With a single, unadulterated statement, Lisaira Daniels was a softball player again.

‘I’m coming to Syracuse,’ Daniels blurted out to her mother, her sister and her soon-to-be coach, Leigh Ross, over dinner. None of the three knew the then-sophomore had already made up her mind.

Daniels didn’t want the tension and awkwardness of another recruiting process this time around. If she was going to restart her softball career, she needed to feel something she rarely felt during her freshman season at Georgia: a sense of belonging.

She found it during a visit to Central New York. A thousand miles away from where she grew up, Daniels finally felt at home at SU.

‘For the first time, I felt like I was more than just a number,’ Daniels said. ‘I wouldn’t trade my time at Georgia for anything, but it’s not strictly softball here. I fell in love with it right away.’

Through texts and Facebook chats, Daniels said her former Georgia teammates and coaches have followed her second act. Daniels made her presence felt immediately after transferring to SU in 2010, hitting a team-high .370. The outfielder led SU in batting again last season and has started every game in her career for the Orange.

This season, Daniels is the lone player hitting above .300 and ranks in the top five in the Big East for batting average, hits, runs scored, stolen bases and total bases. With Daniels leading the way the last three seasons, the Orange has won two Big East tournament titles and has earned its first-ever win in the NCAA tournament.

Daniels nearly gave up the game after a roller-coaster experience at Georgia. But now that she has resurrected her career at SU, that one-year stop with the Bulldogs seems like a lifetime ago.

***

Shirley Daniels tried to understand her older sister’s decision, but it wasn’t easy. Most of her high school teammates dreamed of playing softball for Georgia, a two-hour drive from their hometown of Newnan, Ga.

Leaving after the best season in Bulldogs history was unfathomable to them.

‘I was shocked when she told me,’ Shirley Daniels said. ‘Where we grew up, Georgia softball was a big deal. Players don’t just walk away from that team.’

Especially players that had a first year like Daniels. As a freshman, she started all but six games in right field for the Bulldogs, hitting .309 at the bottom of the Georgia lineup. And more impressively, Georgia rose to the No. 4 ranking in the country and clinched its first-ever College World Series berth.

From the outside looking in, everything was perfect for Daniels at Georgia. But Daniels had reason to worry.

Daniels’ mother, Lisette, said Georgia was dragging its feet on offering her daughter a full scholarship – something the Bulldogs avoided during Daniels’ freshman season because of how late she signed in the recruiting process.

To solve the problem, Lisette Daniels said Georgia bounced around the idea of having Daniels switch majors.

‘That made Sai (Lisaira) feel a little uncomfortable,’ Lisette Daniels said. ‘Because she sees herself as a student first and an athlete second.’

When Georgia started grooming potential outfield replacements, Daniels said she was fed up. She had raised her game to an SEC-level caliber of play, but still longed for some security on the team.

‘Obviously coaches want to find the next best thing,’ Daniels said. ‘For me, when you have people producing on the field and giving it everything they’ve got, they need to know they’re getting the support they deserve. I love everyone at Georgia, and we’re still close, but I had to make a change in my life.’

Daniels decided that change was quitting softball for good and focusing on earning a nursing degree. She asked for her release from the program soon after.

‘It was shocking at first. We never want to lose that caliber of player and that caliber of person,’ said Georgia head coach Lu Harris-Champer. ‘But in the end, Sai had to do what felt right for her and her family.’

***

On the local recruiting trail, Syracuse hitting coach Wally King met Le Moyne head coach Christina Plew-Whitlock, who worked with Daniels as her personal hitting coach throughout high school and into her freshman year in Georgia.

Whitlock had just accepted her first college head coaching position at Le Moyne, but she didn’t hesitate to play matchmaker between SU and her star pupil with College World Series experience. She said she helped Daniels and her mother with the final touches of her release from Georgia. Soon after that, Daniels committed to Syracuse.

‘I felt an immediate family connection,’ Daniels said. ‘Georgia always stressed that I’m a person first, but I really felt it here.’

Ross needed a player like Daniels to take SU softball to the next level. Her 2009 team was a confident, albeit inexperienced group. Adding a proven player like Daniels would push SU in the right direction.

‘It was a chance we couldn’t pass up,’ Ross said. ‘To have a player like that come in from a program like that only makes our program better.’

Before she could help improve SU, though, Daniels would have to get used to Syracuse. In one turbulent semester, she had moved from a school two hours away from home to a school about 1,000 miles away.

‘It was overwhelming to come here,’ Daniels said. ‘The new school, the new team, the snow – everything. I called my mom crying a few times, and I told her I was coming home on the next flight.’

But the promise of the softball season kept Daniels in Syracuse. And another promise, made by then-third baseman Hallie Gibbs on the porch of the softball house, gave Daniels something to look forward to.

‘She said, ‘If you play as well as you can here, we’ll be a damn good team,” Daniels said. ‘And it showed me that while the results weren’t there on the schedule, these girls were confident and they wanted to compete.’

That was the turning point. Daniels bought into the Syracuse program and King’s hitting approach, transforming from a speedy slap hitter to a potent offensive threat.

‘She really needed to buy in before they could use her the right way,’ Plew-Whitlock said. ‘When she did, they really started winning.’

***

Shirley Daniels finally understood her sister’s journey. Playing at Georgia may have been life-changing for Daniels, but her renewed career made her something more than just a Bulldog.

Playing at SU made Daniels happy.

Just like that, Daniels felt like a softball player again. And this time she felt like she was more than just a number.

‘We have a bond here and you can tell on the field,’ Shirley Daniels said. ‘We play for each other, and we have that love for each other.’

Daniels said she isn’t the same player that took the field for Harris-Champer. She said she’s more easy-going, more open to instruction, and as a two-time captain, more mature.

She’s also willing to admit that when her softball career ends, a new opportunity will present itself. After all, when the door at Georgia closed, another one in Syracuse opened. And as Daniels’ career winds down with each game this season, she said she’s thankful that she got that second chance.

‘I wouldn’t be the person I am today without that year in Georgia,’ Daniels said. ‘I’ll worry about what comes next when it comes, but Syracuse is home to me.’

nctoney@syr.edu 

Published on April 19, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nctoney@syr.edu | @nicktoneytweets