SIU softball’s junior catcher Sydney Potter made her way behind home plate at Charlotte West Stadium on Friday, March 6, for her first official game in Carbondale, but she had already made her mark in the minds of the Saluki faithful.

“She’s not a big on-field personality, she speaks with her actions,” Saluki head coach Jen Sewell said in an interview with the Daily Egyptian. Potter’s actions this season have already included towering home runs and throwing out baserunners on defense.

After missing out on recruiting Potter out of high school, Sewell was ecstatic to have another shot at bringing her to Carbondale once Potter entered the transfer portal this past summer.

“Once you recruit a kid and lose them to somewhere else, you always have them in the back of your mind, keeping a list of people that might come back around,” Sewell said. “I thought what we were looking for and what she was looking for, culturally, were perfect fits.”

Potter knew SIU was where she wanted to play once she came to Carbondale for a visit.

“I had some visits lined up after (SIU) I ended up cancelling, just because I really enjoyed my visit here,” she said.

After only one weekend in a Saluki uniform, Potter had already received three individual accolades. She won the Missouri Valley Conference’s Player and Newcomer of the Week awards, along with D1Softball’s Mid-Major Player of the Week.

She won those accolades after hitting a home run in all five games of the Florida Gulf Coast University Kickoff Classic and catching all weekend. Being able to get back to catching was a big part of why Potter left Creighton — where she played the past two years — for SIU.

“I caught all through high school, that’s what I was wanting to do in college, unfortunately that wasn’t the role Creighton needed me to play,” she said to the DE. “To be able to come here and be catching as much as I have has been a lot of fun and it’s definitely increased my love for the game, being able to go back to the position I love to play.”

Potter has made a difference behind the dish for the Dawgs so far this year, getting pitchers strikes they might not get with a different catcher.

“She’s an elite receiver, she fools us sometimes,” Sewell said. “I think we were a bit shocked with how good, defensively, she was.”

According to Potter, the connection between her and the pitchers off the field has been a huge reason she’s been so successful defensively.

“Becoming friends outside of the sport I feel like definitely helps us on the field because I now know what makes them tick and what gets them fired up, ” she said.

“(Potter)’s good at telling me what I need to hear,” pitcher Hailey Lucas said. “She always makes me smile and laugh to reset my mind before the next pitch.”

Even with how impressive Potter has been on the defensive side of the game, her offense is what drew Sewell to her in the first place.

“She’s pretty obvious on film,” Sewell said. “You have to hit the ball pretty hard for it to show up (on film).”

Potter has lit up scoreboards across North America early on this season, already tallying 11 home runs and 18 runs batted in to go along with a .319 batting average through 22 games.

“I feel like this has been the best my swing has felt, like ever, since I’ve started playing softball,” Potter said.

Potter’s swing is largely where it is thanks to coaching from Sewell and the rest of the coaching staff, according to Potter herself, but not before Sewell studied her swing all fall.

“It felt like she was seeing me as an individual player instead of trying to morph the whole team into one specific swing,” Potter said.

Softball America took notice of how well Potter played in February, and named her the fifth-best catcher in all of college softball heading into March, and Sewell doesn’t think the awards will stop there.

“Obviously I think she’ll be a candidate for some big awards at the end of the year,” Sewell said.

Potter, on the other hand, isn’t worried about awards at the moment.

“I try not to put specific expectations on myself. I try more to focus on how I’m feeling with my swing and keeping myself healthy,” she said.

One thing they can both agree on: How badly Potter wants to win an MVC title.

“I think what she wants more than anything is a championship,” Sewell said.

Potter agreed, saying it’s something everyone in the program expects.

“I definitely think we are capable of winning the conference outright,” Potter added. “I think that’s the standard coaches have for us.” 

Sports reporter Eli Hoover can be found at [email protected] or on Instagram @hoovermakesart

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