{"id":770,"date":"2025-04-08T06:03:17","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T06:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/in-the-face-of-great-expectations-lauren-putz-goes-with-the-flow\/"},"modified":"2025-04-08T06:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T06:03:21","slug":"in-the-face-of-great-expectations-lauren-putz-goes-with-the-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/04\/08\/in-the-face-of-great-expectations-lauren-putz-goes-with-the-flow\/","title":{"rendered":"In the face of great expectations, Lauren Putz goes with the flow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After a softball game about a year ago, then-12-year-old Addison Putz made her way directly to the back row of her mother Kelsey\u2019s car, preemptively anticipating her mother\u2019s wrath.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kelsey was Addison\u2019s softball coach, and Addison hadn\u2019t played as well as she\u2019d hoped. After such a difficult game, her fear of what her mother would say is a fairly common one for young athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But years earlier, Addison\u2019s older sister, now-Michigan freshman first baseman Lauren Putz had a vastly different reaction during her time under Kelsey\u2019s tutelage. She wasn\u2019t afraid of her mother\u2019s reactions, and instead, took each comment and adapted her game off it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s just chill,\u201d Kelsey told The Michigan Daily. \u201c\u2026 It was hard to be a coach\u2019s kid. \u2026 She just took a lot of lumps from me, whether I was mad at her or whether I was mad at other kids on the team. And she is the type of kid who can just sit in the front seat \u2014 you see these memes now on Instagram, with the parents yelling at the kids \u2014 and she could just take it. She just sat there and never tried to argue.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Lauren\u2019s ability to maintain a level head on and off the field in the face of parental frustration differentiated her not just from Addison, but from other children in her position. It was a trait reflective of her general propensity to go with the flow in the face of the great expectations that come with being a highly touted recruit born to Michigan athletics icons.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was always some frustration on my end,\u201d Kelsey said. \u201cAnd you just kind of expect your kids to know what they\u2019re doing, she didn\u2019t always. But I think I had a really high standard, and I never really lowered my standard, and I would just constantly try to teach and explain things to her and and to my team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Being coached by Kelsey was perhaps the first time that the storied legacy of the Putz family, and the expectations of greatness that accompanied it, truly confronted Lauren head-on. But in accordance with Lauren\u2019s carefree personality, she simply took her mother\u2019s tough-love approach to coaching as an opportunity to learn about the importance of consistent improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That easygoing nature and calm personality is a trait that has been Lauren\u2019s biggest asset in her journey to carving out a name for herself as a Wolverine \u2014 despite only being in her first season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">***<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>For the Putz family, the Wilpon Baseball and Softball Complex at Michigan is synonymous with some of the best years of their lives.<\/p>\n<p>Kelsey, a California native, played second base for the Michigan softball team from 1999-2002, earning two NFCA All-American nods. Her time with the Wolverines fell during the 38-year reign of legendary coach Carol Hutchins, with current Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl as an assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During her time at Michigan, Kelsey met her husband J.J., a Michigander who shared her athletic pedigree. J.J. pitched for the Wolverines baseball team from 1996-1999, eventually parlaying his collegiate career into a successful 12-year stint in MLB, split across four different teams. The pinnacle of his professional baseball career, though, was an MLB All-Star selection in 2007 that he earned while playing for the Seattle Mariners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although Kelsey and J.J. eventually settled in Arizona, thousands of miles from Ann Arbor, their ties to Michigan far outlast the time they each spent at the university. J.J. and Kelsey each maintained relationships with the people who made their experiences as Wolverines, with Kelsey even immediately telling Tholl about her eventual pregnancy with Lauren and her twin sister, Kaelyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBesides her own husband, I was the second person that Kelsey called to tell me that they were having a \u2018double-play combination,\u2019 \u201d Tholl told The Daily. \u201cWhich meant that they were having twins. That was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Despite being such a great distance from Michigan, the Putz family still maintained close ties with the programs that shaped them. Hutchins and Tholl both watched the girls grow up, and J.J.