Batting averages don’t shoot up for no reason.
For Robin Thompson and Ashley Lafever, that reason is Lauren Lappin.
“She has definitely been a factor in helping me succeed so far,” Thompson said. “We work on it just about every day, and she’s always giving me pointers and telling me what I need to do and how to do it.”
Lappin, a silver medalist with the 2008 Olympic softball team, is in her first season as a volunteer coach at Northwestern after her stint in Beijing.
Her first order of business: turning Thompson and Lafever, speedy right-handed hitters, into lefty-swinging slap-hitters.
“They both have lots of speed, so they’re a couple of steps closer to first base,” Lappin said. “The way slappers move through the box generates that momentum before they even hit the ball, so it increases their chances of getting on base.”
And there was no better person to teach the transition than Lappin.
“It’s certainly added a lot to our offense and made us more dynamic,” coach Kate Drohan said. “Lauren’s strength in that is that she did it herself.”
Lappin was a .337 lifetime hitter at Stanford University before teaching herself to hit lefty. After being an alternate with the Olympic team while still at Stanford in 2004, Lappin’s switch allowed her to hit .480 in various competitions for the U.S. team in 2007 and make it to Beijing in 2008.
“You spend many many years swinging the bat and seeing pitches from one side of the plate,” Lappin said. “So to switch over to the other, not only is it a learning process as far as what your strike zone is. Mechanically, it takes a lot of repetition to build those skills from the other side of the plate.”
In both cases, the work has paid off. Thompson, who hit .244 last season, is hitting .333 out of the lineup’s leadoff spot. Lafever is hitting a more pedestrian .133, but that’s a vast improvement after hitting .043 in her first two years as a Wildcat.
“It’s fun to see them figure out what they do best from the left side of the plate,” Lappin said. “(Thompson) definitely has learned how to use her speed to start putting the ball on the ground, and (Lafever) is reading defenses and seeing what pitches she hits best.”
As an elite softball player, it might seem surprising that Lappin spends some of her time working as a volunteer coach for the Wildcats. Even with all her playing experience, coaching is a new challenge for her.
“I’m just willing to soak in as much knowledge as possible from Kate, Caryl (Drohan, associate head coach), and Tori (Nyberg, assistant coach).” Lappin said. “Coaching is what I want to do when I’m done playing, so I think I’ve got a lot to learn and I don’t think there’s a better place to learn than Northwestern.”
Drohan said Lappin’s transition to coaching is going well.
“What’s really great is when she can jump in and practice with the players,” Drohan said. “She can push them and show them how to take that next step.”
