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By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Lauren Schallert says she doesn’t pay attention to her softball stats.
“I just throw the ball and let my team work,” she said last week.
But for those who do pay attention, the Purdy senior is putting together an eye-popping season in the circle and at the plate.
She’s earned 12 wins in 13 starts pitching while helping the Eagles to a 16-1 start to the season. In 70.2 innings pitched, she’s allowed just 32 hits and 12 walks while striking out 126 batters.
In a 10-1 win against Mt. Vernon on Thursday, she allowed just the fourth earned run to an opponent this year.
“It’s sort of crazy,” Purdy coach Lori Videmschek said Thursday. “We played Sparta here and Sparta’s a really good ball team. For the SWCL championship that Saturday I think she gave up two hits and had 17 K’s. Then we turned around and played Sparta again that Monday and she gave up one hit and had 17 strikeouts again. Did exceptionally well.
“I’m really proud of her, she’s worked her tail off over this last winter to get better,” she said. “I think missing that season last year, I think that would have really been a good year for her, too, but this year she’s really stood out.”
The coach described an “arsenal” of pitches with offerings like a drop curve, screwball, changeup and rise ball.
“She’s got some weird, wicked movement on her ball and it’s hard for people to square up on it,” she said.
Schallert went 4-2 in limited action as a freshman, then had a breakout season in 2019 when she went 24-5 with a 3.36 ERA and struck out 219 hitters in 169 innings. The performance earned her second team All-State honors.
The team made it to the Class 1 quarterfinals that season before suffering a 2-0 loss to Mt. Vernon – a home run in the top of the seventh was the difference.
“It was a heartbreaker,” Schallert said. “I came out (Thursday) and I was ready to beat them. Our team was ready. We were excited.”
She struck out 16 Mountaineers in the revenge game.
Schallert was poised for an even bigger season last year before spring sports were canceled. She held out hope for a couple weeks that Purdy might get to play, but it wasn’t to be.
“It was really disappointing,” she said. “My heart broke.”
Now Schallert and Purdy’s seven-player senior class is looking to make up for lost time while continuing a strong softball tradition at the school. The Eagles have won five-straight spring district championships and finished second in the state in 2017 while averaging 24 wins per season.
Schallert said she definitely feels like there’s an extra emphasis on this season.
“We were super sad it got canceled last year and we all had high expectations,” she said. “We’re just working hard to get where we think we can get this year.
“I’m real excited. This is a great team and I can’t wait to see where the season takes us.”
Videmschek said the main difference between Schallert’s performance as a sophomore and this year is maturity. There were some growing pains two years ago in the circle as the pitcher learned how to hit her spots with pitches.
“You play some really good teams, if you miss your pitch they’re going to put it over the fence or they’re going to get a base hit so I think her maturity level this year has helped her and then the confidence she has behind her knowing that if she throws that drop ball and they roll over they’re going to get that ground ball to second base or first base, she said. “It’s just her maturity level and she’s grown in confidence.”
With no season last spring, Schallert instead focused on workouts from her traveling team. She pitched four to five times every week and got in some hitting three or four times a week. It’s clearly paid off, and not just in her pitching.
After batting .444 with 11 doubles, three home runs and 44 RBI’s as a sophomore, she’s even better this season: after a three-hit game on Thursday she’s batting .717 and has driven in 26. She belted a home run into the wind against Mt. Vernon, her third of the season.
“She’s done an exceptional job not only on the mound but at the plate,” Videmschek said. “She’s deadly with the bat. I was going to look today to see what her on-base percentage is because they’re either letting her hit or they’re intentionally walking her.”
“My sophomore year I was immature at the plate, swinging at those pitches I shouldn’t be swinging at,” Schallert said. “This year I really focused on pitch selection, swinging at my pitch, my zone that I’m comfortable swinging at.”
More than just her opponents are noticing; she’s signed with Division II Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma to keep playing in college, saying the campus felt like home.
For now, though, the Eagles have nine more regular-season games remaining and a likely postseason run to follow.
“I can’t ask any more than what she’s doing,” Videmschek said. “I”m excited to see how she keeps developing and getting better every game.”
