The Daily Update Page

McAllister, Michelle. P, Vienna VA Stars, to St Petersburg College, FL

Johnson, Gwen. C, Vienna VA Stars, to Louisburg College, NC

#1 UCLA defeated its second PAC opponent since reclaiming the top ranking in the national poll with a 3-0 victory on Friday, which ended California’s 6-game win streak. Keria Goerl pitched a no-hitter for the Bruins for her 23^rd win. UCLA is now 9-3 in Pac 10, while the Bears dropped to 8-5. Natasha Watley hit Jocelyn Forest’s first pitch up the middle; Amanda Freed and Tairia Mims hit bloop singles, Natasha scoring, then Stacey Nuveman hit an rbi single for the 2-0 lead. Goerl had 4 Ks. Cassie Bobrow relieved Forest for the last two scoreless innings.

#2 Arizona was scheduled to play Oregon at 6pm Friday (9pm SPY time).

Nebraska closed out its home-game regular season in that split Wednesday with Kansas; the Huskers end the regular season at Texas Tech this weekend. (PS: Peaches James was 2-4 at the plate in that game against the Jayhawks.)

#5 Arizona State was scheduled to play #16 Oregon State Friday night at 7pm.

#20 Ohio State won its 16^th in a row, an 11-0 defeat of Ohio on Friday, setting a new school mark for wins in a season. The 5-inning shutout, which combined the pitching of Wendy Allen and Kristi DeVries, raised the Buckeye record to 47-9. Ohio State used 18 players, with Anna Smith and Meaghan Rowlands getting two hits apiece. Smith and Jennifer Link also pulled a double steal, giving Smith 36 for the year.

On Tuesday, Florida was 9-15 in the SEC’s Eastern Division, Tennessee was 8-14. The Gators widened that gap Wednesday and Thursday by overwhelming the Volunteers: 15-3 (14 hits) and 7-6, then sweeping the series today 13-2 (13 hits). Tennessee has lost 12 of its last 14 games. We tip the Spyglass to the scribe who writes for the Volunteers; you get all the details on hits, pitches and plays – by players’ names for both teams!

Led by Katie Junge, UC Santa Barbara won its sixth in a row Friday, while also breaking Utah State’s 4-game winning streak. The Gauchos improve to 9-7 in the Big West.

Georgia Tech also has a 6-game winning streak going, sweeping Mercer 10-2, 4-0.

Minnesota, tied for 5^th in the Big 10 (top six teams go to conference tournament) with Wisconsin, put its 7-game winning streak on the line Friday and came up on the short end of a 10-inning, 4-1 loss to Northwestern. Cindy Muran, JC Kira, Brett Nakabayashi, Katie Gross and Carrie Leto got critical hits in the 10^th for the Wildcat runs. NU is in 4^th place with a 10-5 record.

NCAA Statistical Leaders (thru 4/21)

UCLA’S Stacey Nuveman leads the nation with a .542 batting average.  Barbara Moody of Pacific is the doubles leader with 25.  Fresno State’s Jamie Southern has the lowest ERA at 0.47, but the Bruins’ Keira Goerl is a notch behind at 0.49.  Arizona’s Leneah Manuma leads with 17 homers; Cornell’s Lauren May leads in homers per game, 0.38.  Three of the top 20 HR hitters are from Arizona: Manuma, Jenny Finch and Lovie Jung.  Washington has two in the top 20: Jaime Clark and Kristen Rivera.

Nikki Myers of Florida Atlantic has the most pitching victories at 30-4.  Jamie Southern of Fresno State is just behind at 28-6 and Texas’ Catherine Osterman is 27-7.

Tiffany Whitton of Harvard leads in rbi per game at 1.24 but Leneah is at 1.23 and has 59 rbi.  The leader is Jamie Clark with 61.  Kristen Dennis of Virginia has 53, and Stacy Roth of Ohio State has 52.  Three sluggers from Illinois-Chicago have broken into the 50+ group: Amanda Rivera 52, Amber Stachura 51 and Edel Leyden 50.

Among the speedsters, Tiffany Tolleson of North Carolina has been successful on 53 of 58 attempts, but the sparkler is Nicole Barber of Georgia , perfect on 55 attempts.

Hello Russia, Goodbye Botswana
ISF announced that Botswana has withdrawn from the
2002 Women's World Championship, due to financial problems.

Russia has been designated as the replacement, as a result of having been the
highest placed team in all Regional Qualifiers.  This will mark Russia's
debut in the Women's World Championships, the 10th in the
event's history.  Russia and 14 other teams will try to dethrone the four-time defending gold medal champion United States team.  The last country other than the U.S. to
have a team win the gold medal was New Zealand in 1982.  The event takes place this summer from July 26 - August 4 in Saskatoon, SK,Canada.

#4 Nebraska split a double-header Wednesday with Big 12 foe Kansas, winning the first game 9-4 behind Leigh Ann Walker before losing the nightcap 3-2. Amanda Buchholz and Cindy Roethemeyer were both 2-4. Peaches James struck out 9 in the second game but took the loss. Serena Settlemeir struck out 7 Huskers for the win. Nebraska slips to 9-5 (40-11) and winds up conference play this weekend against Texas Tech.

#10 Florida Atlantic racked up a season-high 19 hits Thursday, to defeat Lynn University 11-0, the Owls improving to 55-8. Candace Freel was 4-4 at the plate while pitching the shutout.

Correction. In the Texas-Texas A&M game reported 4/24, the line should have read that Lindsay Wilhelmson got 13 straight outs between the two Longhorn hits – not all Ks.

The NCAA today published its "real" rankings today (previous rankings were simply in alphabetical order) reflecting where teams stand, by region, on a 1-10 basis. The last three rankings which NCAA will publish include only teams above the .500 mark. The rankings are compiled by NCAA’s Division I Women’s Softball Committee.

Central
1.	LSU	                40-8
2.	Alabama	                41-13
3.	DePaul	                30-8
4.	South Carolina	        35-14
5.	Mississippi State	30-24
6.	Georgia	                47-12
7.	Arkansas	        31-22
8.	Eastern Kentucky	27-11

East
1.	Notre Dame	        27-13
2.	Villanova	        37-9
3.	Syracuse	        19-15
4.	Seton Hall	        25-13
5.	Long Island	        24-20
6.	Virginia Tech	        30-16
7.	St. Peter's	        22-14
8.	Canisius	        20-12
9.	Fairfield	        25-22
10.	UMBC	                35-16
 
Mideast
1.	Michigan	        36-9
2.	Ohio State	        44-9
3.	Iowa	                29-16
4.	Minnesota	        33-16
5.	Northwestern	        21-14
6.	Central Michigan	25-13
7.	Wisconsin	        25-15
8.	Penn State	        25-21
9.	Illinois-Chicago	30-18
10.	Akron	                25-9
Others receiving votes:  UMKC

Midwest
1.	Texas	                39-10
2.	Oklahoma	        37-12
3.	Nebraska	        39-9
4.	Baylor	                43-14
5.	Texas A&M	        34-13
6.	Louisiana-Lafayette	39-10
7.	Oklahoma State	        26-18
8.	Florida International	34-26
9.	Illinois State	        24-14
10.	Kansas	                26-21
Others receiving votes:  Southern Illinois

Northeast
1.	Massachusetts	        39-10
2.	Princeton	        29-15
3.	Harvard	                26-8
4.	Lehigh	                29-11
5.	Boston U.	        22-19
6.	George Mason	        33-16
7.	Towson	                26-18
8.	Cornell	                22-18
9.	Army	                26-17
10.	Dartmouth	        20-14

Pacific
1.	UCLA	                40-6
2.	Arizona	                41-7
3.	California	        42-14
4.	Arizona State	        37-11
5.	Washington	        36-13
6.	Stanford	        35-11
7.	Oregon State	        32-16
8.	San Diego State	        34-20
9.	Brigham Young	        27-19

South
1.	Florida Atlantic	52-8
2.	Florida State	        41-14
3.	Georgia Tech	        41-15
4.	Virginia	        43-17
5.	UCF	                39-16
6.	Stetson	                39-8
7.	Troy State	        41-15
8.	North Carolina	        29-23
9.	Jacksonville State	32-13
10.	Chattanooga	        31-13

West
1.	Cal State Fullerton	41-11
2.	Fresno State	        41-14
3.	Pacific (California)	36-13
4.	Long Beach State	35-17
5.	Hawaii	                30-20
6.	Cal State Northridge	23-22
7.	Tulsa	                37-12
Others receiving votes:  Cal Poly, Louisiana Tech,

Loyola Marymount

On April 24, SPY published the list of conferences which will hold qualifying tournaments, which we extracted from the NCAA web site. Although the list is dated January 2002, the indication is that the list has been updated only in part since last year. For example, it correctly shows the collective dates for regionals and for the WCWS.

But, we are now advised that the Patriot League, which formerly had a play-in, now qualifies for a berth from its own tournament.

We have asked NCAA for an updated list.

ASA/USA, responding to SPY’s inquiry, advised Wednesday that the Open Olympic Tryouts are "designed to give players who may not have been seen by the Selection Committee an opportunity to showcase their talents. Any player who has competed on a National Team or been to a National Team camp is already considered part of the player pool and would not need to attend these open tryouts."

Forty-eight Division I teams will compete in 8 regional tournaments (sites tba). Twenty-four teams qualify through conference tournaments, winners receiving an automatic bid. Twenty-four other teams are chosen at-large, according to NCAA.

America East Conference
Atlantic 10 Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference*
Big East Conference
Big South Conference
Big Twelve Conference
Big Ten Conference
Big West Conference
Conference USA
Ivy Group
Metro Atlantic Conference
Mid-American Conference
Mid-Western Conference
Missouri Valley Conference
Mountain West Conference
Pacific-10 Conference
Southeastern Conference
Southern Conference
Southland Conference
Trans America Conference (now Atlantic-Sun)
Western Athletic Conference

*In 2001, the ACC and two area teams formed a Southern Alliance

and 7 teams competed for a regional berth.  

SPY has asked NCAA how the ACC qualifies this year.

Play-In Qualifiers
Patriot League at Northeast Conference
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference at Ohio Valley Conference
Southwestern Athletic Conference at Mid-Continent Conference

DIVISION I SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP DATES AND SITES
21st Annual
Regionals (8):To be determined
(on campus)
May 16-19, 2002
Finals:ASA Hall of Fame Stadium
Oklahoma City May 23-27, 2002
University of Oklahoma, host
Ticket Information: www.okcallsports.org

#1 UCLA affirmed its new status in the USA Today poll by also claiming first place in the PAC 10 with a 5-3 victory over #8 Washington. Keria Goerl struck out 13 Huskies and Claire Sua jacked an Ashley Boek 1-1 pitch over the right field fence – a grand slam. The Bruins were down 3-0 after freshman sensation Kristen Rivera drove in two runs and Kathy Fiske homered. UCLA got back into the game in the 6^th; Natasha Watley and Amanda Freed singled, the latter a shot off the leg of starter Tia Bollinger. Leslie Scott took the mound and hit Tairia Mims with her first pitch, followed by Stacey Nuveman’s rbi single. Boek took over with the bases loaded, got a K, but then threw the gopher ball to Sua. Goerl improved to 22-4 as the Bruins moved up to 9-3 Pac 10 (41-6), and the Huskies dropped to 6-6 (37-1).

#2 Arizona hosts PAC 10 rivals Oregon and Oregon State this weekend.

#3 LSU is scheduled to play a 3-game set this weekend against Ole Miss.

#4 Nebraska was scheduled to play Kansas on Wednesday, closing out the Husker regular season. No score had been reported by SPY’s press time.

#5 Arizona State also plays Oregon and Oregon State this coming weekend.

#6 California over-powered St. Mary’s 3-0 and 4-0. Candace Harper gave the Bears their first lead on an rbi double in the 1^st inning of the first game. Pitcher Cassie Bobrow threw a 1-hitter. The Gaels actually pitched to Veronica Nelson who thanked them with two hits before they walked her twice. The Gaels are 13-32, but in the best tradition of Herman Wiedemeyer, they next take on Stanford. (Remember Herman?)

#7 Stanford, set back by two 3-game losing streaks, embarked on a 10-game home stand winning a double-header Wednesday against Sacramento State, 3-0 and 7-1 Sarah Beeson had a 2-run single in the first game. Tori Nyberg threw a 4-hitter. The Cardinal got a 2-run blast from Jessica Mendoza in the second game, won by Maureen LeCoq, with a save by Elizabeth Bendig.

#9 CS Fullerton which lost the Big West lead and two out of three games to Pacific this past weekend resumes play Saturday against conference foe UC Riverside. The Titans need help from another team in conference, eg, Long Beach and Northridge still have games against Pacific.

#10 Florida Atlantic plays Lynn on Thursday.

#11 Michigan plays Illinois on Friday. Senior Stefanie Volpe, who had two grand slams in one game and hit .417 with 10 runs batted in for the week, was named Big Ten Player of the Week

#12 Oklahoma won the second Bedlam Bowl game Wednesday, defeating Oklahoma State in 10 innings, 5-4. After Oklahoma State went up 4-3 in the top of the tenth inning, Oklahoma freshman first baseman Christina Enea hit a game-winning two-run single in the bottom of the frame. Enea had also stroked the game-winning hit in the first matchup in Stillwater. The teams combined for five runs on three home runs in the first three frames, the Cowgirls scoring two runs in the first inning. Shortstop Casey O'Neill (3-for-4) singled and crossed home plate on a two-run homer by catcher Ryan Realmuto (2-for-3). In the bottom of the first inning, OU’s Kelli Braitsch hit a solo home run, her seventh of the season, to right center field to narrow OSU's advantage to 2-1. The Sooners captured the lead in the 3^rd when Enea singled and scored on Leah Gulla’s two-run homer to left field to give OU a 3-2 lead. The lead held until the seventh inning when OSU pinch hitter Jamie Koshmider (1-for-1) laced a double into right field off of OU starter Jennifer Stewart to bring pinch runner Erika Ennis home with the tying run and send the game into extra frames. Tiffany Weight and Christy Ring singled ahead of Enea’sgame-winning hit. Stewart had retired 17 of 20 batters after that 1^st inning Cowgirl HR but was relieved by Kami Keiter after the tying run scored. Freshman Keiter who got the win was named Co-Big 12 pitcher of the week – sharing the honor with Catherine Osterman of Texas.

#13 Fresno State plays Louisiana Tech on Thursday and Tulsa on Saturday to conclude a 10-game road trip. Senior 3^rd Lindsay Fossatti was named WAC Player of the Week after having a superb week: 8 hits including 2 HRs and 3 doubles; 4 runs scored; 8 rbi; 17 total bases; and a slugging % of 1.000 after hitting .471 in six games.

#14 Texas drew a record crowd of 1,338 fans to watch the Longhorns defeat # 24 Texas A&M 1-0. Catherine Osterman, just named Co-Big 12 pitcher of the week, fanned 10 in recording her 14^th shutout (28-7), giving up 1 hit. The Aggies Lindsay Wilhelmson struck out 13 Longhorns, also giving up just one hit. Alexis Garcia reached on an error and scored on an error for the only run. Texas is 21-1 at home.

#15 Alabama has 3 games against South Carolina, who leads the SEC East division, this weekend. The Tides All-American 1^st base player Jackie McClain was named SEC player of the week.

#16 Oregon State which has dropped two rungs in the national polls has crucial weekend games against Arizona and Arizona State.

#17 Pacific has Big West games remaining with Long Beach State and Northridge which it needs to win to stay ahead of Fullerton.

#18 DePaul run-ruled Northern Illinois 9-1. Christina Douglas had 4 rbi, while Sarah Douglas and Saskia Roberson hit solo HRs. Lindsay Chouinard had a no-hitter until the 5^th. The Blue Demons are now 33-8.

#19 Louisiana-Lafayette had a game scheduled Wednesday against UL Monroe but no score had been reported by SPY’s press time.

#20 Ohio State, enjoying the highest ranking in the history of the program and standing atop the Big Ten, got 12 Ks and a 1-hitter from Kristi DeVries and rolled over Wright State 7-0. Kristine Himes, the Buckeyes career HR hitter, got her career 30^th.

#21 Florida State is undefeated in ACC and plays Virginia and Maryland next week. The Seminoles have a non-conference weekend against Jacksonville State.

#22 Baylor is 4^th in the Big 12 and hosts #12 Oklahoma this weekend.

#23 Iowa rebounded from losses to Ohio State and Michigan by run-ruling Northern Iowa twice on Wednesday, 8-0 in five and 9-1 in six.

#25 Georgia improved to 49-12 with a double-header sweep of Kentucky, 8-0 in five, and 6-4. The Bulldogs, 17-12 SEC, scored 5 runs in the 2^nd, including 2-rbi each by Julie Raiskums and Michelle Tyree. The big story line was Nicole Barber who stole 2 bases – which put her within a steal of tying the ten-year old record for consecutive stolen bases set by East Carolina’s Laura Crowder (69). Nicole is 57-57 this year. Michelle Green got her 16^th win. Kim Wendland tripled to start Bulldog scoring in the second game. Georgia scored 5 runs in the 4^th. Lyndsey Angus provided the Wildcats their only highlights of the day, driving in both runs in the second game with a single in the 5^th. Nicole Urban got the win; Lacey Gardner relieved in the 5^th and got the save.

