How Bellefonte pitcher Lexi Rogers is putting the work in to make up for a lost 2020 season
Lexi Rogers — like most high school athletes in 2020 — lost an opportunity last spring. The softball pitcher was poised to become a rare four-year starter for Bellefonte and continue her dominance from the circle.
Instead, she was on the sidelines, wondering and waiting while the coronavirus pandemic put sports around the country on hold.
“It was very challenging,” Rogers said. “When we found out that spring sports had been canceled, I was so upset. I was really looking forward to a good year with all of my teammates and friends. We didn’t get to see each other really and bond together.”
Instead of wallowing in that frustration and the opportunities she lost, Rogers pivoted. She turned her eyes toward 2021 and what it could become.
“I feel like it was a blessing in disguise,” she said. “I feel like, as a team, we all worked on stuff that we needed to work on. So we all got that extra time to improve on those little things. Whenever it was time for us to step on the field together, it all just came together.”
Now, the senior Red Raider is ready to turn that chance to grow into an on-field product as she continues her run of dominance and help take the Bellefonte softball team — and her softball career — as far as it can go.
Rogers is in the middle of her final year of high school and has already turned her time off into results. She’s 5-1 with 67 strikeouts — enough to surpass 300 total in her career — while only giving up four earned runs on 13 hits and 10 walks in six starts for Bellefonte.
The success she’s found from the circle isn’t much of a surprise to Bellefonte head coach Travis Foster, who has seen the level of time and effort she’s put into the sport.
“She’s the kind who, she kind of has the mindset of ‘no one is going to work harder than I do,’” Foster said. “... This is year 21 in coaching. I’ve never had a kid work as hard as she has. Whether that’s in season, out of season, in the weight room, in the batting cage, in the pitching circle, she knows what she wants and she knows what it takes to get there.”
The pitcher’s work ethic and love for the game began at a young age. Rogers first started playing baseball when she was six years old and pivoted to softball at nine as a pitcher.
It was then that she realized how much passion she had for the sport and decided she wanted it to be a major part of her life for as long as it possibly could.
“I started to fall in love with it as soon as I started,” Rogers said. “I started pitching at nine. ... My dad and my mom and all of my coaches along the way have really pushed me and helped me become the player and person I am today.”
Her passion has opened the door for her to become as successful as she has, but her hard work and ability have pushed her through it — along with the coaches who have put her in that position.
That starts with Foster. His relationship with his star pitcher is an important one because of the nature of softball and how frequently she takes the circle to pitch.
The relationship between Foster and many of his players, including Rogers, is about what becomes of each athlete away from the field — he says the benchmark of his success is whether or not he receives a wedding invitation down the road — but his coaching has been important to her development.
“He’s definitely been a big help along the way,” Rogers said. “Not only does he focus on the physical aspect of the game, but also the mental side of the game. We spend a lot of time working on how you have to prepare mentally because most of the game is mental, so that really helps.”
Foster isn’t ready to deem what that success will look like for the team. He wants to move forward moment by moment, ensuring each one is taken with the appropriate amount of focus.
That, in particular, is what he says will help determine Rogers’ on-field achievements this season.
“For her, it’s can she focus one pitch at a time?” Foster said. “Can she, after she releases a pitch and the result happens, can she, in those 10-15-30 seconds between pitches, refocus and give her best for the next pitch?”
Rogers will help determine just how far Foster’s Red Raiders will go in her final year in high school. She will trot out each game and fire pitch after pitch, with the balance of the game resting in her hand. The head coach may not be willing to put a finite goal into the world for what he wants to achieve, but whatever it is will begin with Rogers.
Her pitching will have a major impact on Bellefonte’s 2021 season.
No matter how far the team makes it, that won’t be the end for Rogers. She’ll continue her softball career at the NCAA Division I level at James Madison University.
As Foster says, he won’t know how successful he was as her coach for years to come. However, he’s hopeful he’ll be able to call it a success when the time comes.
“I love that kid, man,” Foster said with a smile. “She’s a great kid, she’s fun to be around. Her and I have had a unique relationship just because pitchers and head coaches have to have a little bit of a different relationship. ... We work well off of each other.
“I hope I get (the wedding invitation), that’s for sure.”
