The fourth inning

All she can remember is the pain.

But the hit she took to the face didn’t stop her.

“I just told myself that I’ve been doing this for so long, why quit now after an injury?”

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Two years ago, senior varsity pitcher Maribeth Gorsuch took a softball to the face that fractured her entire cheekbone and eye socket. Despite her quick recovery from surgery, a little less than a year, she never once thought about stopping the sport she loves.

“I didn’t want to quit something I’ve been doing my whole life,” Gorsuch said. “So after [the injury] I actually motivated myself more to get better and better and better.”

Her fellow teammate, senior Tommi Goodman, has been playing with Gorsuch for more than four years, but was not with Gorsuch when she was injured.

“I was a state away,” Goodman said. “And I was freaking out. I was calling everybody trying to figure out if she was OK and what was going on. I was just scared not knowing if she was OK or not.”

A little less than a year later, Gorsuch was OK. Her first game back gave her nerves, but she still managed to step on the field and give it her all.

“I went out there and got two strikeouts,” Gorsuch said. “So I guess I wasn’t that nervous. I just believed in myself and knew everything was going to be OK.”

Head softball coach Lori Alexander says that although she is still a little different, Gorsuch is more back to her old self now even if it did take a while.

“Anytime you take a blow to the face like that it’s a pretty scary situation,” Alexander said. “And then all the work she’s had to have done to repair the initial injury…it was pretty traumatic for her. From where she was when that first happened to where she is now I wouldn’t say she’s back to a full 100 percent but she’s back to 98 percent of where she was.”

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Gorsuch’s teammates and coach describe her as goofy, but say that once on the field she has a different mentality.

“She’s kinda clumsy off the field,” Goodman said. “She’s always joking around. She gets on the field and she’s a completely different person. She’s focused and determined, and it’s pretty awesome.”

Alexander says that mentality has been there ever since she was a freshman.

“She steps in between the lines on the field and it’s day and night,” Alexander said. “Different from how she acts, and to accomplish what she did as a freshman speaks very highly of the type of softball player she truly is.”

Alexander also describes Gorsuch as a dominant player and probably one of the best kids she has ever coached.

“She shows on the file the type of player that she can be and she is one of my team captains,” Alexander said. “She’s a leader and most of the type she leads by example. She’s a little goofy sometimes but she’s a dominant player offensively, defensively and on the mound.”

Goodman says that she feels that Gorsuch is at home when she’s on the field.

“That’s the one place where she doesn’t have to hold back; she doesn’t have to pretend that she’s someone else,” Goodman said. “She can just be herself and that is perfectly OK on the softball field.”

Ranked number two in the state, Gorsuch led the Lady Farmers’ softball team to the state championship her freshman year with a the victory against Kingwood, and then again her junior year with an upset against Katy High School. But this year she plans bringing the title home again.

“Losing last year really motivated us this year,” Gorsuch said. “It was an awesome feeling, and I feel really blessed to do it with Lewisville and Coach Alexander. I just thought ‘I have one more year left…another chance to try again and win it this time.’”

Despite playing since kindergarten, the love Gorsuch has for the sport has not gone away.

“Excitement,” Gorsuch said when asked what she feels when she plays. “Every time I step on the field I’m excited to play; I’m excited to pitch. I’ve never dreaded doing anything. A lot of athletes are like ‘Ugh, practice,’ but I actually enjoy practice.”

Although Gorsuch’s dream school since she was 10 or 11 was the Arizona Wildcats, she still achieved her goal of playing D1 by signing to LSU on Feb. 3. And she has big plans for her first year there.

“[I’m going] to work hard and go in there with a positive attitude,” Gorsuch said. “I would like to start as a freshman, so I just have to go in, be able to learn new things and get used to atmosphere of being on a new team.”

When it comes to playing for LSU, Alexander emphasizes the fact that although most have only seen her pitch, Gorsuch is also a good outfielder.

“I think she’s going to have to play her role to start with like she did here,” Alexander said. “She came in and was our starting pitcher, but when you go into a program like that you’re not going to be the only one that’s good. I think that’s where she’s really going to have to figure out where she fits in and what her role’s gonna be.”

Alexander hopes that Gorsuch gets everything in her future that she wants.

“[I want her] to be a standout like I know she can be,” Alexander said. “I really see her future being on the USA team, and that’s me looking from the outside. I think she’s that caliber of kid to make it to that type of situation.”

And Goodman agrees.

“I wish nothing but fantastic things for her,” Goodman said. “She is going to be a small fish in a big pond so I expect her to step up and rise to the occasion, and it will be super cool to see her strive to become the Maribeth that she is here.”