Lauver will continue at Utah State Eastern

Skyler Lauver is joining a pretty big club, student-athletes who transfer during their college careers.

The 2019 Pahrump Valley High School graduate spent the spring playing softball for College of Southern Nevada, and she didn’t have the best experience there. Part of it was the first extended hitting slump of her life, but it also seemed like a change of scenery was necessary.

“I didn’t have the best season at CSN, and I felt like I needed a fresh start,” said Lauver, who played in 46 games for the Coyotes (31-31), starting 36. She finished with a .250 batting average, hitting 2 doubles, a triple and 2 home runs while scoring 24 runs and driving in 20.

Those are not Lauver-like numbers, and while there was a significant upgrade in competition from Class 3A in high school to the Scenic West Athletic Conference in college, she felt it was more about what she was doing than against whom she was doing it.

“I was in a hitting slump, which I haven’t really dealt with for that long of a period of time before,” she said. “Throughout the summer I’ve worked to get out of it. At this point, my swing is where it should be, and it’s just a matter of keeping it there.”

Deciding to leave is one thing, deciding where to go is another. For Lauver, the best option was in the opposite dugout nine times. The Coyotes went 6-3 against Utah State University-Eastern, but the Eagles made an impression during those games.

“USU-E was in Skyler’s conference last year when she was playing for CSN,” said Cassondra Lauver, Skyler’s mom and high school coach. “From what we have seen, the school is really nice and the softball program is great. It seems like the girls have a really good rapport with each other and the coaches. The whole team in general seems to get better from the beginning of the season to the end.”

The fact the Coyotes and Eagles are in the same conference held up the transfer process, which began with the Field Level recruiting website, Skyler Lauver said.

“Because of the in-conference agreement it took a little bit of time,” she said. “There were a lot of steps that had to be taken before we made contact. Once Coach (Ashley) Johnston and they were able to have communication and she gave her approval, we were able to get started.”

While Utah State Eastern was not on Lauver’s radar coming out of high school, talking to current Eagles convinced her she was on the right track this time around.

“I reached out to players of theirs that I played against and asked about the program, and I’ve only heard good things,” Lauver said. “They have a good coaching staff, a good program, good integrity, good opportunities. Not only financially is this a good opportunity, but their softball program seems to check all of the boxes.”

Finances played a role in her decision to attend CSN as Lauver wanted to make things easy for her parents. But don’t think for a minute Cassondra and Rich Lauver have an issue with Skyler going from Henderson to Price, Utah.

“They were 100% in support of this from the beginning,” Lauver said.

The Eagles went 23-28 this past spring, including a 19-20 mark in the Scenic West. Coach Shelby Shurtliff was an all-conference infielder for the Eagles in 2018, became an assistant coach in 2019 and became the head coach when the position opened up before the 2020 season.