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The 2024 class is loaded with talent and one prospect who’s stock is really climbing fast is Addison Lund, an infielder and catcher from Appleton, Wisconsin, who plays club ball for Jason Sweat’s Tennessee Mojo team.
Addison is on the radar of Power 5 college teams such as UCLA, North Carolina, Louisville, North Carolina State, Arkansas and Oklahoma State and, although she hasn’t had the “pub” of some other high-profile (and equally deserving) players in her class, the incoming junior is drawing raves from those who work with her.
John Garvey, her head softball coach at Menasha (Wisc.) High comments:
“Addie is one of the hardest working and most effusively positive players I have ever had the pleasure of coaching in my 15 or so years at the varsity level,” he begins.
“If I had to pick one word to describe her it would be ‘tenacious.’ She is tenacious in the game and in all aspects of her practice and preparation, but more importantly she is tenacious as a teammate both on and off the field.”
An All-State player at the prep level, she batted .525 this year with an on-base percentage of .578, a slugging mark of .800 and an OPS of 1.378. Addison also has gotten it done at the travel ball level including batting .467 at Boulder IDT this summer with an on-base percentage of .556 and an OPS of 1.289 for her Mojo team.
Today, she is highly coveted after her on-field successes and USA Softball-verified exit velocity of 76.9 mph and an overhand velo of 70 mph, but it hasn’t always been easy.
Four years ago, Addison and her family, including her 12-year-old younger sister, Kyla, were in a terrible car accident.
The family was going to a Green Bay Packers NFL game and, Addison’s father, Eric, recalls what happened.
“I was a season ticket holder but it was the first time I could take the girls. We were stuck in traffic going to the stadium when, suddenly, a lady in a Honda CRV rammed us from behind at 70 mph. If we would have taken our other car, where we were—where the girls and I would have been sitting—we’d have been killed, but as it were when we were hit, it crushed in the back of our truck. The impact lifted and pushed us 65 feet down the freeway and the other driver’s bumper was embedded into the back of our truck.”
The traumatic accident injured Eric the most, as the force of the impact led to wrist, neck and back injuries and eventual surgeries, but Addison was also impacted, perhaps more emotionally than physically even though her shoulder popped out and her knee was slightly injured.
“We all went to ER at the hospital and Addison was in delayed shock. She went into a shell for a while, but softball has been an outstanding way for her to overcome that trauma and let her personality and abilities come out.”
And shine she has, as Addison was a USA Softball All-American in 2019 and played for the USA Softball HPP Program’s select event in Texas last November.
“Addi has the drive,” Mojo head coach Jason Sweat says. “She is ultra-talented, but that only gets you so far. She also has the passion, and love to play the game. Addi has power, is a strong kid with a very good arm, and can play multiple positions well. She loves softball and she craves to be her best.”
Off the field, the rising junior is a huge reader who once was promised by her father that for every home run she’d hit, he’d buy her a book. Sufficient to say, she’s built a nice library by now.
Addison says she wants to study and possibly work in psychology—be it in sports or criminal—and adds:
“I’m excited to learn more about the brain; I’m taking an AP Psychology class and really love that kind of stuff.”
She’s also ahead of most her age in knowing who she is, what she wants to do and who she wants to be as she matures. Softball, everyone knows, is a ticket for her to achieve those goals and desires.
“A lot of people say ‘Don’t let a sport define you,’” her father continues, “but it drives Addison and is part of her being. She takes a lot of that motivation in softball into school and into her friendships. Addison is just a good person and what you see is a kid who is well-rounded and you know she’ll go places. People see a generally good kid in Addison and that’s what makes me the most proud… that’s my crowning joy.”
Younger sister, Kyla, is also looked at as a high potential prospect in softball but only time will tell if she pursues the sport with the same vigor her older sibling has.
“Kyla’s different,” adds her father, “in that she enjoys the social aspect of softball, hanging with friends and is a typical kid that age.”
We caught up with Addison this week when she had a few minutes while attending the University of Louisville camp… here’s some more insights into who she is…
Scroll down to read what this top 2024 talent had to say about her proudest accomplishment to date, what it’s like to be a softball player in Wisconsin and what her recruiting picture is looking like as we approach Sept. 1–“Contact Day!”…