Ricci Lugo set a new Villanova record with her 11^th HR as the Wildcats took two games from Delaware, 5-4 and 5-3. Villanova is now 41-10.

The games don’t count in the ACC standing but Maryland won two games from St. Joseph’s, both by 2-1, but they were pushed 13 innings in the second game; while Virginia was splitting with new team James Madison, winning 9-1, losing 3-2.

Arkansas at 33-22 isn’t an SEC contender, but, we saw Heather Schlictman when she was in highschool, so we went into the Lady Backs site to check on her progress, and found that she just notched 13 Ks in a 2-1 eighth inning win over Oklahoma City. Teammate Rachel got 9 Ks in the second game win.

Oregon is still on the schneid in the Pac 10 but it evened its season at 22-22 with 7-1 and 4-2 wins over Portland State.

Massachusetts is starting to draw some votes again in the national poll, and today showed why it deserves some consideration: U Mass is running well ahead in Atlantic 10, and on Wednesday broke a school record with its 25^th straight win, a 3-0 victory over U Conn, in which Kaila Holtz had a perfect game until the 7^th when Amanda Schettini singled.

Notre Dame upset #4 Nebraska 3-2 on Tuesday, continuing the string of upsets which in less than a week have claimed top 10 teams: Arizona, Stanford, CS Fullerton.

The Irish came from behind to earn their biggest victory of the season on Liz Hartmann’s 3-run homer in the top of the 7^th, her first career home run. Steffany Stenglein, who was named Big East pitcher of the week, won her 17 – but had to survive a Husker rally which narrowed the score by one run. Peaches James, who knocked in the final NU run, took the loss. The Irish (27-13) defeated the highest-ranked opponent in the program's history. Ironically, Irish Coach Deanna Gumpf is a 1992 Nebraska graduate, and was a pitcher and played 1^st for the Huskers. Husker shortstop Amanda Buchholz gave her team the initial lead with a two-out HR in the 1^st. Amanda Bledsoe singled and Lisa Mattison reached on an error to put runners at the corners in the 7^th, and Hartmann hit her dinger. Amber Burgess and James hit doubles in the home 7^th for one run, but Stenglein nailed the victory with a strikeout.

# 10 Florida Atlantic strengthened its claim for a higher Top 10 ranking on Tuesday with a double-header sweep of Stetson that assured the Lady Owls the regulars season Atlantic Sun conference title and top seed in next month’s A-Sun tournament. FAU is now 54-8 on the year, 16-2 in A-Sun. Stetson, which at one time owned the nation’s longest winning streak (24?), fell to 43-10 and 10-4 in A-Sun. Candace Freel won the first game, 7-0, and Nikki Myers the second, 6-2. Heather Wright homered twice, leading off the first game with a HR. The first five Owls reached base, and FAU led 3-0 after one inning. Pam Mazzarella added a 3-run HR in the 7^th. This was Freel’s 11^th shutout. After Jennifer Piazza doubled in a run, and Michelle Shirah hit a 2-run single, Wright whalloped a 2-run HR for a 5-0 lead. Myers is 31-4 with this win, a new single season record for the Owls. She also has 1,308 career Ks, including 11 this game. The games marked Stetson’s first losses on their home field. FAU is 13-0 on the road.

#17 DePaul defeated Loyola 7-0. Sarah Douglas drove in four runs and crushed her third home run of the season and Lindsay Chouinard (17-3) threw her ninth shutout of the year.

We’ve extended SPY’s publishing deadline until 2am on weekends, and still did not get some reports we wanted. So, in part, this is an update.

Princeton won its first Ivy League crown under head coach Maureen Davies, who once starred on the mound for her alma mater. In the run-up to the title, the Tigers prepared for their Ivy challenges by sweeping Monmouth, 8-0 and 6-1, then they defeated Yale twice, 2-1 and 10-1, an onslaught which included 3 HRs by Kristin Del Calvo. Then, as Harvard was losing to Cornell 5-1, the Tigers swept Brown on Sunday, 10-3 and 6-1, boosting their Ivy record to 13-1 (29-15 overall). In the second game, Melissa Finley hit two HRs, including a grand slam. In the first game, Princeton led 6-0 after four, and responded to a 3-run Brown rally in the 5^th, by scoring four more. Brie Gallicinao was 3-4 and drove in 5 runs, and was the winning pitcher in Game One on a 4-hitter. Finley was 2-3 in that game. Finley not only drove in all 6 runs in the second game, she was the winning pitcher. Her first HR gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead; her slam resulted in 6-1.

The Tigers and Crimson had one loss each to start the day, but the Crimson’s split with Cornell left Harvard at 10-2. The championship was Princeton’s first since 1996 – when a certain coach, who had pitched them to a 12-0 record the year before – was their ace.

Princeton earned an automatic berth in the NCAA regional tournament May 16-19.

Some honors: Kristen Dennis, whom we watched Sunday when she pitched and hit the game winning homer against Maryland, has been named ACC Softball Player of the Week. Theresa Hornick of Villanova has been named Big East Pitcher of the Week., after allowing one earned run in 24 conference innings. Florida Atlantic’s Nikki Myers has again been chosen A-Sun Pitcher of the Week, after throwing 2 shutouts and becoming the first 30-game winner this season. Charlotte’s Leah Heston has been named C-USA Hitter of the Week, after driving in 6 runs on Saturday, 11 for the week. Central Michigan’s Michelle Brander hit .409 last week, with 5 rbi, 3 doubles and a HR on 9-22 hitting and was named MAC West Player of the Week.

An Unusual Ruling. Utah swept UNLV on Sunday, 11-10 and 6-5 (11), which should have put the Utes into a tie for first-place with San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference. But, the conference bylaws dictate that games only count in the standings if played on the date originally scheduled (April 19). Why were these games postponed? There was the little matter of a snowstorm!

What’s In a Name? If you’re from Oklahoma, the Big Red are the Sooners, but to a Husker, the Big Red means Nebraska. KU, I am told, means Kansas, and UK means Kentucky. Actually, for someone of my background, it means the United Kingdom. Down in Tucson, they would prefer I use UA when referring to Arizona, but I’ve got to deal with Alabama, Akron, Arkansas, Auburn, etc. twelve schools in Division I which begin with "A". Which is why I always lead off paragraphs with the full name of the school. I will try to follow tradition. No slight intended.

ASA/USA Standards. Readers quite naturally are asking SPY what standards will be used at the Olympic tryouts. We have not seen the application forms for this set of tryouts, but, in the past, you had to have certain measurements verified by a coach – eg, bat speed, home to first, home to home, speed at which certain pitches are thrown, and fielding and throwing speed. When I have helped players in the past to verify their applications, I used a Jugs gun, including measurements of bat speed. As a general rule, you should have a bat speed of at least 60mph, a throwing speed of at least 55 mph, and , if you’re a pitcher, you should have command of a fast ball, curve, drop or rise, and a change. That said, if you’re a serious applicant, contact ASA and get the form.

A SPY Complaint. We recognize that college scribes are paid to boost the home team, but, why not mention the names of opposing players – especially when someone hits a grand slam or hurls a no-hitter against you? We read one report last weekend which went to great lengths extolling player feats but did not mention the scores – even though they won. One Southwestern school is so adroit at building up its players you don’t realize they lost until you are four paragraphs into the story. We have learned to log onto the web sites of both winners and losers to get the complete story – and the contrast on occasion is incredible. We see stories where a team got six runs in one inning, but the narrative only accounts for five, etc. We don’t ask for greater clarity for just us; we have multiple sources, but for all those readers who only access that one site – and they should come away with an informed insight into what happened.

Cameron, Lindsay. 3^rd,C, Palm Beach Gardens, to Florida.

ASA announced, in a press release dated Thursday, it will hold tryouts for the 2004 Olympic team in eight cities in August – and emphasized that the tryouts are open to any female U.S. citizen. The Olympics will be played in Greece.

Host cities are: (August 17) Killeen, TX; (August 24) Midland, MI; Altamonte Springs, FL; Hayward, CA; Wichita, KS; Philadelphia, PA; Fullerton, CA; and (August 31) Elizabeth, NJ.

Applicants must meet minimum standards; those approved by the National Team Selection Committee will be assigned to specific tryout sites. Players are responsible for all expenses related to the open tryouts.

Applications must be returned to the ASA National Office by June 15, with a fee of $75. Applications can be obtained through the Internet (www.usasoftball.com) or (www.asasoftball.com) or writing to ASA. For more information, call Brian McCall, USA Softball Office, 405-425-3463; fax 424-4734; or email: bmccall@softball.org.

SPY note: if past is precedent, these tryouts will be followed by one or more camps, eg, at Chula Vista or Altamonte Springs, from which the USA Olympic team will be chosen. Again given precedent, SPY assumes the 42+ players who will be competing in May at Chula Vista for berths on two USA 2002 national teams will either participate in these Olympic tryouts or be given invitations to the final selection camps. We are querying USA on these issues. Knowing virtually all of the players coming to Chula Vista, we can say confidently that most if not all believe they are competing ultimately for the Olympic team. Having witnessed the 1995-96 and 2000 tryouts, we can say the Olympic selection process is a novel experience, and, there will be surprises at the end. Any player who watched the two previous Olympic championship teams, with the gnawing feeling that it could be them up there on that podium, should put their skills to the test.

In the latest national high school poll (see SPY April 18), Mater Dei is ranked 11^th, Foothill 12^th, and Pacifica is down among the also-rans. In the just-concluded Foothill tournament, an annual classic in California, where the afficionados anticipated a match between Mater Dei and host Foothill, Pacifica defeated Foothill 2-0 in a morning game and then defeated Mater Dei for the tournament championship. Brittany Weil pitched both games for Pacifica and was named tournament MVP. Not as profound perhaps as the Truman-Dewey polls in 1948, but, to a bunch of kids from Pacifica, just as dramatic.

Readers in New Jersey are still in awe of Alicia Hollowell. They tell SPY that Alicia had 50 strikeouts in 23 innings, at the recent Wendy’s Classic in Ohio, leading Fairfield HS to a 3-0 record. SPY doesn’t have final results. Alicia of course holds the HS record with 61 strikeouts in a 30 inning game last year. New Jersey teams also played.

#1 Arizona lost its second consecutive game to #8 California on Sunday, 2-1, the first time the Wildcats have lost two consecutive conference games since April 2000. Bear Courtney Scott drove in a run in the 1^st, which was offset by Jenny Finch’s HR in the 4^th.  That was the only hit surrendered by Jocelyn Forest who smoked 15 Wildcats. The tie was broken by Candace Harper’s HR in the 5^th off Jenny Gladding. Arizona is now 8-3 Pac 10, tied with UCLA, while California is now in 3^rd place at 8-4.

#2 UCLA beat Oregon 3-1, and is now tied for the Pac 10 lead after California’s second win over Arizona 2-1. UCLA is 8-3; Oregon 0-12. Keira Goerl struck out 10 for her 21^st victory. The Bruins scored in the 1^st; Natasha Watley singled, stole second, advanced to third and scored on Stacey Nuveman’s single. Alyssa Laux tied the game with an rbi single, but UCLA’s Claire Sua hit a monster HR (her 9^th) in the 3^rd. Erin Rahn and Amanda Freed singled, the run scoring on a wild throw.

#4 Nebraska split its double-header with #24 Texas A&M, losing the first game 2-0, then winning the second 6-0 on a 3-hitter by Peaches James. The Huskers are now 8-4 in the Big 12, behind Texas and Oklahoma. Lindsey Wilhelmson shutout the Huskers on 3 hits in the first game; Leigh Ann Walker took the loss. Adrian Gregory scored on a sac fly, then Selena Collins led off the 6^th with her 12^th HR. Nebraska scored all 6 runs in the 3^rd. Nicole Trimboli doubled in 1 run and Peaches singled in two. Amber Burgess doubled; Peaches scored on an rbi by Amanda Buchholz who also scored. Lisa Wangler drove in Burgess. Jessica Slataper took the loss. Trimboli was 3-4 with two doubles.

#5 LSU was pushed hard by Kentucky before prevailing 4-2 in 8 innings. Britni Sneed struck out 15 Wildcats and gave up just 3 hits, but one was a 7^th inning HR by Lyndsey Angus which tied the game at 1-all. The Tigers are 20-3 in the SEC, the ‘Cats 3-15. Jennifer Howland pitched an excellent game and her 7^th inning line drive, just before the HR, could have led to victory – but Tiger April Janzen made a spectacular over the shoulder catch. Three UK errors and rbi singles by Christy Connor, Erin Johnson, and Tessa Lynam in the 8^th led to a 4-1 LSU margin. Rachel Friberg singled and scored the last KU run on a wild pitch. Kentucky is now 0-12 against LSU.

#6 Arizona State defeated #3 Stanford, for the second game in a row, 1-0, improving to 7-4 in Pac 10 and dropping the Cardinal to 4-8. Kara Brun singled in the 6^th to score Missy Hixon with the run. Stanford has scored one run in its last 21 innings. Erica Beach shut down the Cardinal on 2 hits. Tori Nyberg took the loss.

#7 CS Fullerton lost the game and first place in the Big West to #18 Pacific, 1-0, in a heartbreaker for Gina Oaks who had a perfect game until the 8^th inning when Cindy Ball singled. Pinch runner Krystle Peterson came home on Boni Kading’s double, beating the tag after Julie Watson made a great throw from center field. Pacific is 16-2, CSF 13-2. Ball struck out 7 enroute to her 22^nd win. This was CSF’s second loss to Pacific.

#9 Washington edged #14 Oregon State 1-0. The Huskies scored their run in the 3^rd when Kristen Rivera hit a bases-loaded single to score Steph Nicholson who had walked. Ashley Boek pitched the first 4 innings and got the win; Leslie Scott pitched one inning and Tia Bollinger closed out the game. Monica Hoffman was the loser. UW improved to 6-5 Pac 10 while the Beavers fell to 5-7.

#10 Florida Atlantic scored on a Callie Piper squeeze bunt in the 5^th to edge Florida International 1-0, and improve to 52-8 on the year.

#11 Oklahoma kept pace in the Big 12, beating Kansas 2-0, on Player of the Week Heather Scaglione’s 2-run HR in the 6^th. OU’s Jennifer Stewart and KU’s Kirsten Milhoan each threw a 3-hitter. The win marked the Sooner’s fifth sweep of a Big 12 foe, and their record is now 11-2; Kansas is 5-9. Oklahoma loaded the bases in the 1^st but two runners were nailed at home.

#12 Michigan got a must-win 3-1 victory Sunday over #21 Iowa. The win gives the Wolverines a 10-3 record in the Big Ten, while the Hawkeyes drop to 9-4. Stephanie Volpe put Michigan up 1-0 with her 7^th HR. Then, Monica Schock was hit by a pitch from Iowa’s Kristi Hanks and Marissa Young walked; Melinda Moulden drove in Schock for a 2-0 lead. Christina Schmaltz put Iowa on the board with her 7^th HR but Young, who got the win while striking out 8, held after that for her 19^th win.

#13 Fresno State lost to Hawaii 5-1on Sunday, after winning 4-1 on Saturday. The Bulldogs scored 4 runs on 11 hits in the first game, giving Jamie Southern her 28^th victory. Hawaii’s run came on a HR by Kate Judd in the bottom of the 7^th. Pam Perez was 3-4; Southern 2-3; and Julie Selbicky and Pam West were 2-4. The Rainbow Wahine waited out a 22-hour rain delay before Game 4 of the weekend series (the game started Saturday), but it was worth it, as Hawaii, which gave up only 1 run when Fresno State loaded the bases in the 3^rd (just prior to the rain), scored 4 runs in the 6^th to break a 1-1 tie.. Judd hit an rbi single, and Stacey Porter drove in two more., followed by doubles by Denise Dahlberg and April Crowell. Shannon Tabion got the win over Leslie Poole. Fresno State is in command in the WAC at 12-2; Hawaii 11-5.

#15 Alabama has won 12 straight from Mississippi State, the latest and 8-2 win on Sunday to improve to 20-4 in the SEC; the Bulldogs are 10-13. Ashley Courtney’s rbi double in the 3^rd gave ‘Bama a 1-0 lead. Jackie Wilkins’ two-out single drove in Angela Johnson for a 2-0 lead. MSU scored one run and had the bases loaded in the 4^th but Shelley Laird relieved Jennifer Wright and put out the threat. The Tide expanded its lead to 6-1 in the 5^th; Courtney drove in another run and, after a double steal, scored two runs on squeeze bunts. Laird got the win, her 23^rd, in relief; her 114^th career victory tied her with former national champion Shawn Andaya of Texas A&M for 8^th on the NCAA list.

