(Editor's note: This is the second in a series of feature profiles on this year's Hall of Fame inductees and Wall of Honor selections that will be posted every Monday, leading up to the Sept. 21 Hall of Fame Banquet.)
 
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           
Eleven is a special number for former Baylor softball All-American Chelsi Lake Reichenstein.
           
Not only did she wear the No. 11 jersey in her four-year playing career with the Lady Bears, Reichenstein held the program's career home run (44) and RBI (184) records for 11 years and is now being inducted into the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame 11 years after her career ended.
           
That's why it didn't really bother her when Shelby Friudenberg broke those records during this past season.
           
"The way I look at it, the program needs to continue to grow," said Reichenstein, part of a 2018 class of inductees that includes Gary Baxter and Ronnie "Bo" Lee from football, longtime trainer Mike Sims, golf coach and player Tim Hobby, volleyball's Elisha Polk and NCAA tennis champion Zuzana Zemenova.
           
"As my husband wonderfully points out, because I was No. 11, he said, 'everything's happening in your 11^th year. There's a theme in your life, there's a reason this is happening.' I was excited for her, excited for the program, of course. I was delighted that they went to the World Series last year."
           
Before the latest wave of power hitters like Friudenberg, "Goose" McGlaun and Linsey Hays, there was Chelsi Lake Reichenstein. And before the Lady Bears made three World Series appearances in an amazing three-year run (2011-17), Reichenstein was part of the first World Series trip in 2007 and the first four NCAA regionals in program history.
           
"In some ways, I take it for granted until I think about the road the team went on," she said. "Lisa Ferguson and I were at Baylor all four years together and went to regionals all four years and got to experience that. And in our senior year, we got to fulfill our dream of winning a Big 12 championship and going to the Women's College World Series.
           
"I think when you're going through it, you don't think about it as much. When you're there, that's the goal you're working toward is making the NCAAs and doing all that. Then, as you get older and reflect upon it, it's like, 'Oh wow, we made a lot of big changes during that time that I was fortunate to be a part of."
           
A prep All-American at Keller High School, where she hit .400 or better all four seasons, Reichenstein said her college choice came down to Baylor and Texas A&M.
           
"To be completely honest, I couldn't pick," she said. "So, I told my parents that I'm going to go to bed tonight and whichever school I think about first in the morning, that's where I'm going to go. I woke up the next morning and thought about Baylor first, so that's where I ended up. . . . I think I was destined to meet my husband, which is the biggest reason why I was led to Baylor, because I wouldn't have met him."
           
And that almost didn't happen.

After a difficult freshman season when she hit just one of her 44 career homers, "I wasn't really sure I wanted to go back."

"My parents pointed out that the people you love and why you wanted to come play at Baylor and your closest friends, they're going to be there in the fall," she said. "My sophomore year, I figured out who I was and what I needed to do, and then things obviously went a lot better."

Chelsi met her future husband, football player Jake Reichenstein, in study hall when she asked to borrow his headphones. "Apparently, what really made me beautiful was that I brought them back after borrowing them. I was like, 'Wow, that's all you needed?' I feel like that could have been any girl.'''

Before Chelsi even believed it herself, softball teammates Kelly Osburn and Harmony Schwethelm rightly predicted, "You're going to date this guy, you're going to marry him." Four years later, when they did get married, Jake thanked Osburn and Schwethelm "for telling her that she should date me."

That sophomore season, she found her power stroke, hitting .345 and setting then-school records with 15 homers and a Big 12-leading 65 RBI in helping Baylor advance to its first NCAA Super Regional.

The next year, Reichenstein hit a career-high .362 with 18 homers and 52 RBI, was a third-team All-American and earned the second of her three first-team All-Big 12 honors.

While her individual numbers dipped a little as a senior (.301, 10 homers, 50 RBI), Reichenstein still played a huge role in the Lady Bears' only Big 12 title to date and the first trip to the World Series.

Despite losing four of six games at a tournament in Hawaii, "it almost reset us and refocused us," Reichenstein said. And when the Lady Bears got swept in two games on the road at Oklahoma, "it was crushing," putting their conference championship hopes in serious doubt.

"I remember I stood up and said, 'We lost these two games, but we could still win this thing. There's no reason why we can't try to win out from here. This is just two blips,''' she said.

They won five of their last six, including beating sixth-ranked A&M, 5-4, when Reichenstein scored the winning run on a passed ball in the 10^th inning.
"It was so special, that feeling of doing that," she said. "We went into the regionals, with just that expectation that we are going to get to Oklahoma City (for the World Series). Just to fulfill that goal my senior year and leave on that was something that even as a 33-year-old mother of two still excites me."

The team's primary first baseman her first two seasons at Baylor, Reichenstein was asked to switch to catcher when coach Glenn Moore recruited junior college All-American Ashley Monceaux out of Pima Community College.

"Ashley was 6-3, so it was basically, 'Hey, do you think you could figure out how to catch?''' Reichenstein said. "I was like, 'Well yeah, of course, no problem.' I had never caught in my life. But, I had pitched through middle school and high school. So, based on my pitching experience, I understood kind of the mindset (of a catcher). And I absolutely loved it. Obviously, it's not ideal to start catching your junior year in the Big 12, especially as strong as the Big 12 was at that time."

Reichenstein went on to earn her law degree at Texas Wesleyan, which she uses to make sure the VIP Finance car title loan business she runs with Jake remains in compliance in a heavily regulated industry.

The couple has two sons, 5-year-old Jake Junior, who goes by Jakers; and 15-month-old Chase.



"When we brought home our baby, my dog looked at me like, 'Are we doing this one more time?''' Chelsi said. "Although, now she's a very big fan, because the baby gives her her treat every morning. "

???????Chelsi was particularly excited that Sims is part of the same induction class, "because Mike took care of me and husband a lot."

"We were both in the training room one day, and we go, 'Mike are our children just going to be doomed? Are they just going to be falling apart?''' she said. "And Mike goes, 'No, they'll be OK. We're just excited we get to see him and share with him, like, 'here's our kids.' . . . We are pumped, we are humbled and honored and excited to get to go share this with the coaches and hopefully a bunch of my old teammates."

Keeping with the No. 11 theme, Reichenstein's sister-in-law is former Baylor All-American pitcher Whitney Canion, who wore No. 11 during her six seasons (2009-14) and helped the Lady Bears reach the World Series twice.

"It was fun just because I got to go to the World Series twice and cheer her on," Reichenstein said.

The Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame banquet will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, in the Brazos Room at the Waco Convention Center. Tickets cost $50 per person and can be purchased by contacting the "B" Association at 254-710-3045 or by email at Tammy_Hardin@baylor.edu.