Krystina Leazer laughs while going over a story that, at the time, was not particularly funny. She laughs several times while telling it, in fact.

           It was just about 14 months ago that Leazer, then a freshman right-handed pitcher for the Carthage softball team, made her collegiate debut in relief of Kelsey Epping.

           The site: Kissimmee, Fla.

           The opponent: Benedictine (Ill.)

           The result: “It was horrible,” Leazer says.

           The gory details: Aside from the fact Carthage lost, 6-5, not necessary.

           Coach Amy Gillmore's perspective on Leazer's debut is — as it should be — more forgiving and objective.

           “I'm sure she probably described it in a little bit different way,” Gillmore says. “But we had a lead when I took Kelsey out of the game to put her in just to kind of get her feet wet. I think it was just nerves. Her first collegiate game. Little bit wild, definitely kind of (leaving her pitches) right down the middle. In one way, it kind of helped her out to realize that 'this is the next level, and I do have to hit my spots, and these hitters can adjust a lot quicker than high school hitters.'
           “She did fine.”

           It took two weeks and three additional relief appearances before Leazer made her first start, in the second game of doubleheader against Coe on March 21 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She went the distance, earning a complete-game victory thanks to an eight-run seventh inning that gave the Lady Reds a 14-6 victory. At the end of the season, Leazer was the No. 2 starter and compiled an 11-3 record, 2.82 earned run average and 77 strikeouts in 119 1/3 innings for a team that reached the NCAA Division III tournament for the second time in the history of the program.

 

           “I learned it really fast that hitting spots is definitely important,” Leazer says. “I learned that really fast. Definitely important to hit my spots. I definitely can't just blow it past them any more.”

           When it was suggested going back to that first game was perhaps a little too negative, Leazer would hearing nothing of it.

           “No, that's OK,” she says. “It was a good learning experience. We joke about it all the time.”

           Opponents are not finding much to laugh about. Going into the CCIW tournament in Decatur, Ill., which begins Thursday when the second-seeded Lady Reds meet third-seeded North Central in the opening game of the double-elimination affair, Leazer (17-7) is one victory shy of the school record of 18 set by Amanda Leitzen in 2005. As of May 1, She led the CCIW in appearances (29), wins (17), innings pitched (152), strikeouts (177), strikeouts looking (56), and was second in earned run average (1.80) and opponent's batting average (.230). In NCAA Division III statistics as of May 1, Leazer was ninth with eight shutouts, 14th in strikeouts and 18th in victories.

           Those numbers show she is a very big key to the Lady Reds' second-place finish in the CCIW. The coaches poll projected them fifth.

           “She has definitely taken a huge step,” Gillmore says. “Coming in as a freshman, 11-3 last year, she was able to just make the switch I think quicker than most people do. The nice part for her was she actually could go (pitch) game two and not all the pressure was put on her immediately. Just her being able to kind of sit back and learn and go from there to being able to make that step up this year to being the No. 1 pitcher.”

           Gillmore has found a good deal of good pitchers in her 14 years at Carthage. Look at the top eight all-time in pitching wins: Leitzen (50), Teri Green (48), Epping (47), Shannon Gysberg (44), Allie Benthusen (36), Amy Nelson (31), Christa Goetz (30) and Leazer (28). All have pitched for Gillmore.

           “To be perfectly honest with you, in my time at Carthage we've been very lucky, where most of the time we've had at least one if not two dominating pitchers,” Gillmore says. “Obviously, you're going out recruiting, but there's a lot that goes into the recruiting process, especially when it comes down to financial aid; Division III, you can't give athletic scholarships. Some of it is, they look at the campus, they like their major, they like the softball program, you hope you can get them that way, but you never know. We've really lucked out and at had least one pretty good pitcher back-to-back-to-back. When one graduates, one's there to step up and take the place of the pitcher who had been there.

           “I don't think it's oversimplifying it. Every team would love to have a Krystina Leazer, or a Kelsey Epping. We've just been very lucky in the fact that we've kept at least one good pitcher, year in and year out.”

 

           What does Gillmore look for when watching pitchers?

           “Realistically, you want somebody who can hit their targets,” Gillmore says. “The high school level, you can overpower people if you just have a fastball. But when you get to the next level, you actually need different pitches and be able to hit the spot. Just somebody who has a little bit more control who can put the ball where the catcher sets up the glove and somebody who is a competitor.”