#16 Texas was scheduled to play a third game Sunday against Iowa State, but, at 1230am, SPY’s hoped-for press time, there was no report.

#17 DePaul vs South Florida was cancelled by rain.

#19 Louisiana-Lafayette completed its mastery of New Mexico State, winning the third and fourth games this weekend by scores of 9-5 and 6-0. The Cajuns outscored NMS 43-15. The Aggies had some bright moments: in the first game, Heather Nobbe and Shayne Gibson each hit a 2-run homer. But, it was not enough to offset two innings in which the Cajuns scored 4 runs each.

#20 Florida State is idle until 4/28 when it plays Jacksonville State.

#22 Ohio State banged out 12 hits but had to fend off a late Illinois rally to win 5-2 in Game Two on Sunday. The win gives the Buckeyes a 13-3 conference record and in contention for the Big Ten championship; Michigan is a half-game behind at 10-3 and Iowa a full game behind at 9-4. The victory was OSU’s 12^th in a row. The Buckeyes led 5-0 into the 7^th when the Illini got consecutive singles to score two runs. Chrissy Fowler, Kristine Himes and Jennifer Link were all 2-4. Katie Chain scattered 8 hits for the win. Game One was even more contentious. Ohio State was down five runs but won in the 8^th on a HR by Fowler to lead off the final inning. Boosted by 4 Buckeye errors, Illinois led 5-0 after 3 innings. Wendy Allen hit a 2-run double, followed by Stacy Roth’s 12^th HR of the year, to get within a run, then tied the game in the 6^th on Himes’ double. Fowler’s game-winning HR was OSU’s 48^th in 52 games. Allen was the winning pitcher.

#23 Baylor was upset by Oklahoma State, 2-1 in 12 innings. After holding Baylor scoreless in the top of the 12th, OSU scored a second run on an error by Baylor. Jade Lindly started the inning on second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Megan Carey. Baylor sent in its third pitcher of the day, Cristin Vitek who walked the first batter she faced, Calli Behmer. With two outs, Lindly attempted to steal home and scored the winning run on a muffed throw by catcher, Danelle Arnold. Left-hander Lauren Bay (18-10) threw over 170 pitches en route to picking up the win over the Lady Bears. In 12 innings, Bay scattered six hits, walked three and struck out 12 batters.

#25 Georgia lost the finale of its 3-game set against Ole Miss, 6-3, in eight innings. The Bulldogs are now 15-12 in SEC; Ole Miss 7-17. Georgia led 2-0 after five, on rbi by Julie Milner and Michelle Tyree, but DeDe Justice tied the game in the 6^th with a 2-run homer. In the 8^th, Brooke Turner hit a 3-run triple, and she scored on Dfesiree Layman’s single. Kim Wendland drove home Nicole Barber for another Bulldog run. Leslie Day won in relief of Lindsay Price. Rachael Hawkins took the loss in relief of Lacey Gardner.

Other Colleges

Virginia edged Maryland Sunday 3-2. An observer might call it a pitchers duel; another might call it a home-run derby; another might talk about how many runners the Cavaliers stranded in a game that should not have been so close – and all would be right. This was UVA’s first ACC win (1-4) and Maryland is 0-3. Winner Kristen Dennis and loser Amanda Bettker each gave up 4 hits, Dennis notching 12 Ks, Bettker 5. But, Bettker gave up 7 walks; indeed Virginia had 13 base-runners including 6 in the first 3 innings, none of whom scored, thanks in part to a leaping, back-turned grab by Malissa Moczulski of a bases-loaded, two-out liner by Tracey Sherman. Heather Field got the first hit of the game, a double in the 5^th; a batter later, Ruby Rojas jacked a pitch over the left field wall for a 2-0 lead. The Terps issued intentional walks to Dennis, UVA’s leading home-run hitter, in the 3^rd and 5^th innings, but, in the 7^th, coach Gina LaMandre decided to let Bettker pitch to her – and Dennis slammed the ball over the fence for a 3-0 lead. With two out in the 7^th, Moczulski doubled to left center, the second Terp hit of the game, and Monica Cyphert, who had gone deep with a fly ball in the 5^th, jacked a pitch over the fence in straight-away CF. Terp hopes soared when Lauren Pollock followed with a single to left, by Dennis retired Jill Callaway on a line drive to right field. The Terps had an earlier scoring opportunity with two on in the 6^th but Casey Leiter struck out looking on a 3-2 count. UVA lets its catchers call the game, and we were impressed with Brit Gore’s pitch calls; the umpire was giving Dennis the outside corner and she worked it to perfection. The game was played in a steady drizzle, which emptied the stands, and the second game was called – but not before Maryland threw a scare into Virginia. The Cavaliers sent eight batters to the plate in the 1^st against Cyphert, and got two runs. But, Joanna Barstad walked 4 of the first 6 batters she faced, and Maryland was down 2-1 with the bases loaded and two out when the game was called.

South Carolina improved to 16-8 on Megan Matthews second no-hitter, downing Florida 1-0. Samantha Jennings walked with two out in the 5^th, and scored on an rbi double by Danielle Quinones. Amanda Knowles took the loss. Florida is in 8^th place, the final spot for a berth in the SEC tournament.

Minnesota has a winning Big Ten record of 7-5 after sweeping Indiana, including a 4-0 win on Saturday. The Wisconsin v Indiana games Sunday were rained out and will not be rescheduled. Northwestern swept Michigan State on Sunday, 8-0 and 7-3, to move the 9-5 Wildcats into fourth place in the Big Ten. Gretchen Barnes, who was 5-5 with 6 rbi on the day, homered in Game One for a 3-0 advantage.

Notre Dame is firmly in the Big East lead; the Irish were idle Sunday but face a tough opponent Tuesday in a double-header at Lincoln with Nebraska.

Auburn pushed Tennessee further away from the SEC tournament, winning 8-0 on Sunday.

Massachusetts extended its win streak to 24 games, after sweeping three games from St. Bonaventure, the last a 10-0 victory on Sunday, in which the Minutewomen got 4 hits. The Bonnies hit 15 U Mass batters in the 3 games. U Mass scored 4 runs in the 1^st, including a 3-run, two-out homer by Jamie Cahalan.

We are indebted to Linda Town for this submission:

MY DAILY WORKOUT
Physical exercise is good for you. I know that I should do
it daily but my body doesn't want me to do to much, so I
have worked out this program of strenuous activities that do not require
physical exercise. You are invited to use my program without charge.

01) Beating around the bush
02) Jumping to conclusions
03) Climbing the walls
04) Swallowing my pride
05) Passing the buck
06) Throwing my weight around
07) Dragging my heels
08) Pushing my luck
09) Making mountains out of molehills
10) Hitting the nail on the head
11) Wading through paperwork
12) Bending over backwards
13) Jumping on the bandwagon
14) Balancing the books
15) Running around in circles
16) Eating crow
17) Tooting my own horn
18) Climbing the ladder of success
19) Pulling out the stops
20) Adding fuel to the fire
21) Opening a can of worms
22) Putting my foot in my mouth
23) Starting the ball rolling
24) Going over the edge
25) Picking up the pieces

Whew! What a workout! I think I'll exercise my caution now,
and sit down.

End April 21 Update

#1 Arizona and ace Jenny Finch were upset Saturday by #8 California, 5-2. Jessica Pamanian struck the first big blow with a 2-run homer in the 2^nd. AU’s Jackie Coburn matched with a 2-run HR in the 5^th, following a single by Mackenzie Vandergeest. But the Bears scored 3 more in the bottom of that inning: Kristen Morley singled and advanced to second on an out; Veronica Nelson was intentionally walked; Courtney Scott doubled to left, scoring Morley, then Chelsea Spencer doubled, scoring two more. The Bears got 8 hits off Finch, now 24-2. Jenny had won 64 of her last 65 decisions. Kelly Anderson got the win, giving up only those two hits in the 5^th. Arizona is now 41-6, 8-2 in Pac 10. They meet again on Sunday.

#2 UCLA got a 3-run HR from Claire Sua in the 5^th and a 4-hit shutout from Amanda Freed as the Bruins downed Oregon on Saturday, 7-0. UCLA is now 7-3, a game behind Arizona. Oregon is 0-11 in Pac 10 play. Stephanie Ramos and Crissy Buck started the rout with rbi singles in the 4^th. Natasha Watley was on with a bunt single, and stole her 30^th base before coming home on Tairia Mims’ single. Mims and Ramos, who walked, scored ahead of Sua on her two-out HR. Freed struck out 11.

#3 Stanford lost to #6 Arizona State 4-0 on Saturday, lifting the Sun Devils to a 6-4 record in Pac 10 while the Cardinal fall to 4-7. Stanford loaded the bases in the 1^st and 7^th but couldn’t score, while ASU was building a lead from the get-go, scoring 3 runs in the 1^st on hits by Phelan Wright and Nichole Thompson. Erica Beach won on a 2-hitter and is now 23-8. Maureen LeCoq took the loss (14-5). They play again on Sunday.

#4 Nebraska and #24 Texas A&M were rained out Saturday and will play a DH Sunday.

#5 LSU continued its record of never losing to Kentucky, winning 1-0 and 4-1 on Saturday. The Tigers have won 19 of their last 20 games. Britni Sneed hurled a 2-hitter with 15K in the first game, her 15^th shutout, and is 21-5 on the season. Megann Streege singled and scored on Jennie Reeves’ rbi single. Kristin Schmidt won the second game, which featured two rbi doubles by Christy Connor. KU catcher Lyndsey Angus broke a string of 32 scoreless innings when she scored with two outs on an error. LSU is now 19-3 in the SEC, Kentucky 3-14. The teams meet again on Sunday.

#7 Cal State Fullerton’s nation-leading win streak stopped at 32 on Saturday after the Titans split a twin-bill with #18 Pacific. Fullerton won the first game 1-0, then fell 3-2, also ending an 18-game Big West winning streak. CSF is now 13-1, Pacific 14-2. Jodie Cox threw her second no-hitter to win the first game; Jodie set down 15 in a row leading into the 7^th. The Titans run was scored by Gina Oaks, who singled and, after stealing 3^rd, came home on Monica Lucatero’s single. Cindy Ball took the loss. The Titans led in the second game, 2-0, the second run scored by Lucatero who drew a bases-loaded walk from Tiger starter Jennifer Dacre. Pacific scored all 3 runs in the 6^th. Barbara Moody drove in 2 runs with a single, followed by Estee Okumura’s rbi double. Ball shut down the Titans in the 7^th and got the save. Gina Oaks, in relief of Christy Robitaille, walked the bases loaded but got a K and a ground-out to prevent further Tiger scoring. These top-ranked Big West teams meet again on Sunday with the conference lead on the line.

#9 Washington won its 4^th straight Saturday with a 3-1 win over #14 Oregon State. Kristen Rivera hit her 5^th HR in the last 4 games. The win evens the Huskies Pac 10 record at 5-5, while the Beavers are 5-6. Megan Owen’s two-strike single in the 4^th plated the first Husky run. Jaime Clark doubled to lead the 5^th, in front of Rivera’s homer. Rivera and Clark are tied for UW’s home run lead with 15 each. Tia Bollinger limited the Beavers to 3 hits while fanning 7. Jessica King doubled and scored on a fielder’s choice in the 7^th to prevent the shutout. Becky Simpson was 4-4.

#10 Florida Atlantic split with Georgia State on Friday and plays Florida International on Sunday, and a DH Tuesday with Stetson. FAU is 14-2 in Atlantic Sun.

#11 Oklahoma shook off its Farm Belt tournament blues with a 6-3 win Saturday over Big 12 rival Kansas. The Sooners are 10-2 in conference. Leah Gulla drove in 3 runs, on 2-3 hitting, and hit her 12th HR. Freshman Kami Keiter started and got the win (10-6). The Jayhawks scored first; Leah Tabb’s HR followed a walk to Shelly Musser. Matching, Gulla’s HR plated Jennifer Stump, who had walked to lead off the second. OU scored 3 in the 3^rd on rbi singles by Gulla and Keiter, the third run scoring when Kelli Braitsch walked and pickled, Gulla scoring on the run-down. Christy Ring drove in Tiffany Weight, who had doubled to lead off the 6^th. Before Kansas scored a run in the 7^th, Keiter had retired 17 of the 19 batters she faced after Tabb’s homer. The Sooners and Jayhawks meet again on Sunday.

#12 Michigan’s Stefanie Volpe hit two grand slams, driving in a school record 8 runs, as the Wolverines avenged Friday’s loss by beating Northwestern 11-1. With a double header coming up Sunday with Iowa (which lost to Michigan State on Saturday), Michigan is now 9-3 Big Ten, Northwestern 7-5. Volpe is the first Wolverine to his two grand slams in a game. Kelsey Kollen drove in 3 runs on 3-4 hitting. Freshman Nicole Motycka allowed just 3 Wildcat hits, improving to 16-2.

#13 Fresno State won two WAC games against Hawaii, 6-4 and 3-2 (8). In game one, the teams scored 10 runs on 21 hits – including 3 Bulldog homers, one by Lindsay Fossatti who also set a school record for walks. Jamie Southern won the first game, but was tagged for two 2-run HRs, including one by Kate Judd in the bottom of the first to give Hawaii a 2-0 lead. Fossatti tied the score with a 2-run HR in the 3^rd, and FSU went in front when Lori Hoffman singled in Southern, who had beaten out an infield single. But, Stacey Porter put the Rainbow Wahine up 4-3 with her 2-run homer, scoring Judd also who had walked. FSU scored two in the 5^th and one in the 6^th. Fossatti’s walk in the 5^th was her 107^th. Southern is three Ks shy of a new school record, with 312. The teams battled for 8 innings in game two, which was decided by Hoffman’s solo HR. Leslie Poole limited Hawaii to 4 hits. Fresno State held a 1-0 lead on Fossatti’s second HR of the day, and got another run on Fossatti’s double in the 5^th. But, Hawaii had scored one run on an illegal pitch, and Porter hit her second HR of the day, to tie the game.

#15 Alabama swept SEC rival Mississippi State on Saturday, 10-4 and 8-4. The Tide scored 18 runs on 23 hits to improve to 19-4 SEC. The Bulldogs are 10-12. "Bama held a 3-1 lead when it scored 4 runs in the 5^th. Up 7-1, the margin was pushed to 9-1 on Jackie Wilkins’ 2-run HR. Bulldog Lindsay Nelson hit a 3-run double in the 5^th to narrow the margin to 9-4. Shelley Laird (22-7) got the first game win. Erin Wright won the second game. The teams play again on Sunday.

#16 Texas got 30 strikeouts from Catherine Osterman, the winner of both games Saturday against Iowa State, 5-1 and 1-0. Erica Martinez lost both games. Texas is 14-1 in the Big 12, a game ahead of Oklahoma. Osterman (27-7) gave up 3 hits while fanning 14 in the first game, and two hits while striking out 16 in the second game.

#17 DePaul is 30-8 and dominating Conference USA after sweeping South Florida. Christina Douglas’s two-out 3-run HR in the 6^th inning was the big blow in a 4-0 win in the first game, won by Lindsay Chouinard. With 2 rbi from Sarah Martz, April Valdez (with Chouinard getting a save) won the second game 5-3.

#19 Louisiana-Lafayette blew out New Mexico State 17-7 and 11-3.

#20 Florida State has the ACC in a strangle-hold after defeating North Carolina twice on Saturday, 7-6 in eight innings and a come-from-behind 9-5 victory. The Seminoles are 4-0 in conference. Talk about holding grudges: every Seminole press release reminds that North Carolina is the defending ACC champ by virtue of having knocked off Florida State in last year’s tournament. But, for a while, it looked like the Tar Heels continued to have a hex on the Seminoles; they led 3-0 and 5-2 in Game One, before Monique Marier’s game-winning rbi in the bottom of the 8^th. Shandra Colzie was 3-4, and Brandi Stuart, Kimmy Carter, and Marier each had 2 rbi. Leslie Malerich (23-10) was the winner. The Seminoles also fell behind 5-4 in Game Two but Marier again came to the rescue with a HR and 3 rbi on 3-4 hitting. Marier also got the final out of the game, when the Heels had the bases loaded. Malerich picked up the win in relief of Jessica Van Der Linden.

#21 Iowa was upset by Michigan State, 5-3, as Becky Gray won her 12^th. Iowa drops to 9-3 in the Big Ten. The Spartans were down 3 runs and took a 4-3 lead on a Tiffany Wallace rbi single in the 4^th. The final run came on Brittany Green’s 6^th rbi in two days. Iowa had beaten MSU 6-5 in eight innings in the previous game.

#22 Ohio State was down 4 runs before rallying to beat Purdue 6-5 and improve to 11-3 in the Big Ten, just one game behind Michigan. The Boilermakers owned an early 3-0 lead, thanks to a 2-run triple by Jesse Jones, and led 5-1 in the 5^th. The Buckeyes scored 5 runs in the 6^th to take the game, but needed a double-play to get out of a bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the 6^th.

#23 Baylor beat Oklahoma State 7-0.

#25 Georgia swept Mississippi, 4-1 and 6-4.

