Difference-MakersDifference-Makers
Softball by David Kiefer

Difference-Makers

Stanford softball’s resurgence can be traced to three five-year seniors

WHEN JESSICA ALLISTER was announced as Stanford’s new softball coach in the summer of 2017, the fall signing period was less than four months away.


The once-proud program was struggling -- 4-68 in Pac-12 play the previous three seasons. Allister’s first recruiting class would be vital in the hopes of turning the program around. 


Nearly six years later, it’s clear … she nailed it.


Three of the seven-member class – Taylor Gindlesperger, Emily Schultz, and Emily Young – continue to be mainstays in the lineup as fifth-year seniors. They’ve been cornerstones in a Cardinal program that, this year, reached 40 victories and a winning conference record in the same season for the first time since 2009.


They came on trust. They will leave on merit. The program is built to excel for years to come. Stanford, fourth in the Pac-12 regular season and a semifinalist in the conference tournament, enters NCAA play as the No. 9 overall seed and plays host to a four-team regional that begins Friday at Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium. 


All three are five-year (yes, five-year) starters, thanks to the extra year of eligibility granted because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Gindlesperger, Stanford’s career record-holder for triples, is a .324 career hitter (through the regular season), and a centerfield and baserunning savant. Schultz brought versatility and leadership and became a fixture at first base. And Emily Young never left the lineup, starting at shortstop every game in every season.


They’ve been the foundation, the constant, in Stanford’s rise. 


“They are a great example of how to commit to something, and believe in it through the ups and downs,” Allister said. “There was never any question as to what their priority was – their priority was Stanford softball. They were going to do their best for the program.”

SB1Emily Schultz, Taylor Gindlesperger, Emily Young

AT THE TIME of Allister’s hiring, rising senior Gindlesperger was committed to University of Indiana, Schultz to Loyola-Chicago, and Young wasn’t quite sure where she would end up, her hopes of playing collegiate ice hockey having dwindled.


But Stanford? The Pac-12? Only two players in Ohio history had ever played softball in the powerful Pac-12, and Young had no idea she would be the third.


The clock was ticking for Allister. 


“It was a bit of a whirlwind,” Allister said. “And looking at the roster, it was obvious that we needed to bring in some ballplayers, and we needed to bring in some ballplayers that could play right away. 


“So, we got to work.”


Growing up in Chandler, Arizona, Gindlesperger tried to avoid getting picked on by her brothers, Ryan and Chad Kaup, 11 and 8 years older. She followed them onto the diamond – Ryan would play at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Miami (Ohio).


She had helped Hamilton High School to two Arizona Division 6A titles and a 26-game winning streak before the Huskies lost the state final in Gindlesperger’s final game. Gindlesperger hit .496 in her four varsity seasons, with 119 RBI and 42 stolen bases in 123 games, earning All-Arizona first-team honors as a senior. 

Despite growing up in a state with two traditional softball powers, Gindlesperger was eager to escape the heat. She connected with Allister, then coach at Minnesota, but the timing wasn’t quite right.  


Schultz, from Aurora, Illinois, never intended to leave the Midwest. She likened her high school, Oswego East, to Friday Night Lights – huge support for sports in a small town. The oldest of three siblings, Schultz realized early that softball was a means to an education, with academics always a priority. 


Her sister Ashley would play softball at Northwestern and brother Noah, a left-handed pitcher, would become a 2022 first-round draft pick by the Chicago White Sox. But, growing up, it was all about backyard Wiffle ball games. Disputes ensued over rulings concerning foul balls, hitting the house, or rounding the fence near first base. 

 

“Those are the nights I remember,” Schultz said.


To ensure her academic future, Schultz, an aspiring physician, committed to Loyola as a high school freshman. A left-handed pitching ace and leadoff hitter who moonlighted at first base and in the outfield, Schultz closed her high school career with a .544 season batting average.


