Frankie Frelick might be done with Duke University classes for good, but the Lexington native still has a chance to expand her list of college achievements.
A senior catcher and utility player for the Duke softball team, the 22-year-old Frelick wants to extend her college softball career for as long as possible. Ranked No. 5 in the most recent USA Today/NFCA Coaches Top 25 Poll, the Blue Devils (44-6, 20-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) host the ACC Tournament May 8-11. Winning the conference tournament guarantees a spot in the NCAA Tournament and a high seed. Even if the Blue Devils don’t win, they’d likely make the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection, the program’s fourth straight postseason trip.
“It’s definitely bittersweet, ” Frelick said. “It’s so exciting to be with this group of girls and we have such a good feeling about this postseason.”
Over her four-year career, Frelick developed from a situational pinch-hitter as a freshman to an everyday lineup staple as an upperclassman, displaying the competitive edge she flashed in her childhood Lexington home. The youngest of three siblings, Frelick’s older brother, Nico, played baseball at Northeastern. The middle brother, Sal, starred at Lexington High School and now plays for MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers.
Frankie, who attended Lexington Public Schools through middle school and graduated from Austin Preparatory School in Reading, developed a competitive edge at a young age, always trying to beat out her brothers in everything from board games to street hockey.
“I always wanted to prove myself when around them,” Frelick said. “They never took it easy on me and I think it helped me in the long run.”
While some of her teammates started from their first Duke game, Frelick worked her way into the role she plays today. Unlike many of those teammates, Frelick didn’t get to play year-round softball growing up in New England. She played ice hockey in the winter, developing a different type of work ethic with her multi-sport success.
“Although I was competing year-round, it wasn’t always in softball, so it was about not comparing myself to the girls who may have had that coming into Duke,” Frelick said. “It was just coming in, putting in the hard work and knowing what I needed to work on.”
Frelick played a reserve role as a Duke freshman, mainly pinch-hitting in high-leverage situations. She started about half of Duke’s games as a sophom*ore and broke out as a junior last year, appearing in 56 of 60 games and making 40 starts. As a senior, Frelick boasts career-best numbers, batting .279 with five doubles, five home runs and 34 RBI, the same RBI total as her first three years combined. A standout defender, Frelick, who this year mainly catches and plays designated hitter, committed just a single error in 132 chances in the regular season.
Duke coach Marissa Young credited Frelick for her sticktuitivness, moving from catcher to outfield and back to catcher, doing whatever it takes to help the team.
“She just continues to work and understands that it is a journey,” Young said. “Your role might not be what you want it to be in that moment, but she always kept growing herself for bigger roles in the future. Everybody wants it right now but she’s stayed committed to the process.”
Equally as impressive as a psychology major and finance minor, Frelick earned ACC Honor Roll member status every year of her college career to date, plus Easton/NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete honors the last two years and All-ACC Academic and CSC Academic All-District nods last year. This year’s ACC awards, both athletic and academic, had yet to be announced at the time of this article’s publication.
“She understands the highs and lows that happen over the course of the season and is a really good bridge between coaches and players,” Young said.
Frelick and Duke made the NCAA Softball Regionals three years ago and the Super Regionals each of the past two seasons. They want a trip to the Women’s College World Series this year, a sweet way to close Frelick’s college softball career ahead of a new journey, an 18-month, Boston-based associate rotational program with Fidelity Investments.
“I’m just here to compete, take it all in and be extremely grateful for it,” Frelick said. “Looking back on these four years and how I’ve grown has really brought me peace whether it ends on a high note or not.”