Texas’ Catherine Osterman and Fresno State’s Jamie Southern were named Co-Players of the Week on Wednesday by NFCA.

Having lost much of our immune system to a snake in the jungles of Indonesia, we caught pneumonia – everybody else was just cold – at the Worth Cup in San Diego in January (31 degrees). Never more! Today we received an absolutely stunning knitted blue wool scarf and cap, both emblazoned with SPY.COM, from a reader in Anaheim – who did not provide her name on the mailing label or on the very kind card inside the box. We look forward to thanking her in person – when we learn the identity.

#1 Arizona and # 3 Stanford were scheduled to play at 7pm (Pacific time). SPY will post the results if time permits. The Wildcats play California Saturday and Sunday, while Stanford plays Arizona State.  (SPY had not received results at 1230am)

Late Report:  #1 Arizona snatched victory away from Cardinal Tori Nyberg with a 7th inning HR by Mackenzie Vandergeest, one of only two hits by the Wildcats, who won 2-1.  Stanford scored off Jenny Finch in the 4th: Jessica Mendoza doubled and scored on Sarah Beeson's single.  That lone run seemed to be enough, with Nyberg apparently in control of AU's big hitters, until Mackenzie's blast, which elevated Arizona to 8-1 in Pac 10, while Stanford fell to 4-6.  Finch gave up 3 hits.

#2 UCLA’s Keira Goerl had a no-hitter for 6+ innings before Kelly Petersen singled but all the other offense was Bruin in a 7-0 victory Friday over #14 Oregon State. UCLA (6-3 Pac 10) scored 3 runs in the 1^st, on two hits, a hit batsman and two errors. Two runs scored on Stacey Nuveman’s single. OSU’s Kristen Hunter threw 14 pitches at Crissy Buck, then hit her with the bases loaded for the 3^rd run. In the second, Amanda Freed doubled and Tairia Mims homered. Stacey’s 2-run HR in the 4^th closed out the scoring.

#4 Nebraska hosts #24 Texas A&M Saturday and Sunday. The Huskers are 7-3 in the Big 12 and need the wins to stay in the hunt with Texas and Oklahoma.

#5 LSU has never lost to Kentucky; they play 3 games starting Saturday.

#6 Arizona State surrendered 3 unearned runs in the first two innings and fell to #8 California, 3-2 on Friday. The Bears improve to 6-4 Pac 10; the Sun Devils are 5-4. Candace Harper doubled in the first Cal run – Kaleo Eldredge who reached on an error. In the second, Jessica Vernaglia reached on an error and scored on a single by Eldredge, who advanced on one error, and scored on the error following Kristen Morley’s bunt single. ASU’s Kara Brun hit a solo HR in the 4^th (her 7^th) and scored another on Nichole Thompson’s double driving in Amber Turner, running for Erica Beach who walked. Beach took the loss (22-8). Jen Deering pitched 4 innings and got the win; Kelly Anderson relieved and worked out of a bases-loaded situation in the 6^th.

#7 Cal State Fullerton puts its 31-game winning streak and undefeated record in the Big West to a road test this weekend against #18 Pacific. The Titans defeated Loyola Marymount twice on Thursday, 9-0 (5) and 5-2. Gina Oaks, Yasmin Mossadeghi, and Amanda Hockett all homered in the first game, Oaks pitched 4 innings for the win, Christy Robitaille the 5^th. Yasmin also homered in the second game, won by Robitaille with Jodie Cox relieving the last two innings. The Titans led 4-0 after 5.

#9 Washington shut out Oregon 6-0, the Huskies 3^rd straight Pac 10 win, a 3-hitter by Ashley Boek. Washington (4-5 Pac 10) scored 2 runs in the 1^st on Kristen Rivera’s HR, her 14^th and 4^th in the last 3 games. Amanda Oleson, Courtney Jeffries and Kathy Fiske also had rbi hits. Lindsay Kontra took the loss.

#10 Florida Atlantic is now 14-2 in Atlantic Sun play after splitting Friday with Georgia State, 0-2 and 6-0. The Owls were scoreless for 12 innings, finally scoring all 6 runs in the 6^th inning of the second game. Nikki Myers pitched her 15^th shutout of the season while striking out 11 to win the second game.

#11 Oklahoma is 9-2 in the Big 12, second to Texas who administered both defeats. The Sooners face a good conference test this weekend against the visiting Kansas Jayhawks.

#16 Texas, first in the Big 12 with a 12-1 record, swept Texas Tech on Wednesday 3-2 and 2-0. Winners of 14 of their last 15 games, the Longhorns fell behind the Red Raiders 2-0 early, but, after tying the game, got the victory in the 8^th inning on Tamara Poppe’s two-out homer. The Raiders got 3 hits off Catherine Osterman in the first, but she came back with 12 Ks, becoming just the 12^th player in NCAA history, and only the second freshman, to record 400 Ks in a season, and is now 25-7. Amy Bradford got the save. Reversing roles, Bradford won the second game, Osterman in relief. Texas travels to Ames for two games against Iowa State this weekend. The Cyclones defeated Western Illinois 6-5 on Thursday; Erica Martinez hit her 9^th and 10^th HRs of the year.

#17 DePaul, winners of 10 straight in Conference USA, found the going tougher against the Big Ten’s Northwestern on Wednesday, winning the first game 9-1 but losing the second 6-1. They play conference foe South Florida on Saturday and Sunday.

#19 Louisiana-Lafayette, which defeated Nicholls State twice on Wednesday, 6-0 and 7-1, returns to Sun Belt competition this weekend with 4 games against New Mexico State. The Ragin’ Cajuns, who have hit 11 HRs in their last 3 games and have 53 on the season, belted 7 HRs against Nicholls State, including 4 in the first game by Tiffany Grayson, Missy Martin, Jill Robertson, and Crystal George. Brooke Mitchell threw a 3-hitter. Becky McMurty hit 2 homers in the second game, one was a 3-run shot, as she went 3-4. Joy Webre hit a 2-run homer. Michael Parrott got the second win.

#20 Florida State had its way in the ACC in 2001, only to lose to North Carolina in the tournament. Entering this weekend, the Seminoles are undefeated in conference, the Tar Heels are 2-2.

#21 Iowa hosts Michigan State this weekend.

#22 Ohio State won its 9^th in a row, defeating Purdue 7-1 on Friday, and is now 10-3 in the Big Ten. Eight Buckeyes combined for 12 hits; Anna Smith, Wendy Allen, Chrissy Fowler, and Rogeanna Hottinger had two hits each. Purdue lost its 3^rd in a row and stands 2-7. Allen was the winner with Katie Chain in relief; Lindsey Crouse the loser.

#23 Baylor, ahead of Oklahoma State in Big 12 standings – 9-5 vs 5-6 -- goes to Stillwater this weekend to face the Cowgirls. The Bears swept Sam Houston State on Thursday, 8-2 and 8-0.

#25 Georgia is 8-6 in recent SEC competition and faces Mississippi for 3 games.

Villanova benefitted from two HRs by shortstop Ricci Lugo on Thursday, sweeping Pennsylvania 5-0 and 11-0, partially compensating for the 2-1 loss to Temple on Wednesday. The Wildcats, 34-9 after Thursday’s sweep, also got a triple from Lugo to lead-off game one; her solo HR came in the 5^th. Shannon Williams hurled a 2-hitter. Lugo’s HR to lead-off the game tied a single-season Wildcat record. Kristen Haynes was the winner. Sara Carlson was 3-6, 4rbi on the day; Kari Koller had 2 rbi in game two. The Wildcats play Seton Hall on Saturday and St. John’s on Sunday.

Saturday’s ACC showdown between Maryland (0-2) and Virginia (0-4) has been postponed to Sunday. Virginia beat Elon twice on Thursday, 7-1 and 8-2.

Notre Dame hopes to expand its Big East lead against Virginia Tech on Saturday in South Bend. The Irish beat Bowling Green 8-5 on Thursday.

Only 8 SEC teams will make the tournament, and Tennessee (7-12) holds that 8^th spot, but Auburn (7-11) is a notch ahead in 7^th, and Florida (7-14) is in 9^th. The Volunteers play both in a span of 7 days.

ISF FORMS ATHLETES COMMISSION

ISF President Don Porter announced Thursday that an Athletes Commission has been
Formed which will be charged with gaining input and reviewing issues raised by
athletes, formulating procedures or rules that enhance and advance athletes'
participation and representation in the development and administration of the
sport.

Porter named Ms. Pat Lillian of the USA as the commission's Chairperson.

The commission will consist of: FEMALES - Michelle Granger (USA), Laurie Sipple
(Canada), Daniela Castiliani (Italy), Sarka Koprivova (Czech Republic), Joyce
Lester (Australia), Yen-Feng (China), Reika Utsugi (Japan), Jessica Vanderlinden
Davila (Puerto Rico), and Gisela Murai (Zimbabwe).  MALES - Mark Sorenson (New
Zealand), Jan Pribyl (Czech Republic), Todd King (Canada), and Avon Meacham
(USA).

MORE BUCA DI BEPPO

Mike Kelly informs us there is now a Buca only 10 minutes from the ballfields 

used for the Plantation FL tournaments.  Thanked SPY for the tip.

LAKE CITY WINS FLORIDA CONFERENCE
Two Virginia pitchers, Lesley Palmer and Katie Fricke,

combined to lead Lake City CC to its 25th championship in the Mid Florida conference.  Palmer, who spent her freshman year at Texas, advises that she has verbally committed to Florida State for 2003.

#1 Arizona defeated #11 Oklahoma but when the smoke cleared after 9 innings, the Wildcats had the game 1-0 but they knew they had been in a battle. Jenny Finch struck out the first 9 Sooners, 19 Ks total, but Kami Keiter was pitching a great game for OU to stifle AU’s big bats. Finally, in the top of the 9^th, Arizona’s Crystal Farley hit back to the pitcher, but Keiter couldn’t make the play; after the hit, Lovie Jung (who else?) doubled for the only run of the game, which closed out the Farm Bureau Classic. This marked the 4^th loss in a row for the Sooners, but, defensively, it had to be a confidence builder. Also, Oklahoma freshman sensation Heather Scaglione was named Big 12 player of the week.

#3 Stanford got back on the winning track Tuesday (the report was posted today) defeating Santa Barbara twice 7-2 and 8-3. The Cardinal went up 1-0 in the first game on a single by Robin Walker and a double by Jessica Mendoza. Walker singled again in the 4^th; this time, Mendoza hit a HR (#12). Stanford was up 7-0 after Leah Nelson’s 3-run HR in the 6^th. Tori Nyberg was the winner, Elizabeth Bendig got the save. Santa Barbara took a 1-0 lead in game two before Nelson, Bendig and Jessica Draemel scored. The Gauchos tied the game but the Cardinal then scored 5 runs on six singles in the 6^th to put the game away. Maureen LeCoq was the winner.

#4 Nebraska wasted little time in scoring on Iowa State, Kim Ogee leading off the 1^st with a home run. The Huskers won the Big 12 contest, 8-3. Cyclone Lindsey Herrin hit a bases-loaded single to put Iowa State up 2-1, adding another run in the 3^rd. Nebraska took control, scoring 2 in the 3^rd and 3 in the 4^th for a 6-3 lead.

#13 Fresno State was 2-0 in the Farm Bureau Classic in Oklahoma City after defeating Oklahoma State on Wednesday, 3-1The Bulldogs went up 1-0 in the 1^st on an rbi single by Jamie Southern. Ryan Realmuto tied the game for the Cowgirls. Lindsay Fossatti hit the game winner, driving in Tiffany Whipple and Pam Perez in the 3^rd. Southern is now 26-6; Cami Carter was the loser, with Lauren Bay putting the Bulldogs down for 4+.

#17 DePaul split a double-header Wednesday with Northwestern, losing 6-1 after winning 9-1. In the latter game, the Blue Demons scored 7 runs in the 1^st, with Christina Douglas, Katy Kuman, and Sarah Douglas getting key hits. Lindsay Chouinard struck out 8 while giving up two hits. Gretchen Barnes became the all-time Northwestern HR hitter in the second game, a solo shot to left field. Pitchers Brie Brown and Stephanie Elliott combined to hold the Blue Demons to one run, a solo HR by Molly Sircher. Sarah Martz struck out eight in a losing cause.

#20 Florida State and Florida split their double-header Wednesday in what has become one of college softball’s better rivalries. The Gators started the day by ending the Seminole’s 12-game winning streak, 7-1. FSU rebounded to win 6-1; getting even was how the Seminole scribes reported it. Gator Amanda Knowles shut down the Seminoles on 4 hits, but one was a HR by Monique Marier. Leslie Malerich was the loser; freshman Casey Hunter worked 5 innings in relief. The Gators scored 3 runs in the 1^st and 4 more in the 3^rd, the latter unearned. Mylin Prieto had 3 rbi, Jenilee Garner and Katy Berger had two each. FSU had 10 hits in the second game, which marked the 5^th time these teams have split a double-header. Jessica Van Der Linden won her 14^th, a career high, and also drove in 2 runs. She struck out 8. Shandra Colzie, Beth Wade, Elisa Velasco, and Jackie Hirschfield also had rbi’s.

#23 Baylor defeated #24 Texas A&M 3-0, scoring all of its runs in the 6^th. The Bears are now 9-5 in the Big 12; the Aggies drop to 6-7. Aggie P Lindsey Wilhelmson held Baylor hitless for 5 innings, but, loaded the bases in the 6^th when two runs scored on a wild pitch and errant throw, and finally a double by Kristen Lancaster. Cristin Vitek and Joni Miller combined for the win, Miller retiring 12 of the 13 batters she faced.

Notre Dame pounded out 25 hits to sweep Indiana State twice, in five innings each game, 14-1 and 11-2. Carrie Wisen picked up her 9^th and 10^th victories as every Irish starter had at least one hit. Andrea Loman homered in both games.

Minnesota started the season strongly but is now 20-13 after splitting with Northern Iowa, winning 7-0 and losing 6-3.

Virginia Tech won the cross-border battle with Tennessee 6-0, on a no-hitter by Ashlee Dobbe.

Maryland, which has tough ACC battles coming up with Virginia and Florida State, tuned up its bats and warmed its gloves in 5-0 and 4-0 shutouts of George Mason on Wednesday. (Virginia also played out of conference, defeating UMBC 6-1). Amanda Bettker and Monica Cyphert each pitched a 2-hit shutout for the Terrapins, and were never seriously threatened. Cyphert had a no-hitter for 5+ innings. Keisha Pickeral’s 1^st inning double opened the scoring; rbi hits by Jen Peel, Samantha Sweeney (triple) and Casey Leiter (sac fly) had Maryland up 4-0 after two, with a later insurance run. Cyphert struck out six. Peel had 2 rbi. In the other game, Sweeney was 3-4. Leiter had 2 rbi and C Beth Radford had one, as Maryland banged out 10 hits, and left 8 on base.

The first time I saw Beth Radford, the genial slugger/catcher swatted two home runs to help her father’s team rout a 12-U team I was coaching. Today, I watched Beth batting cleanup and catching for the Maryland Terrapins, a senior leader on a team which includes a number of other players whom I have known through the years. Several George Mason players were similarly well known to us. So the Maryland-George Mason doubleheader was like a sentimental journey – Maryland winning both games 5-0 and 4-0. There were former Chesapeake Chargers, Maryland Dynasty, Bayside Blues and from Virginia, former Shamrocks, Firebirds, Flash, Fire & Ice – girls who had won highschool and travel ball honors in Maryland and Virginia – even two members of the PA Blazing Angels national champions. Their parents and I had some good moments, remembering games when the Dynasty defeated the CA Firecrackers for a regional crown, and the Shamrocks and Chargers split games with the CA Athletics, and all the times we beat each other and always looked forward, as friends, to the next game. A good day, especially visiting with players you’ve known for so many years. End

At 12:31am, none of the four resource sites used by SPY had a score on #1 Arizona versus Oklahoma State in the Farm Bureau Classic. SPY will republish this report early Wednesday to include that game.

LATE UPDATE: #1 ARIZONA defeated Oklahoma State, 4-2. Jenny Gladding had 12 Ks. The Cats started things off quickly scoring two runs in the first inning. Leadoff hitter junior Lovie Jung walked and advanced to second on a passed ball. Freshman Courtney Fossatti walked and senior Jenny Finch singled to right center, moving Fossatti to third and scoring Jung. Fossatti scored the last run on a passed ball. Oklahoma State earned their first run in the second inning when Jade Lindly homered over the right fence.

#9 Oklahoma lost its third game in a row, this time a loss Tuesday night to #12 Fresno State, 4-0, the Farm Bureau Classic in Oklahoma City. Bulldog ace Jamie Southern, who leads the nation in ERA, shutout the Sooners on 4 hits. OU starter Jennifer Stewart gave up all 4 runs, as Oklahoma chalked up its longest losing streak since 1999, when OU lost 4 in a row. Southern also went 2-3, including a 6^th inning double, and scored the final Bulldog run. Southern had 2 rbi; Lindsay Fossatti and Lashme Gomez each had an rbi.

