Corin Dammeier leads Franklin with a .564 batting average this spring.
Daily Journal file photo
One can’t help but admire the far-sightedness of Corin Dammeier.
After all, it was Dammeier, Franklin’s senior catcher, who became enamored with all things Florida Atlantic University 14 months before much of the sports-watching world had heard of the place.
“Of course,” said Dammeier, when asked if she found herself engrossed in the recent bracket-crushing march to the Final Four put together by FAU’s men’s basketball team. “It was super exciting. Actually, I learned a lot watching it.
“Now when I say I’m going to FAU, people finally have a connection to it.”
Dammeier already did, having verbally committed to play softball there in January 2022; she signed her national letter of intent this past November.
The Florida Atlantic campus, located in Boca Raton on the state’s eastern side 45 miles north of Miami, is a member of Conference USA, an 11-school league scattered across seven different states.
FAU softball, now under the leadership of first-year coach Jordan Clark, took a 29-15 record into Sunday afternoon’s game at Western Kentucky.
Once an Owl, Dammeier will be part of road trips to destinations such as El Paso, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina, and Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Frankly, that plays right into her wheelhouse.
“Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to go to college far away from home. I’m kind of a curious person, and I want to go out and explore,” Dammeier said. “Once I went to FAU for the first time, nobody could beat it.
“My dorm is one mile from the beach. It checked all the boxes. It wasn’t just athletically everything I wanted; academically it was everything I wanted.”
Dammeier, whose 4.34 grade-point average ranks her fifth in Franklin’s senior class of approximately 400 students, plans to major in forensic accounting.
Her final high school softball season has been impressive.
Dammeier currently hits third in coach Kayla Craft’s lineup, and leads the 8-4 Grizzly Cubs in batting average (.564), hits (22) and runs batted in (14). All this after electing not to play during what would have been her junior softball season.
“I was fighting some overuse injuries, but nothing too serious,” Dammeier said. “I ended up using that time to get in the gym as much as I could. I got way stronger, which was a major goal of mine at that time.”
An All-County selection as a sophomore after hitting .494 with seven doubles, Dammeier has been used at first base or as a designated player this season during nonconference contests, allowing sophomore teammate Ashlynn Keser valuable varsity innings behind the plate.
Dammeier is one of only two seniors on the Grizzly Cubs roster along with second baseman Maddie Stearns.
“The No. 1 thing I need from Corin is her leadership,” said Craft, who had been Dammeier’s travel softball coach when the latter was in middle school. “She’s not afraid to be a leader not only on the field, but off it. We’re a very young team, but Corin has played at that high level, and the girls look up to her.
“I’ve known Corin since she was a seventh-grader, so I’d like to see her continue hitting the way she is and throwing people out the way she is.”
Once at Florida Atlantic, Dammeier will be able to reconnect with Owls pitcher Kelsey Endress, a freshman from Brownsburg. The two have worked out in the past, and look forward to potentially creating a formidable pitch/catch combination in the future.
Literally and figuratively, it places Dammeier in a sunshine state.
