Following Lezley Lawson’s freshman season, the McLouth High softball player was named to the Journal-World All-Area softball first team and was a member of the Kansas Class 3A All-State first team as well.

This year, the girl they call “LuLu” is the 2007 All-Area Softball Player of the Year – as a sophomore.

“Lu is our team leader. She not only leads us in offensive and defensive statistics, but she also leads us as a voice, and by the example she sets as far as hard work and discipline,” McLouth softball coach Ballard Patterson said.

Pretty big shoes for a sophomore.

But according to Patterson, the school-year classification has nothing to do with her softball skills.

“She has so many games played growing up – as far as competitively – on travel teams,” Patterson said. “She may be a sophomore in terms of graduation date, but she’s a senior as far as experience.”

Lawson was a key pitcher in McLouth’s 17-1 season that ended in a 12-9 loss to eventual state runner-up Silver Lake in the Class 3A regional finals. She allowed just seven runs on 24 hits in 67 innings of work to earn a 10-0 record.

But she’s not the pitcher on the All-Area team.

Lawson made the team as a first baseman with her .724 batting average (42-for-58).

“It feels good to be a good player all-around, and I think that’s going to get me really far,” Lawson said. “I definitely did not expect to do that well on offense. But coach had us work three times a week on offensive practice, and I go to the (batting) cages outside of practice, and I guess it really paid off. It feels good to have a batting average that high.”

With her consistent bat, Patterson was prompted to place her third in a lineup full of solid players – including catcher Kendall Patterson and shortstop Samantha Farris, who are also All-Area first-teamers.

“She’s an extremely tough out,” Ballard Patterson said. “She’s not going to chase very many bad pitches, so she draws a lot of walks. In fact, she got a lot of intentional walks this year.”

With three home runs and 24 RBIs, it’s understandable that opponents would want to avoid pitching to Lawson.

Especially now that she’s been bitten by the home-run bug.

“There’s nothing better than hitting that ball and you just know it’s going out,” Lawson said. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Hey, this feels really good. I’ve got my home run for the year,’ and then two more came after that. It just felt awesome.”

Lawson’s power at the plate carried over her work in the pitching circle, where she struck out 121 batters. That translates to nearly 13 Ks per seven innings.

So with an All-Area player of the year and All-State first-team credentials already to her credit, where does the soon-to-be junior go from here?

“That’s an excellent question because I sure have a lot to live up to next year,” Lawson said. “I’ve just got to keep my mind-set, keep practicing throughout the winter and practice hard all next spring so hopefully the numbers will come up like they did this year.”