Softball shortstop Stacy Eisenman has a unique role on her team this season: She’s the only senior.
Eisenman has been playing softball since she was five, when she got her start in Sweet Pea Softball. While in high school in Horseheads, N.Y., she played second base, but moved to shortstop when she came to RPI because there was a void on the team in that position.
On how she got hooked on the sport, Eisenman said, “Softball’s relaxing … a way to relieve stress, have a good time.”
One of her favorite plays to make at shortstop is to catch runners stealing. “My catcher (junior Leanna Smith) and I have it down to a science,” Eisenman said. “I love throwing people out at second.”
After a rough season for the team last year, Eisenman has launched into her leadership role as co-captain and lone senior. “I think I provide good motivation on the field and off the field,” she said. “I try to be there for my teammates.”
In her eyes, the key to success for the team this season is chemistry. In her time here at RPI, Eisenman has been under four different coaches, and the constant adjusting from coach to coach made growing together as a team more difficult. Under their new coach Erika Lewis, though, Eisenman feels the team chemistry getting stronger and stronger.
“We have plenty of talent,” she asserted, “it’s a matter of making the team confident.”
And confidence is not something Eisenman lacks. In fact, she exudes it. “My confidence level is unbelievable,” she admitted. “I feel like I can do more and more.”
Last year, Eisenman batted predominately either leadoff or second. This year, Lewis has slotted her into the third spot. Now called upon to bring the runs home more than set the table, Eisenman is definitely enjoying her new role. “I tend to be more comfortable (at the plate) with my teammates on base,” she said.
While she characterizes herself as “a defensive shortstop with a consistent bat,” Eisenman, in past seasons known for her contact hitting that earned her plenty of singles but not much else, has in her new slot in the batting order also discovered a power stroke. “I’ve hit more doubles and triples this year than in my entire life,” she said.
