Southern Indiana sophomore Lexi Fair has taken her fair share of quality cuts at the plate this season.
Submitted photo | Dan McDonnell
The softball résumé of Lexi Fair recently grew by a sentence after Southern Indiana’s first baseman was named Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Week.
Only a sophomore, Fair might have no choice but to become accustomed to the honor.
The Center Grove graduate takes a blistering .435 batting average into the weekend, when USI hosts a doubleheader against Rockhurst on Saturday and plays two against visiting William Jewell on Sunday.
Fair was in her organic chemistry class on Monday when she received a text message on the team’s group thread that she was the GLVC Player of the Week.
The award blends seamlessly with her two years on campus.
“I like it a lot here,” Fair said. “The campus, the coaches and my teammates are great. It’s amazing.”
Fair started playing softball as a 6-year-old and began catching at age 9. She primarily played behind the plate during her Center Grove career, but she switched to first not long after arriving in Evansville.
The transition wasn’t void of a few rough patches, but in time, Fair took on the look of a veteran.
“It wasn’t too challenging, but I was used to being the one in charge,” Fair said. “Playing first, I can sit back and concentrate on other things. I still get to catch now and then, but at first base I can interact with our second baseman and pitcher.”
Southern Indiana’s starter at second is junior Rachel Martinez, one of Fair’s roommates along with freshman pitcher Hailey Gotshall.
With other, more experienced catchers on USI’s 2021 roster, longtime head coach Sue Kunkle opted to move Fair to first as a way of keeping her bat in the lineup.
“Lexi does a great job of blocking the plate, and still does some catching for us,” said Kunkle, now in her 21st season. “But at the time, it was about fitting all the puzzle pieces together and keeping her in the lineup because of her bat.”
Fair made 33 starts and hit .268 as a freshman, earning a place on the GLVC all-academic team as a biology major with a 3.55 grade-point average.
She previously was a two-time all-conference and all-county choice at Center Grove; the highlight of Fair’s prep career came in her junior season, when the Trojans captured the Class 4A state championship.
In Southern Indiana’s last six games — all victories to up the team’s record to 22-8 — Fair went 11 for 20 at the plate with five doubles, a triple and a home run. She leads the Screaming Eagles with 12 doubles overall to go along with her four homers and 30 RBIs.
She’s produced two or more hits in 12 of USI’s 30 games this season. Perhaps more impressive is Fair having at least one hit in 13 of the team’s last 14 games — including the last seven.
And though she’s technically no longer a full-time catcher, Fair still spends part of her time practicing as if she is, so as not to lose her feel for the game while crouched behind home plate.
“Every day at practice, Lexi does catching and blocking drills, which I think have helped her develop a really good glove at first base,” Kunkle said. “She doesn’t make a lot of mistakes over there.
“On offense, it’s about her having quality at-bats.”
That, according to Kunkle, means occasionally drawing the crucial walk or supplying USI with a difference-making sacrifice fly.
“Last year, I was putting too much pressure on myself,” Fair said. “This season, I’m just trying to have fun. It can be a struggle, and sometimes I have to take a step back. But my teammates are always there to pick me up.”
