Taking the road less traveled can sometimes be a good thing. The bumps, curves, and obstacles along the way can make a person stronger, rather than be the cause of their demise.

Just ask Andrea Kirchberg.

The softball team’s junior pitcher has made a name for herself on the mound in only her third year of suiting up for the Badgers. Kirchberg needed only two seasons to stake claim to almost every pitching record possible in the team’s seven-year existence. She has pitched a perfect game, no-hitters and shutouts; made all-tournament teams; and become Wisconsin’s first all-American when she was named to the third team in her freshman year.

But for the pitcher from Texas, the decorations don’t even begin to tell all that she has gone through in her 21 years.

It all started when she was four years old. From what Kirchberg was told, she and her two younger sisters were found living in a two-car garage and put into foster care. Kirchberg has no recollection of when exactly she was abandoned, but she eventually ended up separated from her two sisters once in the foster-care system. However, her foster parent — now her adopted father — reunited the three and a younger brother that had been born.

It would be nice to say from that point on all was well for Kirchberg and that once settled into a family the road became a little less bumpy. That was not to be, however, as even more curve balls were thrown her way. When she was just seven her biological mother died after being hit by a car and, that same year one of her baby brothers died as a result of crib death. Then, two years later, a call came in from her biological father.

“When I was nine my dad called and said he wanted to visit,” Kirchberg recalled about a meeting that never took place.

“I haven’t spoken to him or seen him since. All I know is that he’s a really bad drug addict and the last we heard, when I was fourteen, was that he was in the hospital because of drug abuse or a drug raid in which he was shot. I don’t really know.”

With all that she had experienced in her nine years, Kirchberg coped by indulging in the thing that started it all — trouble.

“A lot of trouble, just doing stupid things, not caring about anybody — that’s how I coped with [all that I had gone through],” Kirchberg said.

It would take Kirchberg until the age of 17 before she really decided to turn her life around and change to style of life she had chosen.

“I finally realized and smartened up,” Kirchberg said. “I figured out that the guy that adopted us was the most wonderful person I’ve ever met in my entire life, and that I needed to respect him the way he respected me. I had to give back what he had given me in my life.”

Another outlet for Kirchberg became sports. She started playing softball when she was six. Away from the diamond she also participated in soccer, volleyball, basketball and track. However, she knew that pitching was her best attribute and that softball would lead to the best possibility of getting a scholarship. After a stellar high school career that included playing for “hit ball,” or tournament teams that partook in national tournaments, it was a visit to Minnesota that led her to Wisconsin.

“My [adopted] father is from Minnesota, and Minnesota didn’t want me and, they didn’t think I was good enough,” Kirchberg said, who has enjoyed beating the Gophers the past two seasons. “But I wanted to go someplace north because of the seasons and when I came here it was just gorgeous. Plus, the football team was killer. [Wisconsin] really provided a good visit.”

Kirchberg took on the challenge headfirst.

“A new program doesn’t have anything done for itself, so you have to help it out,” said Kirchberg, who led the Badgers into their first NCAA tournament last season.

Already this year, Kirchberg has led the Badgers to a victory over No. 1 Arizona and has helped the team crack the top 25.

Through it all — the ups and the downs — Kirchberg has taken it in stride. She has learned to focus on what she can do for her team and not herself, and once you set your mind to something, anything is possible.

“My turnaround has been mainly my drive to want to do something,” Kirchberg said. “I’ve had my share of trouble here, but I’ve grown a lot. I figured I had to prove myself, and I’ve done that.”