As for Young, college hockey, not softball, was her first objective. The Mason, Ohio, native played at the top level of travel hockey with teammates who would win collegiate national championships. Her downfall, if you will, was switching from goalie to forward later in her youth career, probably preventing her from developing the top skills at that position. 

Instead, she switched to Plan B … softball. Playing catcher and outfield for a club that was not especially prominent. She clearly was under the radar, though she had believers.

“I’ve been coaching 26 years,” said her club coach, Scott Urton, in 2017 to Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV. “She is probably the smartest kid I've coached on the field … She is the best player in the state of Ohio. This kid can play at any spot. She is that talented.”


Allister, still at Minnesota, knew little to nothing of Young until receiving an unsolicited e-mail, with a highlight video attached – among several e-mails Young sent to college coaches. Allister was intrigued.


“She wrote a great e-mail,” Allister said. “Her high school coach had great things to say about her. And we were impressed with her athleticism.”

 
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ON JULY 18, 2017, Allister was announced as coach. Allister faced a similar rebuilding project as at Minnesota when she was hired at age 27. In the last of her seven seasons, the Golden Gophers went 56-5 and reached No. 1 for the first time in program history.


Leaving Minnesota was difficult, though made more palatable by the position of strength the Gopher program was in when she left. 


"Stanford is home," Allister said upon her return. "Stanford has always been home. I had an amazing experience as an athlete and have always been a proud member of the Stanford community. To be able to come back and lead my alma mater is a dream come true."


Allister was a four-year starter at catcher, a second-team All-American, and helped lead the Cardinal to Women's College World Series appearances in 2001 and 2004. She graduated in 2004 with a degree in economics and served as an assistant to her Stanford coach, John Rittman, from 2007-09. 


She had less than two weeks to prepare for one of the biggest recruiting opportunities of the year, the Premier Girls Fastpitch national championships in Huntington Beach, the top collection of youth talent in the country. By this time, Gindlesperger had decommitted from Indiana because of a coaching change and sent a message to Allister at Minnesota.

“I’m still available,” Gindlesperger alerted her. 

At the 16-and-under Premier division tournament at PGF, “One day she just showed up at my games wearing Stanford stuff,” Gindlesperger recalled. “I was like, ‘What?’”


With their previous interest and Gindlesperger’s availability, there wasn’t much selling involved. 


“Coach Allister definitely wanted us to help her turn the program around,” Gindlesperger said. “That was her goal. There’s so much potential … like, this is Stanford. Why would you not want to go here? She loves Stanford. She talks about the academic part all the time and how there’s so many amazing people here.


“That was exciting to me. She didn’t care about the past. This starts now. The past doesn’t matter.”


Covering more ground, Allister noticed a first baseman for the New Lenox (Ill.) Lightning team who was racking up base hit after base hit. Allister kept coming back and Emily Shultz’s bat never cooled. She hit .800 while her team went 5-2 and finished seventh out of 72 high-caliber teams. 


“I kept seeing a coach with a Stanford shirt who kept coming to our games,” Schultz said. “I was really confused. Who is she here for?


“My coach went up to her after one of the games and asked, ‘Who are you here to watch?’ And she said my name. My reaction was, ‘No way. Not the actual Stanford University.’”


Schultz was sitting in the parking lot when Allister approached her and invited Schultz for a campus visit.


“I was so nervous the whole flight there,” Schultz said. “I came with my dad. I was freaking out. I think I was their first official visit or tour they had done. I always said I was going to stay close to home, I was happy there. But I fell in love with this place. Five years later, I don’t want to leave.”


Young wasn’t at PGF, so Stanford associate head coach Jessica Merchant, also hired from Minnesota, saw Young play at a smaller tournament in the Midwest, confirming their first impressions. 


“I kind of bloomed late,” Young said. “So, I didn’t get a lot of attention. But I knew I wanted to go to an engineering school and I knew I wanted to be away from home.”


