Lindsay Friedman

Classroom

With a major in biology and a minor in psychology, Friedman completed the fall 2014 semester with a 3.785 cumulative grade-point average—a mark that was bolstered by a 3.9 GPA in each of her last two semesters. She is a three-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Scholar-Athlete, and last season she was selected to the Atlantic 10 Conference Softball All-Academic team. Friedman has made the A-10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll (minimum 3.5 GPA) every semester and the Saint Louis Dean’s List every semester.

Character

Friedman understands and fully embraces her role as an ambassador of Saint Louis University and its softball program. She has spoken at several public events on behalf of fellow student-athletes about the privilege of being a SLU student-athlete, and she always is effusive in her thanks to the community for its support in her development.

Most student-athletes work hard balancing academic and athletic schedules, but what separates Friedman is that she includes service as part of the necessary balance of a student-athlete, which for her includes being a pre-med biology major, starting center fielder and the team leader in service hours. During her summer and Christmas breaks, Friedman has served overseas in underserved communities that need medical attention. She also has spent entire weekends during a semester—again, in her free time—working as a counselor at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp. She is strong in her faith, and she shares freely with others. She also organizes and encourages her teammates to join her in community service projects.

Friedman enthusiastically helps her teammates with their biology classes, and she tutors other SLU student-athletes as part of our academic services department. She also is a driven competitor who pushes her teammates to challenge themselves and helps the team in any way. For example, she is the starting center fielder but will catch in the bullpen if the team is short a catcher. At times, freshmen have turned to her when struggling, and she pushes them but also gives them perspective in their development process.

Community

Community service is a major component in the lives of most Saint Louis student-athletes, and Friedman has been among the leaders in this area throughout her Billiken career. Despite the academic rigors of a fourth-year biology major, plus off-season training obligations, she led the team in contributing almost 80 community service hours last fall. Additionally, she traveled overseas during the Christmas break to help provide basic medical assistance in underserved areas.

Friedman spent 33 hours alone working at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes weekend camp, sharing her faith with a group of high school female athletes. She counts this experience as the one she enjoyed the most. Friedman contributed 29 hours, mostly during Sunday afternoons, to Campus Kitchen, preparing meals for and interacting with the homeless, those in government housing and the elderly. Friedman contributed six hours to SLU’s university-wide day of service, Make A Difference Day, working with teammates to remove invasive vines from trees along a riverbank; three hours to SLU’s Dance Marathon, an event that raised $221,000 for children’s hospitals in St. Louis; three hours to the Humane Society in her hometown of Pontiac, Ill., walking dogs and cleaning cat habitats; two hours to SLU Campus Ministry, making sandwiches for people in a homeless shelter; and two hours to the Special Needs Soccer Association, playing soccer with mentally disabled children on Saturday mornings.

Competition

Friedman owns the Saint Louis University career record for home runs, and she ranks among the program’s career top 20 in slugging percentage (second), on-base percentage (second), hit by pitch (second), walks (tied for third), RBIs (fifth), runs (fifth), stolen bases (seventh), batting average (eighth), total bases (ninth), sacrifice hits (14th), hits (tied for 18th) and doubles (tied for 20th). As a junior in 2014, she was named First-Team All-Conference, earned all-tournament honors at three tournaments—including the Atlantic 10 Championship—and collected an A-10 Player of the Week award.

Friedman led the team in 15 offensive categories last season including batting average (.346), slugging percentage (school-record .608), on-base percentage (.476), RBIs (35), home runs (school-record nine), runs (school-record 48), walks (school-record 32) and stolen bases (29 in 32 attempts). In addition to her school records, she landed among the top 10 on the Saint Louis single-season charts in numerous other categories including a second-place finish in RBI, on-base percentage and total bases.

A starter in all 51 games, Friedman posted national rankings of 26th in stolen bases per game, 46th in runs per game and 84th in walks per game. In the A-10, she ranked second in stolen bases and walks, tied for second in runs, third in on-base percentage, fifth in total bases, tied for fifth in home runs and 15th in batting average. Defensively, the center fielder had nine assists and committed just one error.