Former HLB, NSU pitcher continues career in Europe

Lacey Gros has spent her life wowing Tri-parish softball fans with her powerful right arm.

This summer, she’s trying to win over a new audience, one several thousand miles away.

The former H.L. Bourgeois and Nicholls State standout is taking her pitching prowess overseas and is playing in Austria for the Dornbirn Austria Sharx.

A few weeks into the experience, Gros believes her time abroad will be exactly what she expected, a dream come true and a once in a lifetime experience.

“It is an experience I will never forget and I’ll cherish for the rest of my life,” Gros said from her summer dwellings in Lusteanau, Austria.

Gros will spend nearly three months overseas and will play a total of 16 regular season and approximately 10 postseason games with the Sharx.

Once that stint is over, Gros will have an opportunity to take part in the prestigious European Cup later in the summer in Italy.

Gros has been in Europe for approximately three weeks and she said it’s easy to see that softball abroad is not as competitive as in the United States.

“It’s not as advanced as in the states,” Gros said.

But that mismatch might not last much longer, because the pitcher said since she’s been overseas, one constant has always surfaced, the motivation and drive among all of her teammates and opponents.

“The level of play here is different, but these girls really have a passion for the game and are interested in learning,” Gros said.

“And that’s what I’m here to do is teach them and help them in any way I can.”

The way Gros landed overseas is a story in and of itself.

She became interested in the opportunity after her collegiate teammate Charity Butler spent some time in Sweden.

“She told me about it, so I then inquired about it,” Gros said. “Long story short, they told me that all of the teams were filled for this summer and that I would have to wait for next summer. In my head, I thought the opportunity was over.”

The opportunity in reality was just getting started.

“Within I’d say maybe a week, I got an email from them asking how soon could I get there, because a pitcher backed out and they needed one for this summer,” Gros explained. “I was in awe and really had no time for much thinking, but I knew and felt it was an opportunity that I could not pass up.”

Gros earned the opportunity to extend her career beyond college thanks to a dominant career at Nicholls.

After signing with Southern Mississippi out of high school, the local product returned home to Thibodaux after one season.

With the Colonels, she cemented her legacy as one of the best pitchers in the Southland Conference, finishing her senior season with a 13-8 record and a 2.63 ERA.

That came after posting 16 wins with a 1.69 ERA as a junior.

Gros said no matter how much success she achieved at the college level, she never thought she’d be able to continue playing after Nicholls.

That’s why she said she was quick to jump on the offer when it surfaced.

“It was just a spur of the moment idea or dream to play again,” Gros said.

When she returns to the states, the pitcher said it’s back to the “real world.”

Gros graduated from Nicholls with a Allied Health Pre-professional degree.

From her bachelors, she said she is pursuing a higher education level in “some type of medical field.”

“I have been thinking about physical therapy assistant, nursing, occupational therapy or rehab nursing,” she said. “Something along those lines.”

But for now, the real world is on halt and Gros is back in the circle living the dream and sharing her talents with a new crowd.

She’s also spending a summer away from Louisiana’s heat, too.

That always helps make someone feel at home.

“Louisiana heat? I love it, of course, it’s home, but man the weather is so nice here,” Gros said of the Austrian summer. “But I can’t wait to go home and share these stories with my family and friends and one day to be able to tell the stories to my kids, as well.”