The end of the 2019 season marked the final curtain on the illustrious collegiate careers of Louisiana Tech pitchers Preslee Gallaway and Krystal De La Cruz. But as the stellar pair of Lady Techsters saw their careers in Ruston come to an end, the man who presided over many a bullpen session with the duo also closed a book of his own.
Mike Forsythe, a decorated and well-known pitching coach who spent four years in Ruston, retired with the conclusion of the 2019 season. A longtime coach who spent time on staff at schools across the country, as well as at the professional level, Forsythe left an indelible mark on the Lady Techster program during his tenure on the coaching staff.
Tutoring both Gallaway and De La Cruz from the time each set foot in Ruston, Forsythe helped develop the pair into perennial all-stars that helped lead their senior class to the most wins (149) of any Lady Techsters four-year group in more than twenty years. The 2019 Lady Techsters were named Conference USA regular season co-champions and won the conference tournament.
Under Forsythe’s tutelage, the Lady Techsters placed a pitcher on the all-conference first team in each of his four seasons in Ruston. That group included Bailey Allen (2016), De La Cruz (’17 and ’19), and Gallaway (’18). In the sixteen years prior to 2016, just one LA Tech pitcher had earned first-team all-conference honors.
Gallaway also became the first-ever Louisiana Tech pitcher to be named the conference Pitcher of the Year, an award that she earned in 2018.
Before joining the Louisiana Tech staff, Forsythe spent five years on staff at Northern Colorado, including a pair of seasons with current LA Tech head coach Mark Montgomery. Forming something of a dynamic duo in the dugout with Montgomery, Forsythe joined the staff at Tech in 2016 and began working with the program’s pitching staff.
All the while, during the full length of his tenure in Ruston, Forsythe maintained his primary residence in Colorado, traveling to Louisiana for weekend tournaments and conference series’. Serving as the program’s volunteer assistant coach, he also maintained a private instruction business in Colorado, working with young pitchers and softball players to sharpen their skills on the diamond.
After Lady Techster alum Bianca Duran joined the program’s coaching staff for the 2017 season, Forsythe added a different kind of tutoring role to his repertoire, working with Duran to eventually be the program’s sole pitching coach.
The timing of Forsythe’s retirement as a collegiate coach was not coincidentally synced with the graduations of Gallaway and De La Cruz. “It was something that I thought about last year and all of that, but now just seemed like the right time, to get to see [Gallaway] and [De La Cruz] through,” Forsythe said.
Now returning full-time to Colorado, Forsythe isn’t leaving softball behind completely. He expects to continue working in various roles in the game that he loves, including through his business, the Professional Softball Instruction Academy.