           Gillmore seems to have saved the most important quality for last: competitiveness. That is the one thing that comes from within and can not be taught. She could see Leazer had it.

           “I saw her in her summer league, probably three or four times,” Gillmore says. “She was more speed when it came to high school. She could blow it by the people more or less when she was at the high school level. You could see that she was a competitor out on the field. Kind of went more by that than everything else.”

           Gillmore sees that competitiveness when Leazer gets into a jam. She sees her pitcher move into that hard to describe frame of mind known as “the zone.”

           “She tells me that all the time,” says Leazer, a sport and exercise major who has made appearances on the dean's list and the athletic director's honor roll. “I just kind of get, like she says, in my zone, where I don't hear cheering, I don't hear the other team. I'm just focused on me and (catcher) Alyse (Mikolas), and I just think about each pitch and what I want to throw. I am in the zone. I don't really hear anything else going on.”

           What Leazer did hear, and what she did see, was how Epping handled herself last season as a senior when she was a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All Great Lakes Regional selection and all-CCIW pick.

           “You couldn't find a better person who was the first to practice, the last to leave,” Gillmore says of Epping. “She worked constantly. She was in there when we didn't even have practice, just trying to get better, work harder, get her pitches to do what they needed to do. Krystina obviously saw that last year as a freshmen, and they probably talked on the side. It not something where I said, 'Hey Kelsey ...' Kelsey was just the kind of person that would take Krystina under her wing, and said, 'In this situation, this is something I do' or 'You know what? Just kind of step up and be a leader and go from there. You have all of the God-given tools, go use them.' ”

           Leazer says she learned a lot while watching the manner in which Epping went about her business.

           “Kelsey was such a good role model for me,” says Leazer, whose strikeout total shows she still has a pretty good fastball. “She had been doing this for so long. She was really helpful. She was just kind of helping with little things, just kind of giving me a heads up, because I was going to be in her spot this year. Like when to warm up, or what pitches to throw. She was a huge help. She got me comfortable for this year and preparing me for what I was going to be up against.”

 

           There was a lot on the plate for Leazer at the start of this season. She was expected to step into the No. 1 starter's role. Maybe there was not as much pressure because the Lady Reds graduated seven starters after last season and in 2011 have a roster that includes only two seniors and three juniors.

           “It kind of forced me to grow up a little bit quicker and take the role as a leader, especially since we graduated a lot of seniors, and we're a lot younger of a team this year,” says Leazer, who has been named CCIW "Pitcher of the Week" twice this season. “It wasn't that hard, because like I said, Kelsey definitely prepared me for it. I had seen her do it. Yeah, I feel a little bit older, but I'm excited to still have to have two more years to keep growing.”

           Leazer says she has seven pitches in her repertoire: fastball, curve, drop curve, screwball, changeup, drop and rise. To show how much she has matured, she has turned what many believe to be the conventional thinking about pitching upside down. Just think about the fact almost one in three of her strikeouts come on called third strikes.

           “I love when the changeup gets them,” Leazer says. “So fooling them is a little bit more fun. But I feel a little bit more accomplished when I hit the spot.”
           So, in high school, you wanted to overpower teams, and now that is like third on the list?

           “Yeah,” Leazer says. “Yeah, I'd say so.”

           What kind of laptop computer do you have, and why?: “I have a Mac. I just like them because we always had Apples in my schools. I love it because it has so many applications and stuff that other computers don't have, and it's a good size to carry to class.”

           Your favorite musical group: “That's a hard one. I'm going to have to say Rascal Flatts. I love country music, and I saw them twice in concert last year and it was amazing.”

           Three famous people you would like to have dinner with: “Jennie Finch (2004 gold medal and 2008 silver winner in Olympics; ). I love her. I just love what she's done for the game of softball. She made it more well known. She changed it for everybody. I'd just want to hear how much she pitched a week, or who she took lessons from, or what she did when she was younger and how she got to be as good as she is. JK Rowling; I love the Harry Potter series. Chad Michael Murray. He's my favorite actor.”

           A class at Carthage you would suggest taking: “One of my favorite classes right now is Adaptive Aspects of Exercise and Sport Science. I'm an exercise and sport science major, and I've always thought about being a special ed major, too, but I never did end up doing it, but the class teaches you what to do in a situation if you had a disabled student in your class. It was really interesting.

           Favorite thing about Carthage: “I really like the facilities, and how the campus is just so pretty, and it's on the lake. And it's kind of close to my home (Des Plaines, Ill.).”