By Shane Frederick
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO —
If Whitney Johnson wasn’t the ambitious sort, she probably would be pitching for the Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial softball team this spring.
She would be preparing for the section playoffs and hoping to get the Knights back to the state tournament for the second year in a row.
Instead, Johnson is in Seattle today, preparing to throw against the No. 1-ranked team in college softball.
“It’s kind of crazy to think that last year at this time I was playing (Mankato) Loyola,” said Johnson, a freshman at North Dakota State. “Now, I’m getting ready to play Washington.”
Johnson finished her studies five months early, graduated from LCWM in January, and immediately moved to Fargo to start college classes and join the Bison.
“I felt like I was ready to move on,” Johnson said, “not just with softball but with school and socially, too.”
The decision couldn’t have worked out better for the 5-foot-11 right-hander.
She is 26-16 with nine shutouts and a 2.53 ERA. She also has 315 strikeouts to just 128 walks. Last weekend, the 18-year-old Johnson was named the most valuable player of the Summit League tournament, winning three games in three starts to propel NDSU into the 64-team national tournament.
The Bison will play the defending national-champion Huskies at 7 p.m. on Friday. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
“(Johnson) had some struggles, especially in the middle of the year,” Bison coach Darren Mueller said. “But it wasn’t a big struggle. She had to get used to the college game and playing with a veteran team. I think her maturity, her willingness to learn and her confidence are three big factors as to why she’s been successful.”
A year ago, Johnson was having a record-setting season as she led LCWM to its first state-tournament appearance. She holds Minnesota’s single-season mark with 435 strikeouts and once fanned a record 21 batters in a game.
“The biggest adjustment (to the college game) is your level of focus,” she said. “You can’t take a pitch off like you could in high school or you will get burned. And that could be the game.”
A player Johnson expects to be careful with on Friday is Washington senior Danielle Lawrie, who’s not only one of the nation’s top pitchers (35-2, 20 shutouts, 407 strikeouts) but is one of the Huskies’ top power hitters (14 home runs, .322 average) as well.
“She’s the face of softball right now,” Johnson said.
Two years ago, Lawrie was playing for Team Canada in the Beijing Olympics, and last year, she was college softball’s national player of the year.
How far is that from Lake Crystal?
“It could be so different,” Johnson said. “I could be in high school. It could be easy. But as much as I think about still playing there, I never wish I was still there.”
