FIU softball team's new starting shortstop ready to play ball
MIAMI -- The FIU softball team is set to kick off the season next Thursday against Clemson, and when they do, they've got a new starting shortstop who has never played softball before.
That is until now.
Ashton Lansdell is set to take to the field.
"Can't get this stupid thing undone," she said recently.
She may be fiddling around trying to get her glove to fit but she fits right in on a diamond after spending her entire life playing baseball.
Lansdell mashed her way around the world playing alongside her male counterparts; was on the women's national team and even made the men's baseball team at Georgia Highlands Community College.
"I guess I just liked being out there with the boys," she said. "Maybe I always like proving people wrong in a sense, but it was always fun for me and I didn't wanna switch anything.
"I was very lucky to be in the community I was in," she said. "Everyone accepted me and was very supportive of me to play."
A knee injury derailed her baseball dreams but she found an opportunity with FIU to get back on the diamond playing softball.
The game is different but her passion on the diamond hasn't changed.
Mike Larabee, Lansdell's head coach, knew the first time he saw her on film that she was someone special worth coaching.
"She's not the best softball player I've coached," he said. "But the best athlete."
On a smaller field, her speed around the bases is one of her biggest strengths.
But putting the bat on a ball coming at her from a different angle took some getting used to but not too much.
"So I have to adjust my vision from up to down," she said. "It's very weird to me. At first, it threw me off mentally and (the) timing within my swing was weird, with more live-at-bats and hitting off live pitching helps a lot more."
The FIU team has been very welcoming, she said.
"It's fun," she said. "They bring out a different side of me and they welcomed me with open arms, and I'm getting to know all their cheers. I was never super crazy about all the cheers, but once your in here doing them, it's gets the hype going and everything."
Lansdell said when she came here on her recruiting trip to FIU, they actually had to keep her away from the baseball facility, but even though that's not in her immediate future right now, she said she's still going to keep that dream alive.