Lake Central catcher a real diamond gem

Updated: April 29, 2011 9:40PM

Her offensive numbers are undoubtedly eye-popping to say the least.

There’s 20 RBI and 26 runs scored in 18 games, with two homers, eight doubles and a triple. She’s hitting a robust .544 with 31 hits in 57 at-bats.

Lake Central catcher Sam Terry standing at the dish is a frightening thought for any pitcher.

Recording an out when Terry has a bat in her hands is quite an accomplishment, especially since she hits more than half the time and has grabbed some bench only twice via strikeout.

While her offensive proficiency is amazing, there’s much more to Terry’s game.

“Everybody wants to always talk about her offensive numbers, which are ridiculous, but I continue to talk about her defensive prowess,” Lake Central coach Jeff Sherman said.

“She does a great job handling our pitchers and calling a game. We give her free reign to call the pitches and she’s done a phenomenal job with it.”

Even with three pitchers — all with different styles — Terry’s handled them with great aplomb.

It doesn’t matter whether she’s catching juniors Bridget Boyle and Morgan Franovich, or freshman Lily Del Toro, Terry understands each one’s strengths.

“They’re all different, but I know the go-to pitch for each one and I know what they have to hit to get ahead of the hitters,” Terry said. “I know what their best pitch is based on how they are in practice. All three are stronger with one pitch than the other. I just have to decide which one I think they should throw. We usually agree on what we want to throw all the time.

“I know whatever I call, I trust them to be able to throw it for a strike.”

Terry rarely makes mistakes. She’s as physical a catcher as you’re going to find.

“Sam takes a lot of pride in her ability to not let anything go by her,” Sherman said. “She’s not afraid of contact in any way. She likes people to challenge her and she likes to get dirty. She likes to come up to me after a game and say: ‘I got beat up today.’ If she says it, then she did her job.”

Terry’s efficiency at her position is uncanny.

“I saw her make her first error in a year and a half last week,” Sherman said. “I’ve never seen her have a passed ball. I think at some point, every catcher is going to miss one, but that’s something I’ve never seen with her. She’s saved our pitchers a lot of wild pitches as well. She’ll block balls in the dirt with a runner at third. She excels in that situation. I wish I kept that stat. I’d be curious to see how many she’d have.”

Terry loves putting her mask on and taking charge on the diamond.

“I love being involved with almost every play,” she said. “You get the most beat up as a catcher, but I would never want to change my position because of that. If you get knocked over a few times during the course of a game, that’s always fun.”

Terry doesn’t shy away from critiquing herself.

In a game against Lafayette Harrison recently, she was up with a 2-0 count and a runner at third with one out. She realized it was a great hitting position, but popped up on the infield.

As Sherman approached her on the at-bat, Terry said: “That can’t happen.”

“She came up later in the game, in the same position, and ripped a double into the gap,” Sherman said. “Sam makes sure if she makes a mistake, it never happens again.”

Terry said her ability to learn from mistakes and make the adjustments to correct them is something she learned from her dad (Jim) who coached since you started playing the game.

“If I was doing something wrong, he showed me how to correct it,” she said. “Now, if I do something wrong, I know how to fix it for the next time. I thank him for that. He helped me get to the point I’m at now.”

Where Terry finds herself now is impressive.

After making visits to Evansville, the University of Indianapolis and Grand Valley State University, she decided to play at South Dakota State University 13 months ago.

“As soon as I stepped on campus, I fell in love with the place,” she said. “When I was there, it seemed like it was 10 minutes — not 10 hours — from my house. That’s how close to home it made me feel. Everyone I met there, including all the girls on the team, were just really nice and welcoming. That’s why I ended up choosing it as the place I wanted to go.”

In the top 15 percent of her class, Terry plans on a career in law enforcement.

“I’ll probably have to start out as a cop to get experience,” she said. “I’d like to eventually work with home invasion drug-bust teams, and for the FBI. I know it’s going to take a lot of hard work and experience to work my way into that.”

The impression of laying down the law — although in a different way than on the softball diamond — is something Terry envisions.

“You know that’s exactly what I’m doing to do,” she laughed.

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