Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

FORT DODGE – Dani Laughlin has always expected a lot of herself as a hitter.

However, the Regina senior outfielder never made a habit of setting goals based on statistics.

Instead, the objective for Laughlin was to do what was needed to win games.

After helping Regina to the 2A state title last season as a junior a second consecutive state title was at the top of the goal list for Laughlin in her senior season.

“My main goal was to win a state championship,” Laughlin said. “I obviously have high expectations for myself as a hitter, I know I can do it, but I’ve never said I want to hit .500 or hit .600, I’ve just always wanted to do what I can to help the team and it just happens to be hitting a high average.”

Laughlin achieved her goal last week leading Regina to the first back-to-back state titles in program history while closing an impressive prep career with her best individual season.

A Texas State recruit, Laughlin led Class 2A and ranked fourth in the state with a .604 batting average while helping the Regals to a 30-8 record and a second consecutive 2A title.

“We said last year that we were going to win this again our senior year,” Laughlin said. “We didn’t really mention it during the season because we had to focus on the now but when postseason came and got to state we were one step closer and when we got here we knew we could do it.”

Laughlin was impressive all season leading Regina with a .658 on-base percentage, four triples and 36 stolen bases to go with her .604 batting average.

She ranked second on the team with 49 runs and a .708 slugging percentage and drove in 19 runs.

“Dani has done an excellent job at the plate and the great thing is (leadoff hitter) Avery (Kies) and her feed off of each other,” Regina coach Angela Kessler said. “I knew when Avery got on we were scoring a run.”

A .573 hitter at Regina the past two seasons, Laughlin batted .500 in 40 at bats as a junior last summer.

This season Laughlin was even better.

“I’ve worked on hard slapping,” Laughlin said. “Punching it through the infield, this season I was good at those line drives over short stop. I think that’s not something I’ve been the best at but I’ve worked all off season and all season it came together when it mattered.”

Laughlin showed her array of hitting skills at the state tournament when she went 6-for-11 with five runs scored and two RBI.

She had an RBI triple in a 4-3 quarterfinal win over Northeast.

“That’s what college level coaches want is someone that can hit the fence in the air and bunt or drive it past that five six hole,” Kessler said. “She does all of that really well.”

Laughlin had a hit in all three state tournament wins for the Regals last week at Rogers Sports Complex in Fort Dodge.

She was 4-for-4 with four runs scored in 13-1 semifinal win over Interstate 35 and had a hit and scored a run in a 6-2 win over second-ranked Van Meter in the 2A title game.

Laughlin was one of our Regina players on the Class 2A all-tournament team.

“Last year was cool in that we were unexpected but this year I think we proved to everyone that we were the number one team,” Laughlin said. “This really just proved everyone that we were the best team this year.”

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