After health scare, Cherokee's Cali Taylor returns to circle to finish season

Cali Taylor couldn’t wait another minute.

At 9 a.m., after getting the news she had been anxiously awaiting to hear from her doctor, the Cherokee High School sophomore grabbed her phone and texted her coach.

“I’m cleared to play and I have my cleats on,” Taylor said.

It’s a wonder she ever took them off.

Taylor never anticipated the health scare that caused her to hit the pause button on her season.

Less than three weeks after she had an surgery for an ovarian cyst, Taylor was back at her home away from home: the circle on the softball diamond.

“She’s just tough as nails,” Cherokee head coach Mary Madgey said. “To watch her come back and pitch, it was a great sports moment. It really was amazing. I was tearing up.”

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Taylor fired six innings of relief on May 1, picking up the win in a 3-1 triumph over Eastern. She allowed two hits and struck out 11.

“I was so ready to play,” said the flame-throwing right-hander, who has 61 Ks in 34 innings this season. “Softball is my life, I just couldn’t wait to get back out there.”

On April 16, life threw Taylor a scary curveball.

The 15-year-old woke with severe stomach aches. She initially stayed home from school, but attended class later that morning and planned to play in Cherokee’s game later in the day.

Instead, after a few hours, Taylor, suffering from pain and nausea, found herself at an urgent care. After an examination, Taylor was told she might have appendicitis and headed for the emergency room.

Imaging at the hospital revealed a 17 centimeter mass in her abdominal area that Taylor said looked like “a second bladder." She needed surgery that night to extract the massive cyst.

“That was the first time I was scared, when I heard I would need surgery,” Taylor said. “I’m just thinking about softball. It was the first question I asked: When would I be able to play again?”

Jaclyn Taylor, Cali’s mom, had other fears any parent would understand, especially with a history of ovarian cancer in the family.

“It was a nightmare,” Jaclyn said. “We’re fearing the worst, worried it’s cancer. She’d never even been to the ER before. She’s played with a broken finger, pitched with a 104-degree fever, she has a high tolerance for pain. But she was petrified. We just were waiting for the OB-GYNs to come in and they told us she needed surgery.”

Surgeons took two hours to remove the cyst, which was benign.

Taylor’s recovery was aided by a visit by the team to her Marlton home that lifted her spirits.

“Coach Madgey checked in on her every day and said, ‘We’re family, softball is just a small part of it,'” said Jaclyn, who along with her twin sister Jamie was part of Cherokee’s 2003 state Group 4 champion squad.

When she wasn’t able to pitch, Cali Taylor remained with the squad, cheering on her teammates and providing the leadership, especially after a difficult loss to Shawnee.

“She gave an amazing speech, it really blew me away,” Madgey said. “She’s a leader. She acts a lot older than she is.”

And she pitches like a seasoned veteran, too.

Armed with a fastball that touches 63 mph, Taylor, who plays her club ball with the South Jersey A’s 18U Gold, blends a seven-pitch mix to frustrate batters. One of South Jersey's rising stars in the circle, she struck out a career-high 20 batters in a nine-inning tie against Haddon Heights on April 8.

Along with improving the spin on her pitches, Taylor said there’s one thing that has been key to her success in the circle.

“Confidence,” she said. “Softball is such a mental game and there were many times I was being way too critical of myself.”

With the health scare behind her, Taylor can now focus on what she does best: mowing down hitters.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Cherokee's Cali Taylor is back in the circle following a health scare