The weekend visit to Baton Rouge had reached its conclusion, and Milady Pleasants was driving back home to Houston with her daughter, 13-year-old Taylor, sleeping in the back seat.
Taylor, already a burgeoning name in national softball recruiting circles, entered the weekend believing she probably would choose between Oklahoma or Texas A&M. This is before she ever stepped foot on a high school campus.
But Milady and her husband Chris wanted their daughter to explore what LSU and coach Beth Torina had to offer before completely ruling them out. The persistence of her parents won out.
Lightning cut short the LSU game Taylor was on hand to witness, but such visits entail so much more than the games. There’s the camaraderie that goes into building relationships with the coaching staff and players, and spending time with other recruits.
Tours of the facilities and school are also important to both recruits and their parents, and Milady and her daughter were walking back from the LSU football operations center to the softball field when Taylor sprinted ahead of her mom to catch up with several recruits she met several hours earlier that day.
Torina asked the Pleasants family to come into her office. She explained the significance of having Taylor in her program, and it wasn’t something she read from an index card: It was heartfelt preview of the program’s values and Taylor’s All-American potential.
“It’s great to win,” Milady said. “But it’s also about the soul. Is it in a good place? Are you going to grow as a young lady? With her (Torina), I felt my daughter was in a such a safe place.”
The next day on the trip home, Taylor woke up with a new perspective about her future. Instead of one awash in the red and white of Oklahoma or maroon and gray of Texas A&M, it was a distinct hue of purple and gold.
“She couldn’t stop talking about Beth, LSU, the environment, the team,” Milady said. “She got to meet (former All-American) Bianka Bell and hung out with Carley Hoover. It was such an amazing trip that was not in the plans.”
Building a legacy
The legacy of shortstop Taylor Pleasants at LSU, both on and off the field, is as prominent as her megawatt smile. She laughs now about a college softball future she envisioned somewhere else.
“I was mad at my mom for making me come,” Taylor said of her first unofficial visit to LSU. “I got here and enjoyed the heck out of it and just got a feeling, which I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t go into it expecting to feel that way, but it just happened.”
Pleasants has put the finishing touches on the regular-season portion of her career at Tiger Park, where the team is expected to return to host an NCAA regional. The No. 8-seeded Tigers (38-14) open play at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the SEC tournament against No. 9 Alabama at Jane B. Moore Field at Auburn.
When the discussion turns to the most impactful players in the 30-year history of LSU softball, Pleasants’ name will be mentioned favorably for her on-field production, performance in the classroom and affable nature that’s made her a fan favorite.
“In my time here, I know she’s cemented herself as one of the best we’ve ever had,” said Torina, who’s now the program's winningest coach in her 13th season.
The 6-foot Pleasants has been one of the game’s top all-around shortstops, earning second-team All-America honors along the way to represent the high-water mark in her career. The three-time All-SEC selection has been a proficient hitter, typically in the heart of the team’s batting order. She is capable of hitting for a high average with terrific power and run production.
Her range at shortstop has resulted in some of the team’s most indelible highlight-reel defensive plays. She uncoils her long frame into either hole to snag groundballs, throw on the run with ease or leap into the air to make a difficult play look ordinary.
Pleasants has exhibited the ability to produce in high-leverage situations as evidenced by hitting four walk-off homers in her career, including this year’s solo homer for a 2-1 win over Texas A&M.
“It’s not something I think about before the moment,” Pleasants said. “You practice and play for those moments. Most of those times when those moments happen, I’m usually next to Ali Newland. I’ll say, ‘Hey, this is what we play for.' It’s the kind of moments you create in practice that make the game not feel like such a huge moment.”
Remaining grounded
A humble nature makes Pleasants the ultimate teammate, endearing herself to everyone around her.
“She’s an elite teammate, an elite worker, an elite student, elite for this community,” Torina said. “And then you add that with being the best shortstop in the country, she’s as special as they come.”
Newland, a senior left fielder, has spent the past four years as a teammate and friend of Pleasants.
“It’s the way she prides herself with the letters on the uniform,” Newland said. “She comes here and just does the work all of the time. You wouldn’t know that she’s the star. She works like she’s not. She’s a great example to all of us and the people around her.”
One of the best stories Newland tells of Pleasants was from her first season. It was the first plate appearance of her career and Newland, a pinch hitter, blasted a grand slam during a February game in which ice patches were visible on the field.
“I walked back into the dugout and Taylor Pleasants is waiting for me, gives me this huge hug and nobody was happier for me than her,” Newland said. “Fast-forward to this year and we’re doing media and she’s asked about her favorite memory in Tiger Park. She said my grand slam.
"What an awesome moment of a storied career, and somebody who will be one of the best ever to play here. She remembers some kid’s first at-bat that she barely knew.”
That career includes a .311 batting average, 45 home runs, 210 RBIs, 157 runs scored and a .419 on-base percentage.
Checking the boxes
Pleasants had a layered response about what her future holds.
The straight-A student is halfway home to a master’s degree in kinesiology, the product of receiving a fifth year to play softball because of the pandemic.
She will continue to wear purple and gold, but in the role as a graduate assistant on next year’s coaching staff. It’s an avenue to keep her around the game and program she loves while she determines whether it’s a long-term path she wants to continue.
“I can get my feet wet,” she said about coaching. “You have a huge impact on so many people. I think about how many people coach (Torina) has coached and it’s a lot. To be able to impact that many people and those people being able to impact others.”
Pleasants also has an exit strategy from her playing career, which began at the age of 3. Softball will be a medal sport in the 2028 Paris Olympics, and Pleasants has set her sights on making the team.
Pleasants has previous experience with USA Softball, earning gold medals in the 2022 World Cup Games and WBSC U19 Softball World Cup in 2019. She also represented the United States in the Japan All-Star series, Canada Cup, USA Softball International Cup and U.S. Junior National team.
“Hopefully, that would be my last year playing,” Pleasants said. “That would be a great way to end it. Go to the Olympics, win the gold medal and be done, and then continue to coach.”
‘We’re very proud ...’
Pleasants initially had her heart set on becoming LSU’s second four-time All-American, following the path set forth by former LSU great Sahvanna Jaquish before her.
It hasn't always been a smooth ride, though. There have been offensive struggles, particularly this season, as the result of being earmarked by the opposition. And a painful abdomen injury last season required Pleasants to temper her expectations.
“My new goal was to just be a great defender,” Pleasants said. “Hopefully, that’s still in sight.”
There isn’t a hint of remorse in Pleasants’ voice about her college choice. She realizes she could have been a multitime national champion had she gone to Oklahoma, but it’s not a feeling that supersedes the comfort she has in the life lessons achieved, the relationships gained and the person she’s become at LSU.
“When she was 14, and playing in California, (former LSU pitcher) Mary Beth Gorsuch’s dad said LSU is the place she will become a woman,” Milady Pleasants said. “He said this is the place where you don’t have to worry about her, Beth’s got this. I have not forgotten those words.
"We’re very proud of the choice she made. Win, lose or draw, it’s LSU forever.”