Lehigh softball transfer plays positive role on team

Lehigh softball second baseman Julia Mrochko is now back in her home state after transferring from the University of South Florida. 

Her impact on the team was felt immediately. 

After 33 appearances for USF over her first two seasons, Mrochko has played 27 games for the Mountain Hawks this season. She’s fourth among starters with a .302 batting average and has 23 hits on the season.

Mrochko is originally from Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where she played at Hazleton Area High School, about an hour from Lehigh. 

When she was younger, Mrochko was influenced by her older sister, Madison, and her father, Greg, to play softball. Her father played baseball at the University of Pittsburgh. 

“I started watching (Madison) play and my dad forced me into it because he played baseball and here I am, a hitter and not a pitcher like he wanted me to be,” Mrochko said. 

Growing up, Mrochko watched University of Washington softball star infielder Sis Bates, who was another reason why Mrochko fell in love with the sport. 

When Mrochko’s two-year stint in Tampa was coming to an end and Lehigh coach Fran Troyan had an extra roster spot open, she made a move to get the Pennsylvania product to Lehigh. 

“We had known about her in high school and it was just a good fit,” Troyan said. “She is incredibly bright and it’s a great spot for her from an academic standpoint as well as a softball standpoint.”

For Mrochko, the rigor of the program and the proximity to home made sense for her.

“It’s fantastic – I played for two years somewhere that was 16-plus hours away, so to have my family be so close by is something that I look forward to every game,” Mrochko said. 

On the field, she has acclimated to the team despite being a newcomer to the program.

“I feel like she fit with the team really early on which is sometimes that is really hard to do not as a freshman, she found her way to fit in and she brings a lot of energy to the team with a lot of softball knowledge,” graduate student outfielder Emily Cimino said. 

Troyan described Mrochko as someone who isn’t very vocal, who uses a lot of dry humor, also commending her work ethic. 

“School is something that I enjoy doing and I think when you’re naturally good at some things it obviously comes a little bit easier but I think I learned a lot of time management,” Mrochko said. 

She has various hobbies, that include reading books, shopping and video games. Her biggest passion right now is writing for a fashion blog called The Jewel Archive. 

“I’m really into fashion and wanted to make my own blog … I look at things that are in trend and things that are popular right now and something that I really enjoy doing outside of being a student-athlete,” Mrochko said.