\u2019s old baseball teammates were frequent visitors to the Putz household. Being raised by two Michigan greats set expectations high for all of the Putz kids. But those expectations were amplified for Lauren and Kaelyn as the oldest of the four siblings and the first to begin their athletic careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div data-carousel-extra=\"{\" blog_id=\"\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-tiled-gallery aligncenter is-style-rectangular\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<div class=\"tiled-gallery__gallery\">\n<div class=\"tiled-gallery__row\">\n<div class=\"tiled-gallery__col\" style=\"flex-basis:69.17191%\">\n<figure class=\"tiled-gallery__item\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tiled-gallery__col\" style=\"flex-basis:30.82809%\">\n<figure class=\"tiled-gallery__item\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"541304\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/img_0056-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?fit=1067%2C1600&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1067,1600\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_0056\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Courtesy of Kelsey Putz.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?fit=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?fit=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?strip=info&amp;w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?strip=info&amp;w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?strip=info&amp;w=1067&amp;ssl=1 1067w\" alt=\"Lauren Putz on the Michigan Stadium football field with her family.\" data-height=\"1600\" data-id=\"541304\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/img_0056-2\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg\" data-width=\"1067\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_0056.jpg?ssl=1\" data-amp-layout=\"responsive\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open image 2 of 2 in full-screen\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As twins, the two naturally played sports together, like volleyball and softball, but also forged their own unique identities. Kaelyn never quite resonated with softball, drifting towards a volleyball career. Lauren followed in her mother\u2019s footsteps while developing her own connection to the sport, as her outgoing and bubbly nature allowed her to build ties with her teammates and a love for the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lauren\u2019s friendliness and \u201ccarefree\u201d disposition, as her father described, was just another way in which her easy-going personality shone through. By not letting the weight of expectations to emulate her parents or their illustrious friends overpower her, Lauren took it all in stride and lived in the present while inching closer to her future in softball.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">***<\/p>\n<p>Lauren continued to play both softball and volleyball until middle school. But eventually softball won her over. And the community of the sport was ingrained from the get-go.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-4    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Her first coach was, fittingly, her mother, who coached her at the under-12 and under-14 levels. As a former All-American, Kelsey naturally had lofty expectations for her players, which proved to be an early test for a young Lauren.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And the strength of the softball community was even more evident when Lauren continued her softball career beyond her mom\u2019s coaching with the Arizona Storm, coached by Rick Beach, a friend of Kelsey\u2019s from her own travel ball club.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>During her time with the Storm, Lauren formed part of a cohort that included other highly touted prospects, such as UCLA right-hander Kaitlyn Terry, Florida infielder Rylee Holtorf, Alabama right-hander Jocelyn Briski and LSU utility player Sierra Daniel. With the litany of talent on the team, the group went on to achieve a third-place PGF national finish in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At this point, the idea that Lauren was capable of great things within the sport was more than a product of her bloodline, and was also of the caliber of her teammates. But once again, she didn\u2019t balk at the challenge but rather rose to it. In keeping with her carefree nature, she shrugged off the pressure and embraced the opportunity, capturing a 2023 PGF All-American nod for her efforts in securing the third-place finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was very coachable,\u201d Beach told The Daily. \u201cShe had a great softball IQ coming from a baseball and softball family. You could tell her something, and she would pick up on it immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-5    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>In that coachability and willingness to learn, Lauren once more demonstrated the same ease that had permeated her life so far. Not intimidated by the prospect of playing with other equally talented girls, Lauren took yet another opportunity to gain experience at a high level.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lauren applied her coachability and the lessons she learned from both her mother and the Storm to an immensely successful four years at Xavier College Preparatory. Posting a career slash line of .559\/.679\/1.223, to go with 165 hits, 187 runs, 122 RBI and 42 homers, she led her team to three state championships in four years, racked up conference, regional and state player of the year accolades, and topped off her career by being ranked as Extra Innings Softball\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/mgoblue.