Blair Shines in Freshman Year, Wants to Leave Legacy
5/9/2019 9:01:00 AM | Softball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Wolverine left fielder Lexie Blair is having one of the greatest seasons any freshman has ever had in a storied University of Michigan softball program.
The dynamic player from West Orange High in Winter Garden, Florida, also is having one of the best years of anybody in the Big Ten. Blair's .431 batting average is third in the conference, which she leads with 72 hits. Her 49 RBI tops Michigan while ranking sixth in the conference, where she's second with 20 doubles.
Factor in excellent defense with 11 stolen bases to share the team lead and a .641 slugging percentage that also is No. 1 on the squad, and you have a complete player.
On Wednesday (May 8), Blair was announced as a unanimous All-Big Ten first team selection in voting by conference coaches, while on Thursday (May 9), she was named a top-10 finalist for the 2019 NFCA Division I National Freshman of the Year.
Blair has been quite a difference-maker for the Wolverines (40-11, 22-1 conference), who won their 21st Big Ten regular-season championship last weekend and go after the Big Ten Tournament title in Bloomington, Indiana, beginning Friday (May 10) in a quarterfinal game against the winner of Thursday's (May 9) Illinois-Nebraska contest.
"Honestly," said Michigan head coach Carol Hutchins, "you can't say enough about Lexie. I'm keeping her as a freshman and next year I'm going to hold her back for another year of this. She just plays. She's a kid who just plays. She just plays to have fun and loves to play. I hope she doesn't lose that."
It's difficult to imagine Blair not having fun on the field. She began playing the sport when she was 10, and was hooked quickly despite a reluctant beginning to her career.
"I'd never played a sport to that time," said Blair, "and my mom said, 'You've got to do something.' My mom was a swimmer and volleyball player, and she asked if I wanted to swim. I said, 'No!' Volleyball? 'I don't know.'
"But a lot of my best friends back home played softball, and there was a league just up the street from me. I never gave a clear answer to Mom about softball, but she came up to me one day and said, 'I signed you up for softball.' I said, 'OK, I guess I'm going to play.' It was all just for fun to get out of the house and be with my friends.
"But by the end of the first season, I had surprised myself and I was very coachable. I learned the game very quick, and the coaches were surprised in me, too. They asked me to be on a travel ball team with them the next season with my same friends. It kept me occupied and it was fun."
Success in Windermere Little League Softball came quickly, too, and in 2012 she found herself playing in the televised Little League Softball World Series for a team that reached the championship game before losing. She "started enjoying the competition more" and "seeing a career future for it in college."
She wore No. 3 on her first teams before switching to No. 6.
"My first number in Little League was 3," said Blair. "I chose it because it was my brother's number in high school."
Brandon Strong played high school football and ran track.
"Then, in travel ball, I was given the No. 6," continued Blair. "That stuck with me for a long time and I wore it in high school. My options for Michigan were 2, 3 and 8. I thought, '3 again, that's perfect.' I went back to 3, what I started with, and now I am going to finish with it."
She also hits No. 3 in the batting order -- a spot generally reserved for a club's top hitter -- and puts a charge in a lineup with plenty of pop. The top of the order features four hitters with lofty on-base percentages: first baseman Alex Sobczak (.494), returning All-American second baseman Faith Canfield (.492), Blair (.477) and center fielder Natalie Peters (.451).
When a team has four batters getting on base nearly half the time in the first four spots in the batting order, good things happen and big innings can result.
Blair said on-base percentage means more to her than any other statistic.
"Your average can speak a lot," she said, "but I feel that on-base percentages, getting hit by pitches or walking (she has 19), anything to get on base to get something going is what I look for."
Blair has only struck out four times in 167 at-bats and hasn't hit into a double play. Her speed and ability to hit for power while making constant contact make her a lethal weapon.
What enables her to maintain power while constantly putting the ball in play, too?