The Sooners were down 3-0 in the 5^th when they put runners on second and third with one out but failed to score. Oklahoma faces Arizona on Wednesday. Southern was named WAC pitcher of the week; CF Tiffany Whipple was player of the week. Oklahoma plays Arizona on Wednesday; Fresno State plays Oklahoma State.

#10 Washington’s Kristen Rivera was rewarded for hitting HRs in three consecutive plate appearances against Stanford, by being named Pac 10 Player of the Week.

#20 Iowa got homeruns from Christina Schmaltz and Jessica Bashor as the Hawkeyes won the intra-state contest with Iowa State’s Cyclones on Tuesday, 10-4. Iowa had a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the second, when Cyclone Kelly Wardein got the first HR of her career, scoring Katie Ruby ahead of her. But Iowa scored two runs and then five runs in consecutive innings for a 10-2 lead. Iowa State avoided the mercy rule with two more runs in the 5^th on doubles by Martinez and Julie Lindsey (3-4) but could get no closer. Hawkeye Kristi Hanks (15-9) got the win. Martinez took the loss.

#25 Ohio State did play Sunday (SPY published before the scores were posted). The surging Buckeyes won a HR hitting contest over Northwestern in the first game to win 12-4, then won a second game 3-1. Sarah West hit a grand slam in the 7^th; Kristine Himes and Wendy Allen (who has just been named Big Ten player of the week) had solo shots. Katie Chain was the winning pitcher, in relief of Kristi DeVries who gave up HRs to Erin Jancic and Carrie Leto which put the Wildcats up 2-0. Northwestern added 2 runs in the 6^th but they were more than offset by West’s slam. Wendy Allen got the 3-1 win in game two; she and Stacy Roth were both 2-3 in the game. Winning two games in Evanston for the first time since 1994, the Buckeyes are now 9-3 in the Big Ten.

An item unintentionally dropped from our April 14 review: once-ranked Massachusetts is on an 18-game winning streak. The Minutewomen took two from Harvard, ending the Crimson’s 10-game winning streak, and then took three from Rhode Island, the last a 6-0 victory powered by Scooter Wheeler’s 2 homeruns and Kaila Holtz’ third career no-hitter. Massachusetts is 12-0 in Atlantic 10 action.

Once-ranked Wisconsin run-ruled Loyola-Chicago on Monday, 9-1. Kerry Hagen had 3 rbi to lead the Badgers. Freshman Katie Layne fanned 7 batters in 5 innings for the win.

Notre Dame’s streak was ended at 14 games but Steffany Stenglein was named Big East pitcher of the week for her 3 wins.

The TAAC has changed its name to Atlantic Sun Conference. By any name, it is being dominated by Florida Atlantic.

Among conferences SPY did not report earlier: UMKC (11-1) and Western Illinois (10-2) contending for the lead in the Mid Continent conference. Four of the six Big South teams have better overall records than Radford, but, with conference play just getting under way, Radford at 3-1 is atop the board as shown on the conference web site; however, Elon is off to its first ever 2-0 start after Amanda Zentner hurled back-back victories – over Radford – 3-0 and 5-4; so that board will change. As of April 15, Chattanooga (12-1) and Georgia Southern (13-2) are vying for the lead in the Southern Conference. Lehigh and Army are tied for the lead (9-3) in the Patriot League. Three schools are bunched close in the MAAC Conference: Iona, Fairfield and Saint Peters. SPY could not find standings report for the MEAC Conference, and gave up trying a team-by-team analysis when confronted by the need for a password to open Bethune-Cookman’s web site. SPY also had problems downloading the home page for the Southland Conference, but we know that Louisiana-Monroe’s Lori Tande is leading the conference with 13 HRs. Long Island is 16-0 in the Northeast Conference and has secured a berth in the NEC tournament. UMBC is second, 15-3.

#10 Washington handed #3 Stanford its third straight loss on Monday, 3-0, on a Kristen Rivera 3-run homer in the 1^st inning. The Cardinal loaded the bases in the 3^rd, but UW starter Ashley Boek got two outs to end that inning, and loaded the bases again in 7^th, but reliever Tia Bollinger got the two outs needed to end the game. Rivera now has 13 HRs on the season, including 3 in this series against the Cardinal, which the Huskies won, 2 straight games. Stanford is now 4-5 in the Pac 10, Washington 3-5.

The Farm Bureau Softball Challenge this coming Tuesday and Wednesday at Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City will include #1 Arizona, #9 Oklahoma, #12 Fresno State and Oklahoma State.

#11 Florida Atlantic’s excellent campaign this season has drawn heavily on senior pitcher Nikki Myers, who was rewarded by being named Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week.

Howard, Meghan. P, CA Hot Styx Gold, to Butler University

Adams, Pilar. American Athletics-Bollinger, to Harvard

Allen, Carly. OF, Colorado Quicksilver, to Colorado State

Bass, Katie. VA Fire & Ice, to Virginia Tech

Tuggle, Courtney. CA Rebels (Stewart) to Louisiana-Monroe

Wigenton, Rocky. 3^rd, VA Firebirds, to Norfolk State

#5 LSU vs #19 Louisiana-Lafayette was rained out.

#7 Cal State Fullerton completed its two-game sweep of Loyola Marymount Thursday night, winning 9-0 and 4-2 – pushing their nation’s best winning streak to 31. Gina Oaks and Christy Robitaille were the winning pitchers. The Titans hit 4 homers, including two by Yasmin Mossadeghi. Fullerton is idle this weekend but faces its principal conference rival, Pacific, next weekend.

#16 DePaul swept a double-header from UIC. Katy Kukman’s solo shot off Alison Aguilar gave the Blue Demons and Lindsay Chouinard a 1-0 victory in game one. DePaul won the second game 5-2 behind Sarah Martz. Christina Douglas homered.

#23 Georgia defeated SEC foe South Carolina 2-1 in 10 innings.

U Mass sits atop its conference, but dropped out of the USA Today poll. Harvard thought this might be the year – the Crimson are 0-11-1 against U Mass lifetime – and took the Minutewomen into extra innings in the second game – they lost the first game 9-3 – but, alas, the outcome was the same. U Mass Hilary Puglia drove in the winning run in the 8^th.

#1 Arizona scored 3 runs in the 1^st enroute to defeating #14 Oregon State. Lovie Jung and Leneah Manuma drew walks from OSU’s Monica Hoffman; Jenny Finch drove in the first run with a double, and two runs scored on single to right by Mackenzie Vandergeest. The final run scored on a single by Jenny Gladding. Finch notched 8 Ks and her 12^th shutout.

#2 UCLA was down 2 runs to #3 Stanford but rallied to tie and won 3-2 on Amanda Freed’s sac fly in the bottom of the 7^th, scoring Monique Mejia, who had singled. The win evens UCLA’s Pac 10 record at 3-3. Stanford is 4-3. Stanford led 2-0 when Stacey Nuveman jacked a Tori Nyberg pitch over the CF fence, her 12^th this year, and third in three consecutive at-bats. Stacey is 4 HRs away from setting a new NCAA record. The Bruins tied the game on a Stephanie Ramos single. UCLA had bases-loaded in the 6^th before Maureen LeCoq came on in relief to end the threat. Keira Goerl got the win, which included 5 no-hit innings, in relief of Freed. LeCoq took the loss.

#4 Nebraska plays Big 12 opponent Missouri on Saturday.

#5 LSU did not play.

#6 Arizona State defeated Oregon 9-1, and is now 4-2 Pac 10. The Sun Devils shot out to a 3-0 lead in the 1^st, and scored 3 more in the 2^nd. The final two runs came on a HR by Erica Beach, who also pitched the victory. Beach and Kara Brun had 3 rbi apiece.

#7 Cal State Fullerton which beat Loyola Marymount twice on Thursday does not play again until April 20, when it plays 3 games against #17 Pacific, its principal rival.

#8 California defeated #10 Washington 4-1, the Huskies 4^th straight loss, which dropped UW to 1-5 in Pac 10 while Cal improved to 5-2. Jocelyn Forest was bidding for a no-hitter until the bottom of the 7^th when Jaime Clark hit her 15^th HR. The Bears were up 1-0 when Veronica Nelson hit a 2-run shot, her 9^th. The last run scored on a bases full walk to Kristen Bayless, by reliever Ashley Boek. Starter Tia Bollinger took the loss.

#9 Oklahoma takes on #18 Texas in Norman Saturday and Sunday. The Sooners are undefeated in Big 12 play and the Longhorns are a game behind, so this game has implications are beyond Red River bragging rights.

#11 Florida Atlantic tightened its grip on TAAC leadership with two wins Friday over Jacksonville State, 2-0 and 6-1.

#12 Fresno State play San Jose State twice on Saturday.

#12 Michigan (tie) run-ruled Minnesota 11-1. Melinda Moulden was 3-3 with 3 rbi and Jessica Merchant had a 3-run HR (4 rbi total). Naturally, Michigan scribes are writing about the M&M girls (shades of Mantle and Maris for those over 40). The Wolverines are now 6-1 in the Big Ten, Minnesota drops to 3-4. The Gophers had given up a total of 7 runs in the first two innings all season, but surrendered 5 to Michigan today. Marissa Young pitched the victory.

#15 Alabama begins a 3-game set against Ole Miss on Saturday.

#16 DePaul plays conference rival Louisville this weekend.

#19 Louisiana-Lafayette plays a double-header against Middle Tennessee.

#20 Iowa’s 12-game winning streak was snapped by #25 Ohio State, 2-0. Wendy Allen not only pitched the victory, she hit two solo HRs to account for both scores. This was the first Big Ten loss for the Hawkeyes (6-1) and improved OSU to 6-3.

#21 Florida State starts ACC action Saturday against Georgia Tech.

#22 Baylor hosts Big 12 foe Iowa State on Saturday.

#23 Georgia travels to Gainesville for 3 games against Florida.

#24 Texas A&M is in Stillwater for two games against Oklahoma State.

Conference USA Standings have been added; separate report

When SPY published its list of entries into the Gold sector tournaments earlier this week, there was no information available on registrations for the two tournaments in Sector 4, which will award a total of 10 berths to nationals, 5 each for Lancaster and Seattle. We are publishing these lists in our daily updates; we will also add them to our previous report on Gold sector tournament registrations.

Today, while the rest of the adult, educated world worried about peace in the Middle East, the managing partner of one of the nation’s largest, most sophisticated law firms sent an all-parties memo advising $500,000 a year attorneys and $35,000 a year clerks on the proper methods of bypassing, when necessary, the automatic flush system on the firm’s toilets (you push the black button).

Over-reaction? Not to anyone who has ever had this problem to resolve. I got so frustrated with the boys at Langley HS, who managed to render every bathroom in the main building a public health problem before noon, that, when I was the Board’s projects director, I had the architects modify the plans for the new outdoor pavilion to include automatic flushing toilets and urinals. Now, if we could just get them to throw their used paper towels in the trash.

ASA officials advised SPY informally on Monday that it would not enter a team in the proposed Junior World Qualifier tournament, which had been scheduled for May in Colombia. As requested, SPY deferred comment until the International Softball Federation and the Colombian hosts made their announcement. SPY is now advised that the qualifying tournament has been formally cancelled, for security reasons.

Concerns about security also prompted ASA officials, and, we are told, Canadian officials to decide not to send teams.

The delay in making the announcement was occasioned by the need to work out an arrangement for gaining a USA berth for the Junior World games, which will be held in China in 2003. ASA has not made an official announcement concerning agreements on the berth, but, it would be inconceivable to proceed without the United States. Also, the current expectation, based on conversations with ASA officials, is for ASA to conduct a try-out camp, probably at Chula Vista, toward the end of 2002 or early in 2003, at which a USA Junior Olympic team will be chosen.

SPY was getting many questions about who stands where, so we have included today a special report on conference standings. Note that not all conferences have updated their conference web sites; a number still have 2001 reports. Even one university’s site is mired in 2001 data, and another still focuses on last fall’s football season.

In a very real sense, these standings, with their implications for playoffs, regional berths and the WCWS, are more meaningful than the weekly poll, because they are a road map to 2002 success.

In the Pac 10, five teams are within a game of each other, and that doesn’t include UCLA. Four of those five plus UCLA are in the nation’s Top 10.. In the Big 12, which has 5 teams in the Top 25 and is probably the second most competitive conference, OU leads by a game over Texas which has a game lead over Nebraska. In the SEC, the third most competitive conference in our opinion, South Carolina’s record pales compared to LSU’s, but the Gamecocks have a 3-game lead in their division, while the Tigers could be in a dog fight, holding a 1-game edge over Alabama.

Cal State Fullerton’s on a 29-game streak and playing as well as any team, and hopes to host a regional tournament, but it has only a 1-game edge over Pacific. They’re not halfway through the Big 10 schedule, but Iowa, Michigan and now Ohio State are leading the pack at this point; the real battle is who else goes to the tournament.

Fresno State’s got the record and the reputation, but Hawaii is tied for the WAC lead.

Florida Atlantic and Stetson have both had surges; now they’re tied in the TAAC

Georgia Tech look comfortable on paper, but the ACC race is just starting and Florida State, which is nationally ranked, is just now starting conference games.

Notre Dame struggled early, as its coaches predicted, but the benefit of playing top-ranked teams before starting Big East play, is paying off. The Irish are up 3 games.

Playing with the big dogs early is also paying dividends for Boston University; it has a losing record against national competition but its well ahead in conference.

COLLEGE SCOREBOARD: TOP 25

#1 UCLA did more than defeat #2 Arizona, 6-5, on Sunday – the Bruins also snapped two of college softball’s pre-eminent records. Jenny Finch’s NCAA record streak of 60 victories stopped, as did the Wildcats’ record home winning streak at 70. Both teams scored 4 runs in the 1^st; the Bruins onslaught was enough to drive Jenny Gladding off the mound and bring on Finch. Keira Goerl gave up 8 hits and 5 runs (4 earned) but UCLA stayed with her and she got the win. A lot of players stepped up in this game before a record crowd of 3,161. In the 1^st, Natasha Watley walked; Amanda Freed singled; and Stacey Nuveman walked to load the bases with one out – Stephanie Ramos then hit a grand slam for a quick 4-0 lead. Answering, Lovie Jung and Courtney Fossatti singled, and the bases were loaded when all were safe on Leneah Manuma’s fielder’s choice. Gladding walked to force in one run; MacKenzie Vandergeest and Jackie Coburn drove in two more on singles, before Crystal Farley singled to tie the game at 4 all. Arizona took the lead when Jung walked and scored on Manuma’s single. It then became Stacey Nuveman’s game. She tied the game in the 5^th with her 80^th homer, then hit her 81^st in the top of the seventh. Goerl held AU hitless the last two innings.

#3 Stanford defeated #14 Oregon State, 7-2, but the score is deceiving. The Beavers’ Monica Hoffman blanked the Cardinal for six innings; they scored 7 runs on 7 hits in the 7^th inning. Oregon State scored a run in the second, Steph Adams singling and scoring on Jenni Jodoin’s sac fly, and scored again in the 5^th, when Brynnen Guthrie singled home Miranda Dellinger. In the 7^th, Sarah Beeson singled before Kira Ching belted a HR off the LF scoreboard. Jessica Allister, Cassi Branham and Jessica Dramel singled,, and Robin Walker hit a 3-run double for a 5-2 lead. Jessica Mendoza closed out the scoring with a 2-run HR (11^th). Tori Nyberg improved her record to 19-3.

#4 Nebraska was idle after splitting a double-header on Saturday with Texas. Correction: In the 4^th inning of the Huskers 4-3 win, Amber Burgess doubled and Peaches James hit the home run giving Nebraska a 3-2 lead.

#5 LSU won the rubber match of its three-game set against #15 Alabama, 7-0. Shelley Laird, pitching before the largest crowd in the history of Alabama softball (1,210) got her 970^th career strikeout, and the Tide threatened in three of the first four innings but this day belonged to the Tigers who scored 3 in the 5^th to take charge.

#6 California has now posted its best PAC 10 start in recent years (4-2), with a 7-0 defeat Sunday of Oregon. Jocelyn Forest got the win over Lindsay Kontra.

#7 Cal State Fullerton defeated Long Beach State 9-1 (6) for the third time this weekend, extending the Titans’ winning streak to 29 games, surpassing the 28-game skein by Stetson. Fullerton broke a 1-1 tie on a 2-rbi single by Jenny Topping in the 5^th. The Titans got 4 more runs off Meredith Cervenka, in relief of Lindsey Knoff, including a bases-loaded double by Brittany Ziegler. Jodie Cox went the distance for Fullerton.

#8 Arizona State defeated #10 Washington, 6-1, concluding a weekend in which the Sun Devils upset #1 UCLA and took two from the Huskies. Erica Beach and Kirsten Voak combined for the win, which included Beach’s 5^th HR in the second off Ashley Boek. ASU scored two more in the 5^th, and Leslie Scott relieved Boek. Nichole Thompson doubled in the 5^th, scoring Kristen Farley, and put the game away with two more in the 6^th. Courtney Jeffries rbi double in the 7^th prevented the shutout.

