She may not have the intimidating speed on her pitches or the intimidating image in the circle, but senior pitcher Kristin Schmidt does have the ability to just get opposing batters out.
“I think [Schmidt’s] kind of deceiving,” coach Yvette Girouard said. “You look at her and she’s not the prototype pitcher. She does not have Emily Turner’s build — she’s not the tall pitcher with all of the God-given levers. But she is a very smart pitcher. She doesn’t beat herself. She hits her spots and knows how to set up hitters.”
Shortstop Lauren Delahoussaye agrees that Schmidt is deceptive in her pitching.
“I know just hitting off of her in practice that she doesn’t seem as hard to hit as she is,” Delahoussaye said. “So just watching her you might think ‘oh this is going to be cake’ but then you get up there and she’s tricky and you don’t know what is coming next.”
Schmidt, who is a team-leading 26-5 on the season, has been one of the most dominant pitchers in LSU history.
In her three years at LSU, Schmidt has clawed her way through the record books to second all-time in innings pitched (676), complete games (82), shutouts (32), strikeouts (785) and wins (77).
And this year is no different for Schmidt. She leads the team in wins (26), ERA (1.49) and strikeouts (240). Three of her 26 wins came during a three-game series earlier this season against Ole Miss.
Schmidt was thrusted into the starting role of all three games because of an injury suffered by third baseman Julie Wiese. Wiese’s injury forced pitcher Emily Turner to play third.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting to pitch all three games, but we all pulled together as a team and the team made good plays behind me so I was able to go all three games,” Schmidt, who pitched 24 innings in a 22-hour stretch, said. “[My arm did] not really hurt afterward. We kept our pitch count down pretty low so I wasn’t hurting very much after that.”
Delahoussaye said having a dominant pitcher like Schmidt in the circle gives the Tigers’ defense an extra boost.
“I think it’s very important when her pitches go the way she wants them,” Delahoussaye said. “It means [the other team] will hit the way we want them to and we’ll make the plays easier, and I think she does a great job of that.”
But before Schmidt arrived on the LSU campus in 2002, she was in South Bend, Ind., pitching for the blue and gold of Notre Dame.
As a freshman at Notre Dame, Schmidt went 27-3 with a 0.55 ERA, en route to a second-team All-American selection.
“Notre Dame is kinda far from home,” Schmidt said about her decision to transfer. “I’m from Texas so I just wanted to be closer to home and LSU’s a really good fit and my parents could come and see me play a lot more.”
Girouard said Schmidt’s decision to come to Baton Rouge was a big announcement for the LSU softball program.
“It was a happy, happy day when that girl transfered from Notre Dame to LSU, and I can promise you teams were lining up to talk to her when word got out that she was unhappy at Notre Dame,” Girouard said. “We were very grateful to have gotten her and I am thankful that I got to coach her.”
Girouard said Schmidt’s dominance in the circle has overflowed into the classroom.
“She’s the whole ball of wax for student-athletes,” Girouard said. “She’s an excellent student. She graduated in four years. She’s been accepted to law school here and she’s going to be a winner in anything she does.”
As it stands now, the Tigers are atop the SEC standings. Schmidt said it would be great to go out on top at the end of this season.
“I’ve had a great three years and it’s been a lot of fun playing here and hopefully we can go to the College World Series and win the Southeastern Conference tournament,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt leaves legacy on Tigers softball
April 28, 2004