The Young family rarely went on vacation, other than to see family. But in late July of 2017, the Youngs rented a cabin at Lake Cumberland in south-central Kentucky for the weekend. Emily received a phone call from an unfamiliar number and stepped outside to get reception. It was Allister. 


“I just got a job at Stanford,” Allister said. “Is that something that would interest you?”


“You’re joking!” Young responded. “Yeah, that would interest me.”


Looking back, “I didn’t even think about Stanford as an option,” Young said. “To this day, I don’t know how they decided to recruit me. But I knew what Coach Allister had done at Minnesota. I knew she was an incredible coach and would change the program around. I remember that phone call very vividly.”


Allister wasn’t looking for saviors. “We were just trying to up the talent level of the program,” she said. “At that point, it was clear to me that those three players upped the talent level in the program. Early on in a rebuild process, you don’t have to see as much or take as much time. Do they make us better? Yes. Let’s move along.”


On November 8, Stanford announced the signings of five to National Letters of Intent and the class would grow to seven: Gindlesperger, Schultz, Young, utility Kate Cressey, infielder Emily Klingaman, outfielder Hannah Matteson, and pitcher Molly Millar.

 
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FOUR FRESHMEN WOULD start a majority of games that 2019 season – Gindlesperger in center, Klingaman at second, Young at short, and Schultz in the outfield and as the designated player. The team improved by nine victories – 24 to 33 – and by five in conference. 


Long before Young would be described as “our rock,” by Gindlesperger, there was no guarantee she would start a game at short, never mind embark on a Cal Ripken-like hold on the position. Listed as “utility” on the roster, Young began as the third-string catcher, and played some outfield and both middle infield positions throughout the fall. 


“It was chaos,” she said. “I was running around all practice and didn’t know what I was doing.”

 

The team was short on middle infielders, but second base felt awkward. 


“The first day of practice, we were moving everybody around a little bit to see what it looks like,” Allister said. “And it became apparent that she was the best athlete on the team. Great hands, great feet, a great arm. 


“We realized that she was going to be our best option at shortstop. And she wasn’t scared. A lot of the people have come into the Pac-12 … Wait, you want me to play where? That would be daunting to them. It wasn’t daunting to her. She has tremendous self belief and the work ethic to back it up.”


Merchant made Young her project. Incumbent shortstop Kristina Inouye shifted to third base and offered her support to the freshman who took her position. 


“We believe in our ability to develop players,” Allister said. “If we get phenomenal athletes that maybe haven’t trained year-round, and they get in the system, they’re going to continue to improve. We believe we can do that.”


In their first game, against Bradley at the Kajikawa Classic at Arizona State, Schultz walked as a pinch hitter. Gindlesperger, at No. 2 in the order, walked and scored a run. Young had two hits – leading off the fourth with a single to ignite a three-run inning and singled in the seventh to help fuel a tiebreaking four-run rally in an 8-4 victory.


The improvement was profound. When Stanford beat Cal in Berkeley on March 24, 2019, it marked the first series won by Stanford in Pac-12 play in six years.


“We were all dancing because we won the series,” Schultz said. “And I looked over at Whitney Burks, a fifth-year senior first baseman who I played behind and really looked up to … and she was crying.


“To me, it was, yeah, we won a game. It felt normal. But for her, it was the first Pac-12 series she’d won in her career. It meant everything. I think about that a lot … how we’ve come so far.”


Stanford went on to its first NCAA regional since 2013. When the Cardinal walked off the field in Lincoln, Nebraska, after being eliminated by Boise State, Schultz remembers Allister telling her, “We’re going to be back here. I want you to remember what this feels like.”


Indeed, Stanford’s been back ever since. Last season, the Cardinal reached the super regional, one step from the College World Series.

As a sophomore, Schultz settled in at first base and her defense has been to Young’s benefit. “She’s saved my life many times at first base with her long reach and hands,” Young said. “I’ll just tell her, ‘I was testing your range!’” 


