"I understand now."

That was the message Florida State softball's fifth-year senior Kathryn Sandercock delivered to Meghan King at the beginning of the 2023 season.

Sandercock, from McLean Virginia, has come full circle in her Seminole career, as she will be one of six seniors honored ahead of the regular season finale against Louisville.

In her freshman season, she took advice from the fifth-year senior King. Now she is passing advice to the next great FSU pitcher in Makenna Reid.

"One of the coolest things about Florida State is just the legacy aspect of it," Sandercock told the Democrat. "We talk about how you don't own the jersey, you just rent the jersey and you try to leave it in a better place than you found it.

"Lacey (Waldrop) passed down to Jessica Burroughs, who passed down to Megan, who passed down to me and now I get the chance to pass down to McKenna and Madi (Balk), which is really cool."

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In 2019 King was coming off a dominant performance in the 2018 Softball College World Series, where she helped lead the Seminoles to their first national championship.

She was in the circle for FSU for every pitch of the WCWS Championship Series against No. 5 Washington. She earned a pair of complete-game victories while recording 10 strikeouts and allowing just one earned run and 10 hits.

Sandercock joined the team after being a highly touted prospect and being named Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior in 2017.

"It's really hard to be a fifth year because you're balancing," King told the Democrat. "She came off of a great season last year, I had been coming off of the 2018 season. You're now four years kind of older than your freshman pitchers. So it's like relating to the age difference as well.

"You're trying to mentor the younger girls to take over the program, but you're also trying to make sure that you're maintaining your kind of standard as being a senior pitcher and being able to kind of lead the team.

"You're also kind of stressed with the afterlife of softball, whether that's going to play professionally going into the career world going getting your master's or another degree. So it's just a lot of pressure to deal with."

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Sandercock's lightbulb moment

Sandercock, like King, has had a very successful FSU career. Sandercock is currently the school record holder for career saves (15) and saves in a single season (7). She is fourth with 98 career wins and is third with 171 appearances.

King is second in appearances (173) and wins (108), third in saves (11) and tied for 10th in shutouts with 28.

Sandercock threw her first career no-hitter against Syracuse on March 17.

"She's grown as an athlete in general," FSU head coach Lonni Alameda said. "In the weight room and her routines have been outstanding. She's grown in her pitching skillsets, every year she goes back and wants to add something different, she wants to be better.

"That's her and her dad sitting in their pitching lab and getting after that."

But Sandercock's biggest adjustment came this season when she took on a larger leadership role.

"When you're 18, I was so eager to learn and to hear all of it, and it was really cool," Sandercock said. "But it still, definitely takes a year or two to really understand it and to be in those situations, all of her advice, and all her lessons really made sense.

"So I still reach out to her today. I reached out to her earlier this year, and was like, 'I feel like I understand you more and more every day'. Just being in the position that she was with me and now being in that position myself."

Sandercock has continued her dominance in the circle with a 19-3 record in 2023, to go along with a 1.23 ERA, 77 strikeouts and 12 walks in 131 ⅓ innings. She has six complete games in 16 starts and 35 appearances to go along with seven saves.

She has also had an impact on Reid, who is taking the ACC by storm with an 11-0 record with a 0.99 ERA, 77 strikeouts and 18 walks in 63 ⅔ innings.

"I think that it was kind of a full circle moment when she reached out to me, because she was like, 'Oh, my gosh, this is this is kind of crazy,'" said King, who is working as a pediatric bone marrow transplant nurse at Boston Children's.

"This is like she felt the weight I guess of being a senior on the team. So we kind of laughed about it.

"The advice I gave her just was to enjoy every single moment and pour every single thing that you have into the freshman pitcher. Because what an honor it is to look back after the last four years and watch her grow into a senior leader and kind of leave her legacy on the program."

Alameda added it took Sandercock a little time to grow out of her shell as the quiet person she tends to be.