#9 Oklahoma was idle after sweeping Saturday’s double-header against Iowa State.

#11 Florida Atlantic took two games from Troy State on Sunday, 6-5 (11) and 3-0. Ginny Matthews had 6 hits and 3 rbi for the day. The Trojans had taken a 2-1 lead in the second on a HR by Kami Marrott. Owls’ starter Candace Freel tied the game with a HR with two out in the 6^th. Nikki Myers forced in a TSU run with a two-out bases loaded walk in the 7^th. Down 3-2, Matthews tied the score in regulation with a double. In the 10^th, TSU scored 2 but FAU answered with 2, setting up the 11^th inning dramatics – a two-out single by Pam Mazzarrella scoring Michelle Ryan. Myers got the win. Freel came back to throw the second game shutout.

#12 Fresno State was idle after defeating Louisiana Tech twice on Saturday.

#13 Michigan was idle after defeating Indiana Friday and Saturday.

#16 DePaul’s game Sunday against Illinois was rained out.

#17 Louisiana-Lafayette was idle after splitting this weekend with Western Kentucky. The Ragin’ Cajuns are now 26-9.

#18 Pacific was idle after a three-game sweep this weekend of Utah State.

#19 Iowa remains undefeated in the Big Ten after sweeping Purdue on Sunday.

#20 Texas was idle after the weekend split with Nebraska.

#21 Texas A&M, which we reported losing Saturday to Kansas 6-4, came back late Saturday to win 3-0 after a long rain delay on Jessica Slataper’s no-hitter, her 16^th complete game and 9^th shutout. Leah Tabb drove in 2 runs and Shelli Musser was 3-4 in that first game, aiding Kansas winner Kara Pierce.

#21 Florida State was idle after a weekend sweep of Florida A&M. Their ACC rivals were taking turns beating each other: North Carolina took two from Maryland, 7-3 and 8-3, while Virginia was beating Georgia Tech twice, 10-5 and 1-0.

#23 Georgia defeated Arkansas 3-1 on Sunday, completing a 3-game sweep on Nichole Urban’s 2-hitter. The Bulldogs, who started the season with 20 consecutive victories, are now 42-8, all of its losses in the SEC (10-8).

#24 Baylor completed its sweep of Missouri with a 4-1 decision Sunday. Joni Miller won, aided by 2-4 hitting by Kourtny Westerfield.

#25 Minnesota dropped both games of its Sunday double-header against Ohio State. The Buckeyes took one game 5-3 on Stacy Roth’s two-run HR off Piper Marten in the 7^th. offsetting a tying home by the Gophers Shelly Nichols. The Buckeyes won the opener 5-0, Wendy Allen winning with 9 Ks, Angie Recknor taking the loss.

#1 UCLA vs #2 Arizona. The game will be played Saturday as scheduled but Cox Communications has a program note in this week’s schedule which says there will be a tape-delayed broadcast, ie, the game will be shown in the Eastern time zone at 1230 pm (noon) next Wednesday, April 10. We do not have a television schedule for other time zones, but, readers should check. SPY will pick up the play by play Saturday and carry the result in an update Sunday morning.

#8 Arizona State upended #1 UCLA 3-2 on Friday, thanks to an Erica Beach 2-run homer in the bottom of the 4^th. ASU scored first when Bonnie Brannen hit a two-out bases loaded single to center. Tiaria Mims jacked a pitch over the LF fence in the 3^rd to tie the score. In the 4^th, Phelan Wright singled and advanced on an error, before Beach smashed a Keira Goerl pitch over the RF fence, for a 3-1 lead. Beach pitched 4+ innings; Kirsten Voak relieved and got out of the 2 on, 2 out jam. Natasha Watley reached on an error in the 7^th and scored on a passed ball. The Sun Devils host Washington on Saturday while the Bruins match up with Arizona.

#2 Arizona defeated #10 Washington 1-0 – a rare game that Jenny Finch didn’t finish. The Wildcats scored the game’s only run on Lovie Jung’s 11^th homer in the bottom of the 5^th off Leslie Scott, the second of three Husky pitchers. Jenny Gladding got the win in relief of Finch (after two), striking out 9 in five innings. Arizona loaded the bases with one out in the 3^rd, but Scott came on in relief and got out of that inning. The Huskies had two on in the 7^th but Gladding got a strike out and pop-up to end the game. (PS: the SPY assumption is that Jenny Finch will pitch Saturday against UCLA; thus, she probably pitched just enough Friday to keep in trim.)

#3 Stanford beat Adams State 4-3 in seven.

#5 LSU completed a 3-game sweep of Arkansas last Wednesday, 5-0. The other scores were 3-0 and 4-0.

#7 Cal State Fullerton extended the season’s longest winning streak (26) taking two from San Diego State, 2-1 and 9-0 (5). The Titans won the close game when Jocelyn Evans drew a two-out bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh. The walk ended a pitching duel between winner Chrisy Robitaille and Bre De Santa. Fullerton’s first run scored on an rbi single by Jenny Topping. Jodie Cox had a 1-hitter to win the shutout, which was never in doubt, thanks to five runs in the 1^st, including a 3-run homer by Amanda Hockett, all the runs scoring with two out. The Titans scored four runs in the 4^th, also with two out, on a grand slam by Monica Lucatero.

#11 Florida Atlantic produced a pitching rarity, getting no-hitters from both Candace Freel for an 8-0 win in the first game against Mercer, and from Nikki Myers, who got her 7^th career no-hitter, also by an 8-0 score.

#12 Fresno State won two close games against the Tulsa Hurricanes, 2-1 and 1-0, the latter taking 17 innings. Tulsa had the early 1-0 lead in the first game, on an rbi single by Amy Dawn Day. Lori Hoffman hit the game winner, a two-out two-rbi single in the bottom of the 6^th. Leslie Poole was the winner. The wild and wooly second game set six WAC records, including 22 Ks by Jamie Southern, which also broke the Fresno State record. The Bulldogs won on a sac fly by Lindsay Fossatti in the bottom of the 17^th. The wins snapped a 4-game losing streak. Southern gave up 6 hits, no walks, and worked all 17 innings, throwing 209 pitches (155 strikes).

#14 Oregon State upset #6 California 3-2, coming from behind on Steph Adams’ 3-run homer in the bottom of the 6^th. The Bears’ offense included an rbi double by Kaleo Eldredge. Michelle Charlton and Brynnen Guthrie singled ahead of Adams’ rocket. Monica Hoffman got the win; Jocelyn Forest took the loss.

#19 Iowa defeated Illinois 8-2.

#21 Texas A&M, hitless until the bottom of the 9^th, eked out a win over Southwest Texas 1-0, when Adrian Gregory doubled in Lisa Klam, who had bunted for a single.

#24 Baylor split with Texas A&M/Corpus Christi, losing 3-2 in 8 innings before winning 2-1 in 9 innings.

SPY will do a complete roundup of Top 25 scores Sunday night.

     School (Location)                                   Record	
1.   Foothill (Santa Ana, Calif.)                         13-1
2.   Clovis (Clovis, Calif.)                              25-2
3.   Salpointe Catholic (Tucson, Ariz.)                   20-2-1
4.   Countryside (Clearwater, Fla.)                       22-1
5.   Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.)                        13-2
6.   Coppell (Coppell, Texas)                             22-5
7.   Corona del Sol (Tempe, Ariz.)                        15-1
8.   Wooster (Reno, Nev.)                                 19-2
9.   Katy (Katy, Texas)                                   20-3
10.  Leon (Tallahassee, Fla.)                             16-1
11.  El Modena (Orange, Calif.)                           11-1
12.  Cactus (Glendale, Ariz.)                             14-1
13.  South Grand Prairie (South Grand Prairie, Texas)     22-3
14.  Chamberlain (Tampa, Fla.)                            16-3
15.  Richland Hills (North Richland Hills, Texas)         31-5
16.  North Laurel (London, Ky.)                            4-0
17.  Canyon (Anaheim, Calif.)                             14-4
18.  Desert Mountain (Scottsdale, Ariz.)                  19-3
19.  St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)           15-1
20.  Hillcrest (Midvale, Utah)                             8-3
21.  Broad Run (Ashburn, Va.)                              4-0
22.  Sandburg (Orland Park, Ill.)                          3-0
23.  Chesapeake (Pasadena, Md.)                            5-1
24.  Olathe East (Olathe, Kan.)                            2-0
25.  Cape Henlopen (Lewes, Del.)                           2-0

Best of the West Tournament (CA).Thousand Oaks High pitcher Mandi Kilionski helped herself by hitting a two-run double. Then she helped herself by pitching out of the only jam she was in. Down three runs, Sheldon (Sacramento) had the bases loaded with two outs against Kilionski in the top of the sixth inning of the Best of the West Softball Tournament championship game at Hagerman Park Wednesday. But Kilionski got Steph Mendoza to foul out to Lancers first baseman Suzanne Cominski, who made a nice running catch, for the last out of the inning. Kilionski retired the Huskies (13-3-1) in order in the seventh, and the Lancers (9-4-1) took a 4-1 win in the title game. Kilionski ran her record to 5-0. Atascadero, behind solid pitching by Mandi Stophlete and Rebecca Ramos's three-run home run in the sixth inning, beat Chaminade 5-1 for third place. Fairfield, who was rated as the top team in the nation in the pre-season, nipped Trabuco Hills 1-0 for fourth place. Royal (Royal High) shut out Cajon (San Bernardino) 7-0 for the consolation championship. (Times Report)

We cite this report to make a point. SPY is still seeking benchmarks for reporting, even occasionally, on high school ball. We note that none of the teams competing in what the Times reported as "best of the west" made the NFCA list, which, like all NFCA lists, is compiled from reports by selected coaches around the country.

We have no problem in taking a report from the Austin Statesman on Alyssa Ransom’s feats in Central Texas, even though we have not seen her pitch, because the reports we’ve received over time are consistent, eg, Alyssa, who will pitch for the CenTex Babes this summer, has struck out 224 batters in 145 innings, while pitching 3 no-hitters and 13 shutouts, and the Statesman indicates these records are being compiled against good competition. Nor do we have difficulty reporting on local pitchers whom we have seen, like Christy Anch whose Broad Run team is now in the Top 25, thanks in good part to her double-digit strikeout totals, or Katie Morrison, who just threw a career best 19 Ks, because we know something about their competition.

But, printing the few verified reports SPY receives leaves out thousands of players, not limited to just pitchers, whom we don’t know vis their high schools, but only through summer ball. Indeed, what we really know about these schools is the information we have on the Gold and 18A players on their rosters. For example, we know that Foothill is not only ranked #1, but its 13-1 record includes 8 shutouts, the Knights outscoring opponents 79-10. But, we know about Foothill because we keep track of various Gold players around the country, and Foothill has a number of such players. . Because we have seen a great many players on their summer teams, we can compare those teams and player accomplishments on the basis of known competition. This is the competition field SPY knows best.

Therefore, other than occasionally reprinting national polls and perhaps reports on major championships and/or personal records, we have reluctantly concluded that SPY can’t present a nationally-balanced, fair-to-all perspective on HS ball, and will limit our reports accordingly.

End

Oklahoma remained undefeated in the Big 12, but the Sooners had to rally to defeat Oklahoma State on Wednesday, 6-5. OU was down 5-1 in the top of the 7^th – OSU Lauren Bay had a no-hitter through 5+ innings – but scored 5 on 4 hits including the game winner by Christina Enea; Kami Keiter won in relief, retiring the final 13.

Michigan defeated Bowling Green 4-1.

Washington took two from Portland State, 9-1 and 6-2. Tia Bollinger struck out 10 in the first game, in which Stephanie Nicholson homered. Ashley Boek also struck out 10 in the 3-hit second game.

Oregon State defeated Oregon, 1-0.

Stanford defeated Fresno State twice, 1-0 and 5-0.

LSU took three from Arkansas, 4-0, 3-0, and 5-0..

South Carolina dropped out of the Top 25 rankings last week, but Tuesday it won two important conference games over Tennessee, 8-2 and 5-2.

Ohio State dropped out of the Top 25 rankings this week, but, on Wednesday, the Buckeyes defeated Marshall 10-0 – the 450^th victory for coach Linda Kalafatis.

Texas, tied with Oklahoma for the Big 12 lead, defeated Texas A&M 2-0.

Georgia beat North Carolina twice, 10-5 and 12-3.

The PAC 10 standings, and weekly NFCA poll, are up for grabs this coming weekend. Arizona plays Washington on Friday, then plays UCLA one game each on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday game will be at 2pm, and broadcast on Fox Sports Net. Arizona State will play both UCLA and Washington this weekend.

Game Note: In last Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Nebraska, pitcher Lauren Bay of Oklahoma State struck out 19 batters, tying a 10-year old school record, and was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week.

Churchill, Jennifer. P, Am Athletics Bollinger, to Queens College, NC

Landis, Kristen. P, Orland Park Sparks, to Cornell.

Clark, Tiffany. SS, Tampa Bay Mustangs, to Daytona Beach CC

Stocks, Ashley. VA Fire & Ice, to Roanoke College

Belt, Lara. IF,OF,C Houston Diamonds, to Blinn JC

Rezza, Kassie. SS,CF, Houston Diamonds, to Texas A&M Kingsville

Several player-related files needed to be updated, eg, unsigned seniors, Classes of ’02,’03,’04 etc. Numerous emails came in while we were travelling, and we have now posted all changes.

Wildcat All-American pitcher Nancy Evans, who helped Arizona win three national championships, and is now AU’s assistant coach, will have her jersey retired in a special ceremony Sunday at 1pm, just prior to Arizona’s second game against UCLA. The Arizona department of intercollegiate athletics and softball program said in a release:

Some years ago, a wealthy philanthrophist associated with National Geographic, concerned that young people did not know much about geography and history, contributed large sums to the development of classroom-type materials, etc., to aid students in acquiring such knowledge. Today, while being admitted to the hospital for yet one more medical opinion, I stood next to a young couple seeking an MRI for the wife. First, the young man gave his name, Romanov, then his wife gave her name as Romanova. All of this caused some confusion at the desk – how do you spell it, how do you pronounce it, what nationality is that, etc. When the couple moved off to call her doctor, I asked the three women at the desk if they knew anything about the Romanovs. Nada. Upstairs, I asked the doctor and two nurses the same question, and again nada. The Romanovs were the imperial family of Russia; the last Tsar was Nicholas Romanov, or Nicholas II. By tradition, a son would take his father’s name as a middle name, eg, the son was named Alexis Nicholaievich Romanov. By tradition, the Tsar’s wife, a Prussian named Alix, took the name Alexandra Fedorovna. And, often, a bride would take her husband’s last name, adding a vowel, hence, Romanova. Finally, the doctor remembered a movie; "yes, that was Anastasia’s father, and they were shot during the Revolution." That’s the kind of knowledge which comes from movies. There is an old Russian saying: if there had been no hemophilia, there would have been no Rasputin; if there had been no Rasputin, Kerensky famously intoned, there would have been no Lenin; without Lenin, there would have been no revolution; if there had been no revolution in Russia, the course of Western history would have changed. That’s a bit simplistic, and Nicholas’s efforts to remediate decades of repression and respond to public demands for reform needed to go well beyond creating a Duma, but certainly the Russian revolution dramatically changed world history. I thought people knew that.

Yet, poll after poll indicates an almost indifferent attitude to not just history but even to current events. We don’t know the names of elected officials, and have one of the lowest voter turnout rates among democracies. Highschool students stumble over simple questions like "the Berlin wall divided what city?" When I go back to Oklahoma, I ask college students who were the Boomers, who were the Sooners. And they don’t know.

Makes you thankful for softball players. They appreciate history, eg, if you throw that big girl another changeup, the outcome will be the same: home run. And, I just know that the next player I meet will know about the Romanovs. But, I really want some player to tell me about Alexander Kerensky, and, if she’s from Stanford, she should know. End

APRIL 2 UPDATE

On the index page, click on two major reports:  a review of action by the Top 25 teams since the March 27 USA Today/NFCA poll, and, the list of additional players invited by USA Softball to its national team tryouts in May at Chula Vista.

SPY has substantially changed its format, to accommodate the ever increasing amount of material reported.  Given that beloved nephew John is a vice president of Merrill Lynch, he qualifies as a management expert (and computer technician).  You are therefore obliged to agree that the site is better organized, easier to read, etc.  Now, the task is for the aging Spymeister to figure out how to use it -- correctly.

#1 UCLA returned from its break for exams in fine fettle, defeating #10 Fresno State twice, 1-0 and 7-0. The first game featured two of the best young pitchers in the college game: Keira Goerl and Jamie Southern. Amanda Freed drove in the only run, boosting Goerl’s record to 15-2. Goerl pitched a one-hitter, Southern 3 hits. Freed won the second game, aided by Tiaria Mims’ homer.

