Marist coach Colleen Biebel held her annual kids camp last week, with some of her players taking part as instructors.

One of them was Lexi Voss.

Voss, a junior outfielder and Michigan recruit, proved popular.

“When we told the kids, ‘Go pick your groups, go pick the camper you want to go with,’ five girls sprinted right up to Lexi,” Biebel said. “The younger girls definitely look up to her.”

The Daily Southtown 2018 Softball Player of the Year gave them plenty to see.

Voss put up incredible numbers for Marist, batting .644 with 55 runs, 16 doubles, 19 home runs and 70 RBIs.

To hear RedHawks senior Madison Garofalo tell it, Voss was just as popular with her teammates as she was with the kids at camp.

“She is a great teammate,” Garofalo said of Voss. “She was always there for everybody on the team.

“It was almost like every single time Lexi came up to the plate, we had no doubt she was going to hit the ball. Lexi was incredible this year — definitely a big reason that we did so well.”

The difference in one season was staggering.

Voss was one of the Southland’s best in 2017, earning all-area honors with a .390 average, 25 runs, four homers and 29 RBIs.

However, she was far from satisfied.

“Last year I kind of became a head case at the plate,” Voss said. “There were times I didn’t trust myself.

“This year I walked in thinking, ‘Lexi, trust your hands. Trust your work.’ And I just stepped in there and said, ‘I’m the best,’ and just hit the ball.”

She hit it hard — and hit it often.

Voss was every bit the batter and big-game player that her role model was just a few seasons earlier.

“Brooke Wyderski,” Voss said. “She actually goes to my hitting coach. I grew up watching her during her hitting lessons. She was a huge role model for me.”

Wyderski, who graduated from Marist in 2014, was a back-to-back Daily Southtown Player of the Year. She led Wisconsin in doubles and RBIs as a senior shortstop in 2018.

That Voss is on a similar path is at least a bit surprising. For her, it wasn’t always softball.

“No, I was such a girly girl,” Voss said with a laugh. “I never wanted to get dirty. When I was little I actually grew up wanting to be a gymnast and a cheerleader.

“I didn’t start playing softball until around 10. Once I started I thought, ‘Holy smokes, I love this game.’ And it blew up from there.”

Voss played her freshman season at Stagg before transferring to Marist. As a sophomore, she was installed as the cleanup hitter, and through necessity was moved from her natural position in the outfield to shortstop.

“She’ll do anything, honestly, you ask her,” Biebel said. “If you want her to play left field, right field, center, shortstop, second base, she will. She’ll do anything for the team.”

The outfield, though, is where Voss feels — and fields — her best.

“It’s really just instinctual for me out there,” Voss said. “Every play I think the ball is coming to me, and when it does, I just let my instinct take over. Wherever the ball is, that’s where I’m going.”

Voss had one of her biggest games this season in the Class 4A sectional semifinal against Hinsdale South. She hit a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning. She made a diving catch to save a run in the top of the second.

The 12-0 victory was the last for the RedHawks (32-4), who were shocked in the sectional final by Sandburg.

“It was very upsetting,” Voss said. “But the girls this year played with so much heart, so much grit and we played as a family on the field.

“I think that loss is going to make us unstoppable next year. That feeling is to going to stay.”

abaranek@tribpub.com

Twitter @TBaranek