BATON ROUGE — LSU softball coach Yvette Girouard Friday announced that LSU has received the papers on two new players for the 2001 softball season.
Girouard has signed freshman pitcher Sarah Meadors, this year’s Miss Softball in Louisiana from Denham Springs High School, and, transfer catcher/designated player Erin Johnson of two-time College World Series participant Southern Miss. Johnson, who hails from Pascagoula, Miss., will have two years of eligibility remaining at LSU.
Meadors earned her Miss Softball honor in a vote of a Louisiana Sports Writers Association panel after a season in which she led Denham Springs to the Class 5A state title for the second time in three seasons and a national ranking.
Meadors, a 5-11 righthander, finished with a 27-0-1 record that included 350 strikeouts, 11 walks and an 0.26 earned run average. She finished her prep career with a 68-6 record and 737 strikeouts.
“She had an outstanding high school career,” said Girouard, who enters her first season as the LSU softball coach. “She is just the epitome of a student-athlete. She was a 4.0 honor student and valedictorian of her class. She will add the needed depth to our pitching staff.
“I think we have not only the best pitching staff in the country, but we do have the tallest. Meadors is 5-11 to match Britni Sneed at 6-1 and Ashley Lewis at 5-9,” Girouard said.
Johnson, in transferring to LSU, already knows the facility having appeared in two NCAA regionals at LSU’s Tiger Park in her two seasons at Southern Mississippi. She had a key triple in the 1999 regional that set up the two-run homer which downed LSU in the Saturday night elimination game.
As a freshman, she started in 35 games, playing 43 total, hitting .358 with 7 doubles, 5 triples , 3 homers and 30 RBI. She started every game this past season at DP for the Lady Eagles, hitting .343 with 13 doubles, 9 home runs and 56 RBI. In this past season’s College World Series, Johnson was 6-for-12 at the plate.
“Erin is one of those tough as nails type of kids,” said LSU Assistant Softball Coach James DeFeo. “She’s really a great hitter and will do anything you ask her to do. She really came into her own in the spring of her freshman year. She broke into the starting lineup and never left it. She didn’t have a place in the field, but her bat was so strong she always made her way into the lineup. She’s a very upbeat, positive person who will do whatever is needed of her to help the team.”