"She's a book nerd, so she really likes to be by herself, read and hang out all day," Alameda said. "But she's now figured out how to really be a voice on this team, lead, speak up and get uncomfortable in those moments, which was just not her nature in the beginning."

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Full-circle moment

Sandercock was a part of the Seminoles 2019 team that won the 13th ACC regular season title in program history.

On Friday, she started for FSU and went five innings. She re-entered the game in the seventh inning and recorded the final out on a strikeout to earn the program its first regular season title since her freshman season.

"My freshman season, I didn't know a lot. You don't really get it until you get it when you come to Florida State," Sandercock said following the win Friday. "Now I get it and I get to play a much different role than I did my freshman year."

Sandercock pitched 91 ⅓ innings that season, posting a 13-0 record and 1.99 ERA with 49 strikeouts against 14 walks as a freshman in 2019.

King, who was the staff ace, posted a 30-7 record with a 1.43 ERA and three saves. She set a career-high with 237 strikeouts over 210.1 innings and opponents batted just .187 against her.

"Every single freshman pitcher, including her, you go from being a leader and a starter on your high school teams and your travel ball teams and now you get to college and you're kind of the little fish in the big pond," King said of Sandercock's growth.

"You got away with a lot of stuff as a high school pitcher. You're able to strike out a lot of people out. But as a college pitcher, the hitters are so much smarter they have film on you, they're watching you they know your strengths, they know your weaknesses and you have to kind of take that step and learn your own strength and your own weaknesses to combat the hitter's strengths and weaknesses.

"So I think it's a lot of more of a mental game of being able to be like, 'Oh, you know, like, my job isn't to strike people out. My job is to throw good pitches and hopefully be able to throw good pitches enough to let my defense play for me.'"

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Special relationship with Michael Edenfield

While Sandercock is getting a lot of credit for helping pass the legacy to the younger pitchers on the staff this season, she has had an impact on other players as well, outside of the pitching room.

"Kat means a lot to me personally," FSU redshirt sophomore Michaela Edenfield said. "She was one of the first people I was able to really connect with with this program. And coming in as a freshman, she was the person that held the standard for me and wanted me to be a part of the standard and know what's above and below the law.

"I'm really grateful that I've been able to experience the time with Kat and not only just see the growth of the game, while the time I've been here with her but also see the growth in myself as a player. So it's awesome."

Edenfield redshirted her freshman season in 2021. As a redshirt freshman last season, she started in all 61 games, spending most of her time behind the plate.

The two have built a tight relationship.

"Yes, we do have a special relationship," Edenfield said. "Kat and I bonded a lot over last year and have definitely been going in and out. I caught a lot of her bullpens my first year here though season I redshirted so definitely used that year to its advantage and was able to carry over the conversations and the cues from the bullpen and transfer on to last season and this season as well.

"So I'm just really grateful that she's been able to guide me in a way of teaching me how to be a better leader and being able to manage the rest of the pitching staff especially someone such as freshmen, Kenny."

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Going pro

Sandercock, along with current Seminoles' teammate Mack Leonard, heard their names called on April 17 at the Women's Professional Fastpitch Draft in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The FSU ace was selected with the second pick in the second round to Texas Smoke which is based in Austin, Texas, while Leonard was picked 18th overall in the fifth round.

Sandercock, a three-time All-American and a two-time All-ACC selection, is excited to continue her softball career.

"Playing professionally has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid," Sandercock said. "So to be drafted and for that to all be coming true is pretty surreal. I'm just really excited and I'm really grateful. I'm so grateful that Mac was drafted to the same team. So we get another chance to play with each other.

"But just everybody who was drafted, I'm just really happy for all of us because I know that it's just a dream come true and an incredible opportunity for women and for female athletes to see this growth in the game and see the opportunities post-college. So I am really, really excited about it. I can't wait."

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU softball: Seminole ace Kathryn Sandercock leaving legacy behind