Softball left fielder Leslie Klein was well versed in the horror stories of torn anterior cruciate ligaments, but never imagined it happening to her.
“It’s so funny because I had been hearing about friends tearing their ACL all the time,” Klein said. “I was in practice and it happened to be about a month before the season started. I just went for a fly ball and just hesitated to dive and it popped.”
The “pop” — a tear of Klein’s right ACL — deflated her hopes of playing in the 2003 season.
“It took about seven months to rehabilitate,” Klein said. “It is a long, stressful injury to go through, but I came back stronger and with more knowledge, and that is all you can hope for.”
Klein said she is 100 percent recovered and is feeling no pain from the injury.
“Last year, I could pretty much only watch and listen,” Klein said. “I learned so much and just took that from [the injury], and gained a lot of knowledge about the game.”
Senior co-captain Julie Wiese has noticed the immediate impact Klein has had on the Tigers’ lineup.
“Klein is such a primetime player and she gets it done in the key situations,” Wiese said.
Holding true to form, Klein came through for the Tigers this past Sunday against No. 15 South Carolina. LSU defeated the Gamecocks 4-0 as Klein supplied all four runs for the Tigers. Her 2-for-3 performance included a double, a two-run home run, four RBIs and a run scored.
“It’s one thing to hit well, but it is another to come through and provide RBIs for the team to get the win,” Klein said.
Klein began the 2004 season as the starter at first base, but was moved to her more natural position of left field as Stephanie Hill began to develop. The move has not adjusted Klein’s athletic prowess, as she has been coined as one of the best players on the team by Girouard.
“She is capable of hitting the ball out of the park at any second and plus she just hits the ball hard for such a little girl,” Girouard said.
Girouard said Klein has phenomenal range in the outfield as well as a cannon for an arm, but it is in the batters box where the 5-foot-6 freshman does most of her damage.
“We really have not seen much of her short game yet, which she does posses,” Girouard said. “But sometimes you just hate to take that bat out of her hands.”
Girouard hates to take the bat out of Klein’s hands because she leads the team in most offensive categories. The redshirt freshman is leading the team in batting average (.388), runs (27), hits (40), triples (3), home runs (8), RBIs (31) and slugging percentage (.757).
Klein has stepped up her game in Southeastern Conference play. She is batting .393 in eight SEC games, as well as knocking three home runs and seven RBIs.
“The thing is that [Klein] does not act like a freshman,” Wiese said. “She knows she is good, but she is not cocky about it. She just has that confidence that you need to succeed.”