Third base feels right this time

Already known as the hot corner, third base was something like a jalapeño pepper slathered in a blazing sauce for St. Anthony Village softball player Allison Schmidtbauer, who for the past two years made her season debuts at third base in the state tournament.

As a sophomore in 2006, Schmidtbauer epitomized the Huskies' jitters by making multiple errors in their 11-0, five-inning loss to eventual state champion Winona Cotter in the Class 2A tournament quarterfinals.

Injuries pressed her back into service at third base last season when the Huskies returned to the state tournament. Though shaken by an early error, Schmidtbauer recovered and helped her Huskies all the way to the championship game, where they lost 1-0 to Pipestone in 17 innings.

Now a senior scheduled to be the Huskies' everyday third baseman, Schmidtbauer spoke with Star Tribune reporter David La Vaque about coming of age at third base, helping St. Anthony Village to a pair of state tournaments and her outlook for this season.

Q How difficult is it to take second at the state tournament knowing you have so far to go to come back and finish things this season?

A We try to use it to motivate us. We want to prove we can do it all again. It'll take a lot of hard work and we'll have to get to know the new players, but we have the whole season ahead. Now that we're winning there's a lot of motivation to keep our name out there.

Q Talk about your experiences playing third base.

A I actually played second base when I first made varsity. Then the first year we went to state, Coach said, 'Hey, you're going to play third base.' And I'm like, 'Hey, I never even practiced at third base.' I think he moved Jenny [Fabian] to second base because other teams weren't pulling the ball off Rose [Tusa]. But Winona Cotter was able to pull the ball in that first game.

Q I heard it was a long day for you.

A I made a bunch of errors at third base against Winona Cotter. So then, the next year at state, Jenny got hurt and Coach told me I was going back to third base. I'm like, 'Again?' I was intimidated by third base because you're so close to the batter.

And I made an error right away in the first game last year at state. But I told myself I wasn't going to screw up the game for us this time and things went better after that. Now I love third base.

Q The way you lost to Pipestone had to hurt.

A There were a lot of tears after that game, and it started out as a quiet bus ride home. But then we said, 'We still took second and we did better than the year before.' We had three solid games. Even the last game, which we lost, was one of the best games I ever played in. We held our ground as well as we could.

Q You have been part of the best era of St. Anthony Village softball, and you still have your senior year to go. What are you and the seniors talking about in terms of your goals?

A We talk about practicing hard so that the younger girls see how to make it happen. If they mess up in practice, I always tell him, 'Hey, I blew the state tournament for us. It can only get better.' You can't get down on yourself because everybody makes errors.

We feel we have a great team with a lot of potential. And I think the whole team wants it as much as the seniors.