The Lake Region State College softball team got off to a slow start, but has since come around with some success that’s boosted it into fourth place.
One player has been at the head of it all: Darian Bender.
Head coach Kory Boehmer said he considers Bender the team’s leader. Not only has she been the best player statistically, both at the plate and in the circle, but she’s one of only five sophomores on the team. She had a strong freshman season last year, but has taken even greater strides in this campaign to fully establish herself as the captain of this squad.
“She does very well for us on the field, off the field,” Boehmer said. “She’s a great asset. I always tell, when I’m standing next to the other coaches, ‘I just hope that they hit it to her.’ If they can hit it to her, we get an out.”
Bender came over to LRSC last year from Hurley, Wisconsin, located right on the border of Wisconsin and Canada. She already had a connection with Boehmer through her dad.
“My dad knew Kory from coaching in college,” she said. “We reached out to Kory, and he was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll take you.’ He gave me a good offer, and everyone said the environment was really nice.”
The cold conditions of Devils Lake are nothing new to Bender. But as used to the cold as she is, it can still be a factor, especially with heavy winds like the ones the town has seen recently.
In last Saturday’s victory, she surrendered a pair of two-out hits that brought in a run in the first inning.
“It was really cold at the start, so none of my spins were working,” Bender said. “Everything was just floating, hanging in the air.”
But this is something she’s had to work through many times, and she ended up persevering to pitch a complete game. Despite double-digit mile-per-hour winds, Saturday was actually a relatively easy day at the office.
“The weather’s sometimes hard. If the wind is blowing out, then it’s really hard to pitch because it’s slower,” Bender said after Saturday’s game. “But today, it was good.”
Bender has settled in to become the best among a group of four pitchers who Boehmer said can help this team. She’s thrown over 20 more innings than anyone else on the squad and owns a 6.06 ERA, a big improvement from last year’s 11.21. At the plate, she’s hitting .414 with a .487 OBP and .545 slugging percentage.
She was good last year, with a .362 average, but she’s only gotten better as she’s become more comfortable with this program.
“I love playing here,” Bender said. “The team environment is really good. Like the other night, we had dinner at Coach’s. We have a priest here. It’s really a family environment.”
And as the leader of the team, Bender said she feels somewhat of an obligation to perform. It’s brought out the best in her, in what she expects to be her final year of softball.
“I feel like if I perform well, then everyone else is up, too,” Bender said. “If my energy is up, everyone’s energy’s up.”
As a team, Bender said she and her teammates have been focusing on their approaches at the plate. Success usually starts with their offensive production, she explained. If they’re not taking quality at-bats, then things can go downhill quickly.
The season didn’t start the way the Royals had hoped. They lost eight in a row at one point, and held a 5-21 overall record. But after a pair of doubleheader sweeps over the weekend, they’re 6-2 in their last eight. Bender said she personally wants to finish this season strong.
“I just want to have a good last season,” she said. “Because right now, I don’t plan on playing next year. Just gonna focus on my academics next year. So I’m just trying to really end my career on a high note.”
Bender’s development, and the family atmosphere that she’s professed has made her feel comfortable here, have been fostered by Boehmer’s veteran experience in the coaching role. Boehmer is the heart and soul of this program. He’s been with LRSC since 1997, and has been involved with the softball team since its formation in the 2013-14 season.
“I love the game. I’ve been around it my entire life,” Boehmer said. “I love these girls. The ladies are awesome. That’s why I keep coming back. I’m trying to phase myself out, but I don’t know if I will… I’m hoping that I can find some way to come in at some point, and I can just be that old coach on the sideline.”
Boehmer said he tries to teach players about the game and its situations, along with getting them to understand themselves. He keeps things fun and loose, but in a way that will hopefully foster results as a positive side effect — not as the main objective.
“My main thing is trying to get them to understand that this is a game. It’s a lot of fun,” Boehmer said. “There’s no reason to be worried about outcomes.”
And that’s what Bender’s learned through her two years here. She takes her role as the leader seriously, but has fun while doing it, too.
Peculiarly, she’s not even the only Bender on the team — Maggie Bender is an important piece of this team, too, yet has no relation to Darian.
“We’re both left-handed, and we’re both pitchers, too,” D. Bender said with a laugh.
The team will try to keep having fun and winning games, with Bender steering the ship, as it heads into the final week of conference play coming up.