#15 Oregon State also resumed play on Monday, defeating San Jose State twice, 1-0 and 6-1. Crystal Draper won the first game; Breanne Ferguson walked in the only run, with two out. Coincidentally, Oregon State got the winning runs in the second game on a two-out rally, scoring 4 runs in the 3^rd. Kristen Hunter and Monica Hoffman combined for the win. Clare Burnam was 5-8 for the double-header.

Correction. Washington defeated Santa Clara twice on the weekend; SPY wrote San Jose State.

The Tampa Bay Mustangs are hosting their 2nd annual "Florida's Finest" College exposure tournament on July 20 and 21, which will have 16 of Florida's most competitive

teams. The tournament will be held on a four field complex where the coaches can watch from an air conditioned press box if they choose. Ray Seymour 813-949-0868.

(As part of our continuing effort to apprise ASA that quality competition can be found in many parts of the USA, including players USA should consider for international teams, SPY from time to time presents thumbnail sketches of such players.)

Consider this continuing exchange as SPY’s guide to Italian family style dining. Gary Wardein offers this additional guidance (beyond that we gave for Pasadena and Orange County:

San Diego also proudly sports a Buco di Beppo restaurant. It is located in the Gaslamp District at 6th and G; the Gaslamp is the recently gentrified, formerly skid row, district of downtown SD loaded with trendy (and expensive) restaurants, bars and assorted entertainment facilities. How popular is it? When Kathy and I got out of an early Friday night movie (we exited about 7:00 PM), we didn't know where we wanted to eat, so we just started walking up and down 5th Ave. We could have walked in ANYWHERE, except Buco di Beppo, where there was already an hour wait.

Another terrific, though pricey, family-style Italian restaurant chain is Maggiano's. Should you travel to Denver this summer, there is a Maggiano's in the Denver Pavilion. There is also a location in Orange County adjacent to South Coast Plaza. I am partial to family-style Italian restaurants since I was raised in a large Italian family where I had to learn the language just to be able to understand the conversation. Could never speak Italian, however, and have unfortunately lost almost all of my ability to even understand the dialogue.

Last, but certainly not least, try Carmine's on 42nd Street, just off of Times Square. The champ. Going back there this summer prior to Stratford. (SPY note: there is a Maggiano’s in Vienna, VA. And, in our opinion, the best Italian restaurant ever was the Villa Penza in NYC’s Little Italy.)

Where Did Those Years Go?

My sister advises that we both got Omega watches – in 1959. A reader noted that I had the date wrong as well. Both made me feel older and like I had lost 10 years.

End

Spy Softball Home Page

Outfielder JoJo Sherlock has switched from Haning Batbusters to San Diego Renegades (Anderson). The Renegades team which Sara Radabaugh left was Aguirre’s.

All three lists have been updated as of March 25.

The Plantation Tournament will be held June 20-23 (not 24^th). The NFCA camp will be held June 20. Tournament play begins June 21 at 8am, and end Sunday at 5pm.

The Arizona Wildcat’s non-pariel pitcher extended her record consecutive-win streak to 58 this weekend, with a 7-2 win over Louisiana-Lafayette (a personal best 15 Ks but 7 hits). Jenny is in this week’s Sports Illustrated (the thumbnail sketch column). (And, she’s got a fan club in suburban Maryland; one of the squadron of nurses who attended me this weekend at Sibley Hospital (4 ruptured discs) saw me reading the item about Jenny, and, not knowing the SPY connection, told me her teen-age son idolizes Jenny. Then, when I explained, I got one of these do-you-actually-know-her reactions accompanied by I-must-tell-my-son. Jenny: your fame has spread shore-to-shore.

SPY SOFTBALL HOME PAGE

MARCH 21 UPDATE

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Arizona State 3^rd Phelan Wright, who hit a scorching .700 at the recent KIA Klassic, aiding the Sun Devils to reach the semi-final round, has been named PAC 10 Player of the Week. She follows by four weeks ASU SS Kara Brun as Pac 10 POW, who hit 3 homers and slugged 1.12 at the NFCA leadoff classic. Keira Goerl of UCLA and Jessica Mendoza were tied for PAC 10 Player of the Week. And, while her team was ignored by the latest USA Today/NFCA Poll, Catherine Osterman was POW for the Big 12. I could not find a nominee from the Big East, but I would vote for 5’3" Ricci Lugo, who just hit for the cycle in a Villanova game and has 6 homers in their first 12 games.

Realizing that people in Orange County believe God created the rest of California so that the unfortunate would have a goal in life, we hesitate but must urge our readers to take time to visit Pasadena – and to dine at Buco di Beppo. Mama Mia – an experience. Not only does this restaurant serve all meals family style – and deliciously so – the Buco is literally a pilgrimage for those of Italian ancestry or just those interested in Italian lore. The Buco is made up of several dining rooms, and every space on every wall and ceiling is devoted to things Italian – movie stars, opera stars, sports stars, Italian wine, scenes of Italy and Sicily. One room is devoted to pictures of the Popes, especially John XXIII. It seems that every room has at least one picture of Francis Albert Sinatra – including the main dining room where a 4x4 picture is set back into a niche – and fresh flowers are put into the box below the picture – every day. There are pictures of Sophia, Gina, Sylvana Mangano, and other beauties. We don’t know why Jayne Mansfield is there, but the cleavage was spectacular. Joltin’ Joe is in several pictures. Not one to discriminate, the Buco also features another Italian famous for what he did with a baseball bat – Alfonse di Capone. You will also find Salvatore Luciano, better known as Charley Lucky. Even Bugsy Siegel make a wall; well, he was Murderer Inc. along with another Jewish gangster, Louis Lepke Buchalter. For a moment, I thought I was back in New York.

July 10 - 14, 2002 - Hot Times Classic w/College Exposure Clinic, Florence,
SC (http://www.eteamz.com/hottimes/) Was highly recommended by Patti
Shotwell (Plantation)
June 7-9, 2002 - Southeastern College Exposure Tournament, Birmingham, AL
(http://www.eteamz.com/fastpitch/tournaments/tournament.cfm/55104/)
Southwest Texas State sets HR record

USA Today/Austin, Texas - Southwest Texas State hit eight home runs in a softball
game, setting an NCAA Division I record. The homers came in Saturday's 14-1
rout of Stephen F. Austin State. The NCAA confirmed the record Monday. The
previous softball record of seven homers was set April 28, 1990 by Canisius
against Manhattan and tied April 17, 1999, by Louisiana-Lafayette against
Centenary. Six Southwest Texas State players homered in the second game of a
doubleheader, with Frances Mendoza and Kristen Zaleski each hitting two. The
game was called after five of the seven scheduled innings because of the
lead by Southwest Texas State.

Suzanne Mulcahy and Devon Francy, two of the players who helped propel the KC Shockwaves to that second-place finish at the 2001 18As in Salem, are both recovering from ACL injuries – playing basketball. Quite a hospital team: Dana Sorensen, Natalie King, Courtney Fossatti, Jennifer Schroeder were already down. Wish them all well.

Each year, the top teams from California, Arizona and other invitees (the format is a certain headache) come to Bullhead, AZ, to compete for HS bragging rights. The top seeds were Fairfield (with Hollowell), Foothill (with Yin), Flowing Wells, and Mater Dei. The predictions were that the semi-final games would be Fairfield vs. Mater Dei and Foothill vs. Flowing Wells. First day results completely subverted this scheme, with Fairfield losing to Kofa (Yuma, Az), Flowing Wells losing to El Toro, and Mater Dei losing to Deer Valley. And when Foothill lost to Saugus in the round of 16, the tournament became a complete free-for-all.

In the end, Clovis defeated Bryan (Tx) (1-0) for the championship (Jennifer Reynolds was named the MVP along with 2 players for Bryan), and El Toro edged Canyon (1-0) for third place. Foothill won its last three games to finish 9^th, and Flowing Wells won its last four to win the consolation championship. (Additional information can be found on the Foothill team web site; go to SPY’s team links page.)

A few Texans took note of my bon mot about Texans not being particularly civilized – and one reader noted correctly that the remark came from an Oklahoman. Actually, one of the happiest days in my life occurred under a brilliant October sun in Dallas – OU unveiled the split-T and we were ahead 48-0 and I got my happy face plastered all over the Dallas Morning News. And, one of the saddest – November 22, 1963. I got an award for what I wrote about that day, purely from the heart. In 1917, my father enlisted in the Texas National Guard so that he could go to France and fight. He gave me a picture of his platoon, and, sure enough, they all had on shoes. Civilized, to be sure.

SOME OF THESE ARE REALLY INTERESTING....You could win $$$$ in bar bets with this information...

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache

A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.

Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike
factory workers in Malaysia combined.

Marilyn Monroe had six toes.

All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

Pearls melt in vinegar.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and they figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second? William Jefferson Clinton.

And, the best for last.....
Turtles can breathe through their butts.

Spy Softball Home Page

Beth DiPietro, a junior pitching for the Riverview Sharks (FL) struck out 28 batters in 11 innings.

I knew the editor of a large NY daily who decided that US submarines often dive below their sanctioned depth – so he closed the front page without the story of the Thresher imploding in the Atlantic. I also knew the editor of another NY daily whose knowledge

of weather, environment, etc., consisted of sticking his head out the window, who decided that a force 10 earthquake in Anchorage was not news because Alaska had many.

But, I am very glad I don’t know the clowns in the Immigration and Naturalization Service who sent the letter this week to Mohammed Atta and the terrorist who flew the other plane into the World Trade Center, on 9/11, informing them their new visas had been approved and they could stay in the United States. A hapless PIO officer tried to explain how such things "automatically" happen if no conflicting information is given. Unless someone has been stamping visa applications on the dark side of the moon, how could they not recognize Atta’s name? Moreover, other people in other places did indeed know a great deal about Atta. Somebody’s head should roll.

We appreciate the immediate responses from readers, helping us fill in the blanks and/or provide updated information on players in our 2003-04-05 reports. Also, the thank-yous. We made the changes Tuesday evening, and will continue to update the files.

Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy, balladeers who have played Irish folk tunes around the world, are fond of a drinking song, "Finnegan’s Wake." (To the uninitiated, the Irish drink at wakes, funerals, weddings, to ward off the morning damp (daily), to offset the effects of too much sun (rare),at night to put away the cares of the day, and any other occasion in a country where every male over 12 is a professional imbiber). There is a chorus line: "Let’s not have a sniffle, let’s have a bloody good cry, and always remember that as long as you live, the sooner you bloody well die."

Some are songs for having fun, like "Red Haired Mary," about a Tinker lass; some are melancholy like "The Leaving of Liverpool" which is where the Irish embarked on boats to America and Australia, and "The Wild Colonial Boy." (You will seldom hear "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" in Ireland; nor a great many "Irish" melodies which Bing Crosby popularized.) There are sad, heroic tunes like "Who Will Come’a Waltzing Matilda With Me" which is trotted out every Anzac day by Australians of Irish descent who pay tribute to the Aussies and New Zealanders whom the British led to slaughter at Gallipoli.

Then, there is "Danny Boy."

Sad, melancholic, heroic, all wrapped in one song. Sung properly, there should be nary a dry eye in the house, guaranteed when all the listeners have been drinking poteen or, as Liam says, the "holy water."

All of this was much on my mind today. After watching "9/11" I realized once again that we cannot choose the time of our departing this world, so, I decided to make out a will – not that I am in imminent risk of departing, but, as my Irish grandmother would say, "to be sure, to be sure."

Deciding who gets what material things is relatively easy – that box of rocks my youngest daughter has cherished since kindergarten goes to a knuckle-headed second cousin in Dallas to match those rattling around in his skull. That kind of thing.

Funerals don’t take much planning – the Catholic Church has performed the same ceremony for hundreds of years – except I want a solemn requiem mass – in Latin.

I could see my attorney had his pen poised over a particular box (is the client of sound mind?) when I made my special requests. Being 43% Irish, 43% Prussian, 7% Choctaw Indian, and 7% French, I had lots of choices for a funeral. (Actually, those numbers aren’t quite accurate; my mother’s father was descended from English stock, but, he was a bigot, a racist, a Georgian who bitterly disliked Yankees, Catholics, Irish, Italians, Jews, Blacks and his oldest grandson – and I decided years ago when I had a serious accident and bled rather profusely that I had purged myself of his blood.)

A Prussian funeral would frighten people; one of the very few times I have ever been frightened was when, as a small boy, I was ushered into the room where they had laid out my Prussian grandfather – on a high catafalque surrounded by large, black, smoldering candles, and enough incense to invest a Pope.

I’ve given serious thought to the Indian way: body wrapped in animal skins, laid out on a bier high above the ground to avoid being devoured by animals, until your body rots. The bleached bones are crushed into powder and scattered to the winds. Unique, but, in years to come, if somebody wanted to say a prayer at your grave, they couldn’t find you.

I thought of the way a soldier of fortune checked out; doomed by a melanoma, he went back to Africa as the end neared, and walked off into the jungle for one last mano a mano with the big cats. The old Eskimos used to be put out on the ice to become a kind of Thanksgiving dinner for polar bears. Both ways are totally devoid of theatrics.

So, I’ve decided on eclectic Irish. I want a tenor sax, a moody Charlie Parker, with a feel for sad times, to open the ceremony with a slow-time rendition of "Amazing Grace." Between the homily and the Offertory, I want a lyric soprano to sing the old version of "Ave Maria," well-paced like Perry Como’s rendition. Then, after Benediction, I want an Irish tenor, about seven sheets into the wind, to sing "Danny Boy." At the gravesite, I want everybody to take a swig of Tullamore Dew, a whisky that Irishmen believe is made from the tears of St. Patrick himself. I’m no longer eligible for Arlington but still entitled to a bugler; he should use the A-flat trumpet if no bugle is available, mournful, just like Pruett saying goodbye to Maggio in "Eternity." And, as they lower the casket, I want a mariachi band to play "Adios Muchachos." It’s been that kind of day. End

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Nunes, Ashlee. SS, CA Hot Styx, to University of San Diego

McFarland, Gina. P,1^st,2^nd, CA Hot Styx, to University of San Diego

Cox, Crystal. P, to University of North Carolina

Fairhurst, Ashley. C, Ohio Maddogs, to Kent State University

In the past 24 hours, we have learned that Cheri Kempf’s pitching academy has been called Camp K, Circle K, the K School, etc. The correct name is Club K. As one of her students informed us, it’s good under any name, but we do like to get it right.

Since our report a few weeks ago that we were preparing to publish a national roster of players graduating in 2003, and thus prime prospects for recruiting this coming summer, we have been inundated with rosters. This week we have added 300 names to this report, which is approaching 40 pages. We will proof it again this weekend and publish it. The team changes, etc., are mind-boggling; for some reason, we keep reciting Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade.

Freshman right-hander Jamie Southern who missed her first season for medical reasons, was today named the Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association's National Player of the Week. Southern, who picked up her fourth straight Western Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week honor on Monday, is the first Bulldog pitcher to garner this award since four-time All-American Amanda Scott.

As the first pitcher in WAC history to garner four consecutive pitcher of the week accolades, Southern had a stellar home debut last weekend. Southern went 3-0, threw a perfect game against UC Riverside (10th in school history and 52^nd no-hitter in school history), hurled a 3-hitter against Santa Clara, and set a single-game school record in strikeouts (19 vs. No. 10 Pacific), hit her first collegiate home run (vs. Pacific) and picked up her first collegiate save. Southern has thrown eight shutouts and is 13-2.

Galveston’s Strike Out Artists
We’ve never been certain about closely D1-2-3 schools monitor the JUCO scene, but we know how anxious some of the better JUCO players are to move up – so, from time to time, we like to help the process.

Galveston College head coach Ken Delcambre has three pitchers who are ringing up strikeouts at a near-record pace in the competitive Texas JUCO scene. Sophomores Crissy Autry and Dione Meier, along with freshman Sarah Freeman, have recorded 211 strikeouts and eight shutouts through the Whitecaps' first 19 games. Autry leads the staff with 91 strikeouts in 52 1/3 IP, with six starts, six complete games and four shutouts. Included in Autry's totals are a no-hitter against Cowley County (KS) and a 15 strikeout perfect game against Collin County (TX). Meier, from Saskatoon, has 80 K's in 43 1/3 IP, while pitching three shutouts and getting off to a team-best 6-1 start. Freeman has 40 strikeouts in 23 IP, including a school-record 17 K's in a six-inning shutout win over North Central Texas College. The trio has given up just 63 hits, 36 walks and 13 earned runs in 118 2/3 innings.

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There will be more college tournaments, starting Thursday March 7 and continuing through the weekend, and most but not all of the Top 25 will be in these large fields.

Some, like #2 Arizona, are playing one-on-one schedules. The Wildcats defeated Boston College on Tuesday 13-1, Jenny Gladdings 9^th win, with a grand slam by Lovie Jung and yet one more dinger by Leneah Manuma. Florida State took a break from classes midweek to beat Pitt, 7-0, behind a Brandi Stuart grand slam.

