Ithaca’s Samantha Vermeesch a senior this season and will be signing to go to Lansing Community College to play softball.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play for four years so this gave me the option to keep playing,” Vermeesch said. “I talked to a couple of other schools I was interested in but I didn’t know what I wanted to do academically. This seems like the best fit.”
After two years at LCC, Vermeesch will decide if she wants to keep playing the sport.
Vermeesch played soccer in the spring as a sophomore but decided to come back last year.
“I knew I wanted to play in college so I knew I needed to get my name out there if I wanted to play in college,” she said. “Last year went really good. We didn’t have a lot of expectations. It was good to be with a group of girls who wanted to out there playing. We won a tournament, so that was cool.”
Vermeesch pitches and plays the outfield.
“Fastball, change and rise are the three pitches I throw,” she said. “For my travel team, I play the infield too. I’ll pitch for LCC but when I’m not pitching, I’ll help them in other positions, too I have a good arm for the outfield. I can read the ball really well. In the infield second base is probably my favorite spot to play.”
Vermeesch led her team in home runs with five over the fence last season.
Vermeesch is also on the varsity basketball team. She had run cross counry until this past fall when she decided to focus on softball. She plays point guard for Ithaca’s basketball team and is a four-year varsity starter.
The basketball team “should be pretty good this year,” she said. “We should be pretty good this year. We only lost, like two seniors. We should be good. I’m a good defender and pretty fast. I’ve had the most assists every year.”