“Schultz is a goofball,” Gindlesperger said. “She constantly makes everyone laugh. But, she’s also responsible. She’s someone that everyone on the team can call at any time. If they need a ride, or help with something, she wants to be that person. If anything’s going on, it’s like, tell Schultz.”


For Gindlesperger, the results did not immediately come and she began to press, and even panic. She lost her confidence and played herself out of the lineup. She hit only .167 with one extra-base hit.

“Even then, I could feel the confidence Coach Allister had in me,” Gindlesperger said. “She always believed in me.”


Seeking to remove the pressure Gindlesperger put on herself, Allister used a midweek early-April game at Santa Clara to build her confidence. Placed at No. 9 in the order and with Stanford staked to a big early lead, Gindlesperger singled in the third and blasted an over-the-fence grand slam in the fourth. 


“We were just trying to get her going,” Allister said. “She hadn’t had an at-bat like that in two months. And then she just continued to have good at-bats and continued to play herself back in the lineup by regionals. She got off to a crazy hot start the next year and she’s been phenomenal ever since.”


In the field, Gindlesperger excels. She hasn’t made an error since 2021. She rarely has to make a spectacular play because she’s always in great position. 


“Taylor is the best outfielder in the country,” Young said. “She definitely does not get enough credit. For everyone else, they’re diving catches in the outfield. But for Taylor, they’re just easy.”


And her baserunning …  


“She’s arguably the best baserunner in the country,” Young said. “She hits the ball … you blink, she’s on second. You blink, she’s diving into third.”


“I love baserunning, that’s my favorite part,” said Gindlesperger, who hit three inside-the-park homers in 2022. “I love making the defense make plays. Even if I just hit a single, I like trying to stretch it out to a double, even if it’s in front of the outfielder.”


Her experience as an outfielder helps her judgment on the basepaths. She knows the angles an outfielder would take and what throws are difficult from those angles. Yes, the ball theoretically should get to the base in time, but will the throw be hurried or off-target because of Gindlesperger’s aggressiveness? She challenges the opponent to find out. 


“Stealing bases, going first and third … Her instincts …” Allister marveled. “She’s able to make decisions going full speed. I mean, she is the best baserunner I’ve ever coached.”


As their collegiate careers wind down, their futures start to take shape. Gindlesperger graduated last year in science, technology, and society, with a concentration in communication in media. If Stanford reaches the CWS, softball and her thesis deadline conflict. She is earning a master’s of communication with a concentration in media studies. Her project: How algorithms influence political identity and polarization.


“I’m currently very stressed out,” she said. 


Schultz already has fulfilled the requirements for her degree in human biology. She’s in the process of applying to med school. Stanford turned out to be a great fit.


“Stanford just made perfect sense,” she said. “I’ve had so many connections and opportunities and things that I’ve done that are going to help me. I don’t think I could have gone anywhere else.”


Young, who came into the program with “zero expectations,” is graduating with a degree in aeronautics and astronautics. 


“I want to be a pilot,” she said. “I still haven’t decided how I’m going to do that yet, whether I take the military or commercial route. I’ll figure it out eventually.”


At practice, you can see what makes Allister such a successful coach. The team plays hard, the staff, including pitching coach Tori Nyberg, push and test the players each day. The freshman bought into that work ethic, matched it, and exceeded it.


“Those three were from Day One willing to put in the work and believed in what Stanford softball could be,” Allister said. “I am proud to be their coach and immensely grateful for what they’ve given to the program.”


With the level of pitching Stanford has – freshman NiJaree Canady, junior Regan Krause, and senior Alana Vawter have combined for every decision on a staff that has a 1.61 ERA – the time is now for the Cardinal to emerge as a national threat. 

It was going to happen. It seemed inevitable. But it had to start somewhere, like in the summer of 2017. Allister struck gold and Stanford softball will be forever grateful.

 
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