlete

Miller Slugger has helped turn softball program around

In 2006, the Millburn softball team missed the state playoffs by one game, losing 4-0 to Villa Walsh right on the cutoff date.

It was during Taylor Horowitz’s freshman year, when she was instantly made a starter. Had they beaten Villa Walsh, it would have been the Blue and White’s first playoff appearance since 2000.

That was the last time the local girls missed the state playoffs. They have reached the postseason in the last three straight seasons. The Blue and White softball program is on the rise with a new culture of winning and an attitude of success.

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If you ask first-year head coach John Childs, not too many people have had more to do with the resurgence of the local softball girls than Horowitz.

“Last year's seniors and Taylor have turned our program into a respectable team,” Childs said. “We haven’t had a lot of talented players come through the program besides that senior class and Taylor. She left it better than when she first entered.”

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Horowitz came into Millburn’s softball program with a natural ability to play softball and a golden bat that could rocket balls out of the batters’ box. She left with an unbridled love for the game and as the best defensive player on her team.

“It was such a family, so I’m definitely going to miss all the players and my coaches,” she said. “You spend everyday together. Not only were we so close on the field, we were so close off the field. Some of those girls are my best friends.”

This season she batted in the number three spot, picking up 23 hits, with a .343 average and a .457 on base percentage, partly from being hit by eight pitches this season for crowding the plate. Most impressively, however, Horowitz made just four errors in 466 tries at first base for the highest fielding percentage on the team. In addition, the DePauw-bound senior struck out just four times this season in nearly 70 at bats.

In the first round of the North 2 Group 3 State Sectional Championships, Horowitz had one of her biggest games, driving in four runs with two hits and two runs scored. Horowitz was certainly one of Millburn’s clutch hitters this season and it will be very difficult to find a bat to replace her in the third hole, but maybe even more difficult to replace her glove in the infield.

“Anyone who has seen me play would definitely say my strength is my hitting,” Horowitz said. “But I’m proud to say that throughout my four years at Millburn, my fielding has grown a tremendous amount. I feel that I can be put at any position on the field and be fine and competent.”

Now Horowitz goes from being one of the best players on the field to a DePauw team which has won its conference the last two seasons, went 32-9 this spring and was ranked No. 15 in the nation, among all Division III schools. Starting as a freshman at the collegiate level will not be easy, but Horowitz is not one to back down from challenges, especially when it involves softball.

“They have such a strong team, this is going to be one of the first times that I have to, other than my freshman year, where I had to prove myself,” she said. “I’m going to have to come in, try to kick some butt and show them that I’m not screwing around.”

Horowitz is very proud of her family and points to them as a large part of her success. Her mother and father are from working-class families in the Bronx and worked their way into one of the most affluent towns in the county and state without the benefit of inherited family money. Horowitz is very proud of what her parents were able to build from where they came from.

“My family played a huge impact on softball career and my academic career. They pushed me in a positive direction,” Horowitz said. “I definitely can see the way I was raised differently than other people. I had to work for everything, it wasn’t just given to me, I had to earn it.”

Her brother, also a Millburn High School graduate, has had a tremendous influence on her. He is a first lieutenant in the military and is stationed in Iraq. After graduating, her 24-year-old brother went on to graduate from West Point, something else she is very proud of.

“He was just a genius. He got all fives on his AP test. He took the most amount of APs you could at Millburn. He’s a genius,” she said. “He’s always taught me to not take the easy way out and to work for everything.

These days Horowitz is still playing softball, now for a traveling team. She’s found herself with a lot of extra time on her hands. For the past decade or so, it has been softball all the time for the Blue and White slugger. As she looks ahead to college, that will likely change, as she will begin exploring interests in communications and public relations.

“It was almost bigger than my life,” Horowitz said of softball. “It comes to a point where you commit yourself so much, and I missed school dances and so many events like junior prom and home coming. It immerses your life. I love it; it’s not a bad thing. It’s just amazing that once you commit yourself and get to that level, you give up so much.”

At DePauw, her commitment level will come down a bit, as she is eager to begin the next chapter in her life. While Childs said Horowitz could have played at a Division I school, Horowitz decided that she no longer wanted her life to revolve around softball; she wanted softball to revolve around her life.

Knowing that playing softball at a Division I school was going to require a year-round commitment and more sacrifices in her personal life, she decided that Division III was a much better fit for her.

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