HAMMOND, La. – When the 2016 NCAA Softball season coming to a close on Wednesday, the Southeastern Louisiana softball team and senior outfielder
Katie Lacour finished as the Division I national leaders in stolen bases per game.
Under first-year head coach
Rick Fremin, the Lady Lions adopted a new found aggression on the base paths. SLU nearly tripled its previous school record and finished with 172 steals on the year for an average of 3.13 stolen bases per game – both national highs.
While five different Southeastern players topped double-digit steals, it was Lacour that was the team's top base runner, finishing atop the nation with 58 stolen bases. Lacour, sophomore
Kinsey Nichols (35 steals) and freshman
Jaquelyn Ramon (32 steals) occupied the top three spots in the Southland Conference standings, while also topping the previous single-season school record. Sophomore
Peyton Sutton (17 steals) and senior
Amanda Livaudais (10 steals) were also key base running threats.
When Fremin took over the program last July, he brought with him his run-first philosophy. His teams at his previous stop, Jackson State, were traditionally among the national leaders in stolen bases – including leading the nation in 2012 with 163.
Fremin's philosophy mixed well with the personnel on his roster. The new attitude of base running, along with several willing and able student-athletes were a recipe for success for the Lady Lions.
"We always want to be aggressive on the base paths," Fremin said. "We were fortunate to have several players who grasped our philosophy and focused on doing what we asked them to do. Katie, Kinsey, Jaquelyn and Peyton all did an excellent job in that area."
Though several members of the roster possess more pure speed, Lacour's penchant for getting on base and making the most of those opportunities led to her success, according to Fremin.
"I wish we had Katie one more year," Fremin said. "She has a very high softball IQ and soaked up the information we gave her. Katie immediately had a firm grasp on what we were trying to do and was constantly putting herself in a position to be successful. I was very happy for her to have the senior year she had for us."
It only took 10 games for the Port St. Joe, Florida native and three-time first team All-Southland performer to steal more bases than she had in her previous three seasons in Hammond. Lacour finished the season as the school's career leader with 70 stolen bases and stole a single-game school record five bases in the final game of her career – a 6-2 win at Northwestern State
Despite Lacour leaving, the Lady Lions do not expect to see a dip in stolen base production. In addition to the return of speedsters Nichols, Ramon and Sutton, Fremin believe several of 2017's 13 newcomers will fit in with the team's penchant for base stealing.
"No one player is going to replace Katie's production," Fremin said. "But, we think Maddie Edmonston, Kalyn Watts, Mattie Ort and Ashten Graves are all players that can be high-volume base stealers for us."
Missouri was the nearest competitor for Southeastern in both total stolen bases and stolen bases per game in the national race. Southeastern had 172 steals compared to 165 for the Tigers, while the Lady Lions' 3.13 steal per game average bested UM's 2.84 per game clip.
Missouri's Taylor Gadbois was Lacour's nearest competitor, as she had 56 steals – two shy of Lacour's season total. The only player in Division I to average more than a steal per game, Lacour's 1.05 per game rate topped Gadbois' 0.97 average.
