Notre Dame seemed like a good fit for Kristin Schmidt after she recorded a 27-3 record with a 0.55 ERA in her freshman year for the Irish softball team.
But the current Tiger pitcher said South Bend, Ind., did not feel like home.
“I really liked the school when I visited, and it seemed like the right place for me,” Schmidt said. “When I got up there, it was really far away from home. I was kind of culture-shocked a little bit.”
Schmidt said with Baton Rouge less than a four hour drive from her home in Houston, LSU was the perfect fit.
“I just feel more at home down here,” Schmidt said. “My parents can come to pretty much all of my games and see me play, and I already had a friend on the team — Sara Fitzgerald.”
Schmidt and Fitzgerald played on the same summer league softball team and became close. The two also faced each other during the high school season in Texas. Schmidt said the battles between her as pitcher and Fitzgerald as batter were pretty even.
Fitzgerald, who is from Kingwood, Texas, said Schmidt was a phenomenal high school player and still does not give herself enough credit.
“Schmidt beat us in the state championship three years in a row,” Fitzgerald said. “She pitched the whole game and hit a home run to win the game for her team. Sometimes she doesn’t realize how good she really is.”
Fitzgerald said Schmidt was also superior in the individual meetings they had at the plate.
“For me I always felt like I had a little bit of an advantage because I knew her, but she struck me out half the time,” Fitzgerald said.
While LSU feels more like home, Schmidt said pitching in the Southeastern Conference is not as friendly as pitching in the Big East.
She has posted a 47-15 (30-11 this season) record with a 1.02 ERA and 505 strikeouts in two years with LSU. She said the reason for the drop in her ERA is the superior hitting of the SEC.
“I think the SEC is definitely a tougher conference than the Big East,” Schmidt said. “We have a lot of strong hitters in the SEC.”
Schmidt credits her success as an SEC pitcher to the philosophy of taking the game pitch-by-pitch and batter by batter. She said former LSU All-American Britni Sneed has also helped her play up to her potential this season.
“Britni’s unbelievable as a pitching coach,” Schmidt said. “I think she’s definitely helped me a lot, but she’s just a great person and a great person to play with.”
LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard said Schmidt was overshadowed by the great play of Sneed last season.
“She was very much overlooked last year because of Britni, and I think people forgot how good she really is,” Girouard said. “She’s a top-flight pitcher. She was recruited heavily out of high school, and we were very lucky when she decided to transfer here.”
Girouard said having good stamina is necessary when playing in the SEC. She said Schmidt proved everyone wrong with stellar performances in conference play this season.
“I think her stamina was the issue and something we were all concerned about,” Girouard said. “But she answered that with her own work ethic.”
Girouard said another key to Schmidt’s success is that she always outthinks the competition.
“I think she saw right away how much better the SEC was, and she knew she had to make adjustments,” Girouard said. “The coaches in this league are phenomenal, and they’re going to figure things out after Saturday night to adjust to the Sunday games.
“She’s tried to stay one step ahead of them all the time, and that’s the mark of a good player.”