Kelsey Carr’s mind never drifted. She wouldn’t let it.

The Archbishop Molloy softball star had fallen behind the Catholic league’s best hitter 3-1. Two outs. Bases loaded. Bottom of the seventh inning and her team up 2-1. The CHSAA city championship on the line.

Carr threw two straight strikes by Moore Catholic’s Alyssa Polemeni to set her down looking to secure the title.

“I don’t really think too much,” Carr said. “Just think about trying to strike her out.”

Carr didn’t always have that level of composure. She can still be her own worst critic — she just doesn’t let opponents know it anymore.

Carr can remember getting easily upset in the circle early in her softball career, usually when it came to issuing walks. She wanted hitters to have to earn their way on against her, and she allowed her emotions to show.

“I used to get mad a lot when I was younger, like very frustrated and my parents kind of helped me through that,” said Carr, a senior who is verbally committed to pitch and play third base for Seton Hall. “You have to show that nothing is bothering you.”

Carr believes her unflappable nature keeps opponents guessing and instills trust in her teammates at the Briarwood, Queens school. Molloy coach Maureen Rosenbaum has never seen Carr get nervous or on edge. In fact, when a teammate makes an error, it only pushes Carr.

“I think sometimes it gives them more confidence knowing it’s not bothering [me], so everything will be good,” Carr said.

Because of Carr’s consistency, Rosenbaum considers her the best player in the coach’s nearly two decades at Molloy.

“She just takes on the challenge,” Rosenbaum said. “She loves high-level ball. That’s just the type of kid she is.”

It’s one reason the Ridgewood resident is among just a handful of softball players out of New York City who were recruited as a position player and pitcher at the Division I level. Carr committed to Seton Hall when she was just a freshman.

“I just started looking around and I fell in love with it there,” Carr said. “I said, ‘Why wait?’”

She was advanced at a young age, playing varsity while in junior high school at Mount Sinai on Long Island before moving to Queens and starting on the varsity at Molloy as a freshman. She has a chance to become the first Molloy player to reach 1,000 strikeouts for a career, owning 792 through three seasons. At the plate, she hit .466 with six home runs and 18 RBIs as a junior.

“ She just takes on the challenge. She loves high-level ball. That’s just the type of kid she is.” — Molloy coach Maureen Rosenbaum

“She doesn’t swing at garbage pitches,” Rosenbaum said. “She leads by example — just by her [approach] in how she plays the game. She’s an extremely modest player as a freshman and now as a senior. You’d never know around our building she’s someone the caliber that she is.”

Molloy has won three straight CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens championships with Carr and two straight city crowns. The Stanners reached the state final last season for the first time since 2015 before falling to St. Anthony’s, 7-6. A state title and a playoff victory over St. Anthony’s have eluded Carr during her career. She has one more shot to change that.

“We came so close last year,” Carr said.

She’s done all this while maintaining a 100-plus average in the classroom, earning a spot on the highest honor roll at Molloy. Carr has consistently taken honors-level classes, including two AP courses as a senior, while managing a busy schedule between playing for the Stanners and her Pennsylvania-based Newtown Rock Gold travel team. She plans to major in physical therapy in college because she wants to stay around sports and work with athletes.

Until then, her goal is to continue to improve by limiting her walks and being smarter about how she attacks hitters as she chases an elusive CHSAA state title.

And when things get hard along the way, you know what you will get from Carr.

“I’ve had some good pitchers,” Rosenbaum said “She’s definitely just stronger. She’s more consistent. She’s more composed. When she shows up, she’s the same kid when she gets there to the time she leaves.”