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/lauren-putz\/26043\">No. 13 prospect<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>By now, the expectations for Lauren were dizzyingly high. But it wasn\u2019t because of who her parents or her teammates were, but rather, who she<em> <\/em>was \u2014 unfazed by pressure, Lauren excelled throughout her young career and set her own expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As her college career loomed in the near future, it seemed, given her lineage, that there was only one real option. But Lauren still explored schools other than Michigan, with Northwestern, Arizona State, Minnesota and Texas A&amp;M all standing out as prospective choices.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, though, she, like her parents, was called to Wilpon Baseball and Softball Complex \u2013 a place it seemed she was always fated to step foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-6    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">***<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"1170\" data-attachment-id=\"541303\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/e147e5e8-bf04-4345-9661-2e3052089ce9\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?fit=1067%2C1600&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1067,1600\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Courtesy of Lauren Putz.&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?fit=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?fit=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1\" onerror=\"if (typeof newspackHandleImageError === 'function') newspackHandleImageError(this);\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"Lauren Putz poses for a photo with her parents.\" class=\"wp-image-541303\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?w=1067&amp;ssl=1 1067w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=780%2C1170&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?resize=400%2C600&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.michigandaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/E147E5E8-BF04-4345-9661-2E3052089CE9.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Courtesy of Lauren Putz.<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lauren has only been a starter for the Wolverines for two months, yet she already has a catchphrase associated with her: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/umichsoftball\/status\/1904657769354973553\">\u201cPutz Power.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Scroll through the official Michigan Softball X account, and you\u2019ll see the phrase pop up quite a few times. It\u2019s what they tweet out every time she hits a home run. And it appears pretty often, because she hits home runs pretty often. In fact, she currently has 11, the second-most of anyone on the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Though power at the plate has clearly been Lauren\u2019s biggest tool thus far, it\u2019s certainly not the only one in her toolbox, as she can lay claim to a slash line of .414\/.508\/.820, alongside 46 hits and 34 RBIs. It\u2019s a stat line indicative of a player with a well-rounded bat, who can consistently make contact for average and generate scoring plays and momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve always been a line-drive hitter,\u201d Lauren told The Daily. \u201cSo I just try to keep that in mind and not try to do too much by hitting the home run every time, which definitely helps me to not be as stressed and looser in the box.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The stakes have never been higher for Lauren than they have this season \u2014 a highly touted recruit, playing for the alma mater of both her parents and playing under a coach who\u2019s known her family her whole life.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But those stakes haven\u2019t fazed her in the slightest, much like very little else has throughout her life. Her presence in the batter\u2019s box fits perfectly with the demeanor she\u2019s employed all her life \u2014 easy going, upbeat, carefree and refusing to dwell heavily on setbacks, instead using them as learning experiences. And just as that temperament led Lauren to wear the maize and blue, it\u2019s enabled her to thrive in it, as she\u2019s emerged as among the Wolverines\u2019 most potent offensive sparks so far.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hate when people say that it\u2019s surreal,\u201d J.J. told The Daily. \u201cBut it really is pretty crazy and really, really cool to see one of your kids at your alma mater doing what she loves, following in her mom\u2019s footsteps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By excelling for Michigan, Lauren is living her parents\u2019 dream. But perhaps more importantly, she\u2019s living her <em>own<\/em> dream, a dream that\u2019s the product of meeting the lofty expectations set by both her family\u2019s vaunted achievements and the standards she\u2019s held for herself.<\/p>\n<p>And Lauren\u2019s done far more than meet those expectations \u2014 she\u2019s exceeded them, by being herself and by being \u201cchill.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a softball game about a year ago, then-12-year-old Addison Putz made her way directly to the back row of her mother Kelsey\u2019s car, preemptively anticipating her mother\u2019s wrath.\u00a0 Kelsey was Addison\u2019s softball coach, and Addison hadn\u2019t played as well as she\u2019d hoped. After such a difficult game, her fear of what her mother would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[820,819,822,809,266,821],"class_list":{"0":"post-770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-expectations","9":"tag-face","10":"tag-flow","11":"tag-great","12":"tag-lauren","13":"tag-putz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}