"A lot of hitting is just muscle memory for me," said Blair, "getting my cuts in and getting just the right number of swings in. That muscle memory and the mechanics of my swing, and just keeping it simple is what really helps me."
She credits Hutchins, associate head coach Bonnie Tholl and assistant coach Jennifer Brundage, who focuses on pitchers but led Division I with a .518 batting average as a UCLA senior, for working with her on hitting.
"They're at different stations," said Blair, "pitching to us and focusing on what we have to do. Each of them contributes to our swings.
"I've made the biggest strides as a hitter here. I'd always been a power hitter, but when I got here I was nervous about facing the elite pitching I was going to be facing. But they've really helped me with my mental approach since I got here in August. I just try to stay loose, and don't think a lot when I'm in the box. I don't let my focus down if I'm behind in the count or don't get overconfident if I'm ahead in the count. I just take it one pitch at a time to keep it simple."
The result has been a .431 average topped by only one Michigan freshman. Sara Griffin batted .432 in 1995, becoming the first of three freshmen to lead the team in hitting. Sierra Romero, the national player of the year as a senior, did so at .379 in in 2013 and Amanda Chidester finished on top at .350 in 2009.
"I mean that's pretty cool," said Blair. "But I don't really think about my statistics in the season. I don't want that to get into my head. I don't really know what my average is. I know on our scoreboard they show our averages, and I see it sometimes.
"But it's pretty cool being compared to those great players. Though, I try to veer off from thinking about that until our season's over. Keeping myself prepared to be better this year and every year ahead. As long as I keep myself from comparing myself to others, it helps me."
Blair had her pick of scholarships, including top teams in her home state, but fell in love with the Wolverines, who had been recruiting her since early in her high school career.
"At first I wanted to be close to home at a Florida school," said Blair, who batted .524 for her career as a four-time All-Stater while playing on two state championship teams. "But as I got older, I said, 'I can branch out.' Plus, my mom's family is from Detroit, and she (Krystin Strong) was born there. We visit every year for the holidays and were frequently up here, and that added to it.
"My mom, aunt and uncle went to school here. It's just in their blood, and coming up here all the time as a little girl, I decided to keep all my options open and not limit myself to staying in Florida."
Campus visits sealed her decision.
"Once I went to some football and softball games," said Blair, "I really enjoyed that atmosphere here, with the loyalty you can feel from the fans and the fun. It's very uplifting. That's what really caught me. I'm really glad it opened me up to the opportunities I can have here.
"I love it. I had a really good freshman year, and my freshman class is amazing. We're very close and the team is very welcoming. You see the veterans on TV, but you don't know them as a person until you get here. And they've been great. We are one big, huge, close-knit family, and I'm really enjoying it."
Romero was the offensive force on back-to-back Women's College World Series teams in 2015 (national runner-up to Florida) and 2016.
"She left a great legacy here," said Blair, "and I think it's exciting to come to a school that had a player who is considered the best in college history. There's a lot of great legacies here, too, and so I think it's cool to make a name for myself, too. I want to be remembered a certain way for my four years here, and it would be a great honor to leave a legacy here at Michigan softball."
Winning, of course, is paramount to leaving a great legacy.
The Wolverines started slow this season but finished by winning 28 of 29 games, including 11 consecutive games to finish in first all alone in the Big Ten. They swept a series at Maryland to clinch their 11th championship in the last 12 seasons and second consecutive.
"It was a great feeling," said Blair, "and it's one of the greatest accomplishments I can have. It was a great thing for us to get in our freshman year, and get an experience that everyone else on the team has under their belt.
"We didn't want to celebrate too much on the (home team's) field, and just went in the locker room and we were like screaming. We didn't want to be disrespectful, but it was fun."
Michigan is red hot.
"I think we can make it all the way (to Oklahoma City)," said Blair of the Women's College World Series goal. "Our team is great, and our perseverance through adversity we've faced all season, especially from the beginning (with a 6-8 start) to going where we are now, I really see ourselves on that final stage."
