Freeport grad Allison Dejidas closes out decorated career with Mercyhurst softball team

Allison Dejidas was facing the end of her softball career. With her Mercyhurst team down 3-1 to Bloomsburg in the seventh inning of a PSAC Tournament elimination game, the senior came to the plate with two runners on and two outs.

Dejidas singled up the middle to load the bases and keep the Lakers’ hopes alive.

But Mercyhurst couldn’t push any more runs across and bowed out of the tournament after a season that produced a program-record 34 wins. That Dejidas got a hit in her final collegiate at-bat seemed fitting. After all, it was her offense that was such a big part of what the Lakers accomplished.

“Just seeing it come to an end was definitely super hard,” the Freeport grad said. “But I was glad to be able to end it at Mercyhurst with the girls that I had and be able to end it how I did personally.”

Personally, Dejidas couldn’t have scripted a better ending. Consider she:

• was named first-team All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.

• was named PSAC West Athlete of the Year.

• set the program’s single-season home run record with 15 and the career record with 32.

• hit a team-best .432 and also led the Lakers in on-base percentage (.498), slugging (.728), OPS (1.282), doubles (17) and RBIs (68).

• ranked in the top five in the PSAC in batting average (fifth), on-base percentage (fifth), slugging (third), OPS (third), homers (tied for first), doubles (fourth) and RBIs (first).

“Honestly, it’s just all my hard work showing,” Dejidas said. “All that work I did behind closed doors that nobody knew about. … Going into this season, I knew that this was my last season, so this was it. I’m just going to go out there and have fun, and what happens, happens.

“I’m going to go out and do the thing that I love the most and have fun with it.”

“Behind closed doors” usually meant the garage door at her family home. Her house has a batting cage in the garage, and Dejidas took countless swings over the offseason. She also adhered to a strict lifting program to prepare her body for the rigors of another season.

And she needed it. Dejidas played more than 150 games with the Lakers and started all but two of them. She started all 55 games in 2023.

That work ethic is just one of Dejidas’ qualities that impressed coach Leanne Baker so much.

Baker, who just completed her 11th season at the helm, said she “could go on all day” about the impact Dejidas made on the program.

It probably is no coincidence that, over Dejidas’ final two years, Mercyhurst produced back-to-back seasons of at least 32 wins. And over her four seasons, the Lakers went from PSAC also-rans to legitimate contenders.

In the four seasons before Dejidas’ arrival, Mercyhurst didn’t win more than 16 games in a season. In the two seasons immediately before Dejidas’ freshman campaign of 2020, Mercyhurst won a combined 17 games and only eight in conference.

“She had an enormous impact on the Lakers softball team over her four years,” Baker told the Trib via email. “She loves the game and her team, and that showed over her time here.

“She was always upbeat, supportive, competitive and an extremely hard worker. … She will be greatly missed, and we are all better people because she was part of our program for four years.”

The team’s appreciation of Dejidas’ efforts was evident. After the Lakers’ game against Kutztown on May 5 — the one during which she set the program single-season home run record — Baker had the players sit down on the bus, and the coach proceeded to toss her the ball in recognition of the accomplishment.

“The whole bus went crazy,” Dejidas said.

For Dejidas, the appreciation is mutual. She looks back not so much on all of her individual accomplishments but rather what the Lakers achieved as a team in elevating the program’s stature.

“Just being able to make the history that we did,” she said. “The group that I came in with, Mercyhurst had a losing record, and they struggled for many years. Our team came in, and we were able to make history multiple times: by making the PSAC Tournament for the first time in how many years, have the single-season win record, make it the furthest any team has made it — the NCAA Tournament last year — and no one has ever done that.”

Dejidas could take one more year to add to her accolades and the program’s. She has “bonus” eligibility available because of having her freshman season shut down by the pandemic. But she was accepted into Pitt’s doctor of physical therapy program, a highly demanding discipline that will require all of her attention.

However, softball will remain a part of her life. She is helping her younger sister, Abby, a rising senior at Freeport, prepare for her softball future.

She is teaching softball lessons, and she definitely sees coaching in her future.

As for her past, Dejidas said she can walk away from the game satisfied with what she accomplished.

“I definitely don’t regret anything, and I don’t regret my decision to go to Mercyhurst,” she said. “If I was to go back and do it again, I would do the same thing, 110%. I had the best possible experience with so many great teammates. And coach Baker, I cannot say enough about her.

“I would not change a thing.”