POULSBO — When you ask North Kitsap fastpitch players Rachael Kramer and Coreena Stout when they began to play the game, they’ll tell you that it was in the second grade, at age 7, in the North Kitsap Little Leagues.

Ask them when they fell in love with the sport, and you’ll get the same answer.

They knew then that the game they now play at the high school varsity level was one they were crazy about, committed to playing year-round and one they’d dream of playing in college.

But out of that bond, a close friendship was born.

Fastpitch — an intense and highly time-consuming sport — has allowed Stout and Kramer to spend a lot of time together. The pair of pitchers have, for the most part, been playing on the same teams since they were 12.

“We pretty much follow each other around,” Kramer admitted with a laugh.

In fact, Little League was one of the few times Kramer and Stout played as rivals. Their competitiveness, though, has been consistent, Kramer joked.

“She was on the other team,” she commented. “But we always won.”

The humble Stout conceded: “They did, really. They were better.”

The pair played in the Little League until Ed Griffin, father of Viking junior Melody Griffin, and John Ball, father of sophomore Josie Ball, started a 12-and-under select team, the Northstars.

Other than a year when Kramer played for NK Coach Dan Kolda’s Diamond Dusters, the North Kitsap High School juniors have been pitching together ever since.

This year, Kramer and Stout and NK teammate Griffin got picked to play for the Puget Sound Chieftains, an 18-and-under year-round squad out of Tukwila. Outside of playing in the Purple and Gold, the three players compete in weekend tournaments with the select team and often practice with the squad during the week, catching late ferries — after Viking practice — to work out with the Chieftains.

That makes for a staggering amount of fastpitch that the pair plays. Kramer said at one point last year at a tournament, she’d pitched so much she couldn’t hold up the trophy they’d won because her arm was so tired.

When they came to NKHS, the pair didn’t receive much time on the mound, staying in the shadows of two-time Narrows League MVP Heather Case.

“Backing up Heather, we didn’t really get to pitch that much last year,” Kramer said.

Now, the two pitchers, along with sophomore Lauren Romero, are mainstays of the Viking rotation. And on the young team, they have become its de facto leaders. They both are quick to complement the other for what they bring to the game.

“Everyone’s brought to a higher standard for playing because they see how determined she is to win,” Stout said of Kramer. “It rubs off on everyone.”

“She’s confident and consistent. Relaxed,” Kramer said of Stout.

The pair see the year as one which the squad could go even farther than last year’s highly talented team. They acknowledge that their pitching will be the cornerstone of that would-be success.

Victories will come as long as everyone believes in each other, Kramer added.

“As long as we have confidence, I think we can go all the way,” she said.