Elsewhere, some conferences begin play this weekend, and one of the match-ups should be a classic. Georgia, ranked 21^st and the only undefeated team in the Top 25, crosses the border to play #14 Alabama. Could be one harbinger of the SEC season.

#1 UCLA is in the field at the National Invitational Tournament at San Jose State. Others include #7 Arizona State, #6 California, #17 Iowa, upset-minded Long Beach State, as well as Buffalo, Northern Iowa, Miami OH, Santa Clara, Virginia, UNC Greensboro, Georgia Tech and Syracuse.

#22 Florida State hosts the Seminole Invitational; the field includes #4 Nebraska, #8 Michigan, Auburn, Iowa State, Middle Tennessee, Ball State, UMKC, Winthrop, Florida A&M, Minnesota, Pitt, Southern Illinois, U Mass, Southeast Louisiana.

#3 Stanford plays in the Speedline Invitational down in Tampa, with fast-rising #13 Florida Atlantic and #23 Mississippi State, as well as Central Michigan, Nicholls State, Temple, Georgia Southern, Hofstra, Western Michigan, UIC, Penn State, Michigan State, Maryland, BYU, FIU, Georgia State and Houston.

Attention will be focused on #10 Fresno State, which has 6 games this weekend – and 6 is the magic number Margie Wright needs to become the first softball coach to win 1000 games in NCAA Division I fastpitch softball. The Bulldogs have eight at home in all, so Margie could well reach this milestone in front of the home folks -- a nice touch.

SPY will do a full wrap-up of Top 25 and other games on Monday.

When Catherine Osterman was a sophomore, she put a lot of ranked teams down, first at Boulder, then at nationals. As a junior, she and her Katy Cruiser mates won Gold, and repeated the following year.

Alyssa Ransom has yet to achieve those lofty heights, but the 5’10" pitcher is getting a lot of attention this spring at McNeil HS in Central Texas. One newspaper in the Austin area has already dubbed her "Alley Cat." We offer no comparison to Osterman, not having seen Ransom pitch, nor, on that basis are we applying the sobriquet which might be seen by some as according the to pitchers the same status, but the stats are impressive. McNeil beat two of Texas’ top teams in Class 5A (the big schools): Georgetown 3-1 and Killeen Ellison 14-0. The newspaper accounts show a lot of teamwork but they are heaping praise on Ransom – who has hurled two no-hitters, struck out 90 in 9 games while giving up 14 hits, and taken just one loss, the second game of a DH in which she pitched both ends. Every indication is that Alyssa is a gamer, and we wish her well.

Why publicize a player we haven’t seen? Because our mail indicates that Alyssa’s story is being mirrored in many areas outside California and Arizona. Softball at the JO level will become a truly national game when the pitching is truly competitive nationally – and that’s the area where we are seeing considerable improvement. In part, this improvement is related directly to an improvement in coaching – by men and women who know how. There has been a particular slow growth in JO fastpitch in the interior states of the eastern half of the country; as more groups like Camp K produce quality pitchers, good fastpitch teams will follow.

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Readers may be confused by two separate SPY articles, one proclaiming that Florida State coach JoAnne Graf had set a new record for wins (1125), passing former CS Fullerton coach Judy Garman. SPY then published a report which said that Fresno State coach Margie Wright was within six wins of her 1,000^th victory, and would be the first Division I coach to reach that plateau.

An explanation is in order. Dr. Graf set a new NFCA record. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association recognizes all collegiate wins, whether they are fast pitch, or slow pitch, or gained at different divisional levels.

The NCAA record book recognizes all levels of collegiate play – but disaggregates by division. Margie Wright’s 994 victories are all in Division I fast pitch, and when she crosses the 1,000 mark in the next few days, she will be the first softball coach to reach that plateau. Twenty-four other coaches have 1,000 or more victories – all baseball coaches.

At some point during the upcoming KIA, we will encounter Karen and Elena Mendoza whom, we are certain, will remind us that Jessica plays for Stanford and Alana plays for Oregon State – facts of which we are well aware. Still, we correctly identified Alana (or Loni) in one part of an Oregon State story, but referred to Jessica in another part of the same story. For reasons we won’t go into, we were writing that Top 25 story at 3 am, which is why we stopped at #14, and didn’t edit the copy, which we will now correct. There was once an editor named Bradley Boyle, who would make reporters paste each page of their story together, string-like, and, if he found a single error, he would wad the whole story into a ball, yell out your name across the news room, then throw your story back to you. As a political reporter, that could mean my doing 10 pages over, and this was before we had word processors. The facts are indeed important.

Strikkers P Eileen Canney is a junior and we are adding her to the 2003 list.

Another Poll Ripe for Change

Perennial highschool power Foothill was ranked #4 pre-season. This past weekend Foothill served notice it can play with the best, blasting Bullard, another traditional power, 17-0. Allison Yin, a recent transfer, pitched a no-hitter. Foothill scored 3 runs before it made an out, and piled on nine in the 7^th inning. Yin next threw a 1-hitter at Clovis, with 12 Ks, and her teammates exploded for 5 runs in the top of the 7^th to win 7-0. Foothill also won the second Clovis game, 3-2, with freshman Lori Gilbert starting and Yin relieving.

The addition of Yin complements a roster that could take on many travel ball teams; indeed, it’s a roster replete with top travel ball players – two NFCA All-Americans patrol the outfield, speedsters Caitlin Lowe and Autumn Champion (Arizona). They and middle infielder Tiffany Haas (Michigan) play for Gordon’s Panthers. Jamie Dotson of the Worth Firecrackers (Northwestern) hits in the cleanup spot and catches. Jiliane Hartfiel of the So Cal A’s is also a middle infielder. Jessica Reiten (Dartmouth) can play 2^nd and the outfield. Another SCA, Whitney Radcliff, also plays 2^nd. Some younger players are also earning their keep.

Last year, Tulsa was 13-42, but Jamie Pinkerton had hopes for the freshmen he recruited. Now, the Hurricanes are 14-2. Newcomers named Day, Dyer, Sliepen and Walkingstick are starting and winning. They’re not Top 25 yet, but, like their namesake, they are coming and will make their presence felt.

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Canney, Eileen. P,2^nd,1^st, GPA 4.0 530-872-3284

Starling, Lindy. MI, contact 706-582-3241

Bill Humphrey will retire on June 1 as ASA Director of Membership Services.

"It’s with deep regret that I accept Bill Humphrey’s retirement from the National Office," said ASA Executive Director Ron Radigonda. "Bill has given ASA and myself ample notice to find a replacement and make the transition as seamless as possible."

Prior to joining the ASA National Office, Humphrey served as the commissioner for the state of Michigan for 19 years. In 1997, he was elected as the 31st president of the Amateur Softball Association and served two terms.

We once were advised by a very sagacious gentleman that every man (or woman) ending a professional or even personal relationship should leave on a grace note. For us, Bill sounded that grace note at the JO Workshop, when he told the assembled commissioners that the modern face of softball is girls’ fastpitch and that Gold is the elite group – facts which he admonished every commissioner to remember. Having long thought of Bill as one of the ASA crustaceans, we too will sound a grace note and say we misjudged the man, whose hard outer shell opened to reveal a more thoughtful person than we gave him credit for being. More, we applaud his latest effort to help adopt the Gold procedures.  In that regard, we are grateful for him proving us wrong -- about him.

In the Sun Devils’ 3-2 victory over Notre Dame, Arizona State pitcher Kirsten Voak pitched the first four innings, Erica Beach pitched the last 3 for the walk-off victory when Kara Brun hit the 2 run HR in the bottom of the 7th.

Perhaps, it’s just the way of such things that the official notice in the newspaper was so brief:

The campus newspaper carried a picture of her teammates, standing at the shortstop position where she excelled.

More needs to be said, because she was one of us, a participant in our sport, whose life ended much too soon. The coaches who have called us remember her fondly.

There are many who grieve beyond the Marshall campus. Dana was an honor student at Alta Loma HS. An able SS, Dana played for American Pastime, the Batbusters, the Crunch, and the Firecrackers – and was a member of the Firecracker team which won the ASA National Championship in 1995. At Marshall, Dana, wearing #5, was the team leader in assists, 4^th in batting average, and second in stolen bases. Dana made her mark – as a student, as an athlete, as a young woman. Her many friends will indeed miss her.

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Our sport is pitcher-dominated; not surprisingly, our mail bag is chock-full of news about hurlers – including several items about Dana Sorensen. The Stanford junior has been injured, according to Stanford parents and others attending last weekend’s San Diego tournament, and is out indefinitely. The Stanford web site makes no mention of the injury, but does report on Stanford’s participation in the NFCA classic using Tori Nyberg and Maureen LeCoq as its pitchers. Stanford also tested Elizabeth Bendig's arm in relief.Spy 

Erica Beach, Arizona State, who has yet to give up an earned run, has been named PAC 10 pitcher of the week, while Valerie Sevilla, Virginia, has been named ACC Player of the Week for her strong performance at the Triangle Tournament in North Carolina.

UNLV freshman Jackie Kerrigan, who notched 13 Ks against a good-hitting Kansas team, has been named MWC pitcher of the week.

Allison Yin, who is North Carolina bound next fall, is now pitching for Foothill HS. She will pitch for the So Cal Athletics this summer. Two other pitchers, Sarah Freeman of Valley Breeze and Sarah Alberts of Lightning, have joined the Davis Batbusters.

Jenny Finch, just pitched her 6^th career no-hitter for Arizona, and has now won 48 consecutive games, just two shy of the NCAA record. As previously reported in SPY, UCLA’s Keira Goerl and Amanda Freed are 7-0 and 6-0.

We have made and will continue to provide notes on other pitchers in team summaries.

Before going on to other subjects, however, we want to comment on three pitchers we saw in the short-grass country. Girls are travelling as much as 3 hours just to practice with the Oklahoma Twisters, 4^th nationally at 16U, who are moving to Gold – and have the pitching to be contenders. Fireballer Dana Askins, committed to Oklahoma, busts her fastball inside at 64mph, and throws every type of breaking pitch. Sarah Seagraves, who is committed to Oklahoma State, is a curveball artist who works in the low 60s. Junior Julie Fennell hurls in the 59-61 range, with good curves and screwballs.

Several tournaments had not concluded before SPY published last Sunday; we also want to take note of some other games.

UCLA departed from the long-bomb script it used at the Fiesta; winning the UNLV tournament, the Bruins defeated LSU 7-0 by hitting 14 singles.

Stanford was awarded the Campbell-Cartier trophy over UOP, both 4-0, on the basis of runs allowed. Tori Nyberg and Mo LeCoq pitched for the Cardinal, who defeated Utah State 7-3, San Diego State 9-0, CS Fullerton 2-1, and CS Northridge 4-2. Michigan, 3^rd in the tournament, defeated Pitt 9-0, Loyola Marymount 7-1, Santa Barbara 8-1, Utah State 9-0, but lost to UOP 7-1. In final games, San Diego State and Northwestern tied at 7; FIU defeated Santa Barbara 7-2. Fresno State and Fullerton finished 3-1, while New Mexico, winning its first games of the season, was 2-1, with a 1-0 win over Northridge, and a 12-7 win over Sacramento State. Northridge was 2-2, SDS was 2-2-1, ditto Northwestern, FIU was 2-3, Loyola Marymount was 1-2, Sacramento State and Utah State were 1-3.

Arizona won the Pepsi Classic, defeating New Mexico State 8-0 in the finale. Freshman Jackie Coburn hit her first grand slam homer.

Oklahoma, which won the Nike Classic on the weekend, beat Oklahoma City 8-2 on Tuesday. Freshman C Christina Enea was 3-4 with 3 rbi; the Sooners had 5 in the 5^th. Freshman Kami Keiter got the win.

Oregon State, which had won 11 in a row, is 12-2, after defeating Alabama 2-1 but losing to Nebraska 3-1. Freshman Kelly Petersen drove in all 3 Beaver runs; she hit a 2-run double in the 5^th against the Crimson Tide. Peaches James threw a 4-hitter for the Huskers.

Florida State, which dropped from 15^th to 17^th in this week’s poll, came in second in its Seminole Classic, won by Georgia. FSU was on a tear at the end, winning 4 games in a row, while outscoring opponents 20-7. In their final game, the Seminoles defeated St. John’s 8-3 with an 11-hit attack. Freshman Casey Hunter won her second game.

Notre Dame is 3-2, breaking in two freshman pitchers, Carrie Wisen and Steffany Stenglien. The Irish beat #25 South Florida 5-3 but lost to Louisville 4-3 when Melissa Jacobo homered off Wisen. Notre Dame also defeated New Mexico State 9-7 in 8; Stenglein again gave way to Wisen and Jessica Sharron came on in relief.

Illinois-Chicago took a pair from Western Illinois, 3-0 and 8-6; UIC got a walk-off home run from Amanda Rivera.

Penn State broke a 3-game schneid, defeating Syracuse 3-2 at the Seminole Classic. The Nittany Lions got strong pitching from freshmen Missy Beseres and Tina Skelly.

Finally, Texas A&M won the Mardi Gras tournament, defeating host Louisiana-Monroe in the finale, 6-0.

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FEBRUARY 17 UPDATE

A SPY SOFTBALL REPORT

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UNLV senior pitcher Geney Orris has been named the Mountain West Conference Softball Pitcher of the Week, the league announced Tuesday. Orris, a right-handed hurler from Brea, Calif., earned wins in both of her two starts last week. Her first victory came at the hands of Saint Mary's in the first-ever game played at the Rebels' new Eller Media Stadium. She allowed the Gaels just one hit and no runs while walking two and striking out six in six innings of work as UNLV cruised to a 6-2 win.

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SPY does not have data on Gold tournaments in all four sectors (and assume Southern California coaches are still unhappy about having one of their regionals in Las Vegas) but we do have some information on Sector 3 (Maine to Florida).

The Central Atlantic regional championship will be held in Arlington, VA, July 5-7.

The first Sector 3 qualifier will be in Altamonte Springs, FL, July 7-9.

The second Sector 3 qualifier will be in Sterling VA July 12-14.

The contact is JO commissioner Rich Haver: 703-759-9189.

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College softball season begins this month with a number of tournaments, including showcases like the Fiesta Bowl Tournament in Phoenix and the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, GA, both of which will be covered by SPY. The many tournaments include a meet in Tucson hosted by Arizona, a tournament in Nevada hosted by UNLV, a round-robin hosted by Oklahoma, etc.

The Fiesta Bowl, February 8-10, hosted by Arizona State, includes: 2001 national champion Arizona, CS Fullerton, Fresno State, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi State, Nebraska, New Mexico State, Southwest Texas State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UCLA, UNLV, Utah State and Wisconsin. Four of these (underlined) teams are ranked in the USA/Today poll’s pre-season Top 10, four others are in the top 25.

The pool for the NFCA Classic includes: Alabama, Oklahoma, LSU, Nebraska, New Mexico, Illinois-Chicago, Wisconsin, Utah, Stanford (defending champion), Michigan, Washington, Arizona State, Connecticut, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Oregon State, Southern Mississippi, Texas A&M, Cal State Fullerton, Massachusetts, Missouri, Boston University, Fresno State, and Penn State. Thirteen of the 24 teams are ranked in the Top 25 of the pre-season poll.

In the USA Athletics vs Case Batbusters, a 5-5 tie, Amerra Kesterson hit a HR on a full count pitch from her friend Brooke Weekly with one out in the first inning. The SS who was so impressive in the early games for the So Cal Athletics was Katie Vickers, on loan from the 16U Batbusters; we were given the incorrect spelling of her name.

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Although the formula adopted by the ASA Council at its meeting last November in Winston-Salem does not provide for continued inclusion of the top three teams from the 18A national championship, the 2001 18A tournament was conducted under rules then in effect which awarded automatic berths to the champion AZ Alleycats, and runners-up KC Shockwaves and KC Peppers.

ASA now advises, in a memo dated January 14, that these three teams will be given berths to the 2002 Gold Nationals. The prospect is for a 68-team field. We do not know how a 68^th berth will be awarded. However, this will be a one-time allowance.

SPY has also been told that Gold teams should read the new rule very carefully with respect to the 24-team qualification provision. The rule states that, if there are not 24 teams registered to play Gold in any of the four sectors, the tournaments in those sectors are open to teams from other sectors. However, JO Commissioner Rich Haver, who chaired the Winston-Salem meeting, points out that there is no ceiling in the rule, ie, the sector commissioners who do not have 24 teams registered can accept as many teams as apply. Many Gold coaches had assumed that, if a sector had 10 teams, only 14 additional teams would be invited. But, Haver said that is not explicit in the rule. Nor, Haver added, is there a requirement that a sector must have 24 teams – from within or without the region – in order to conduct their sector tournaments. Eg, if a sector has 8 local teams registered, and no outside teams enter, or a combination of local and outside teams that is less than 24, the tournament proceeds with just that number of teams.

Also, the announcement of regional registrations issued by ASA, which counted teams registered as of last October, is being reconsidered, Haver said, and there could be slight adjustments, eg, Region III could gain a berth, while some other region loses a berth. The new rule limits the Gold field to 64 teams, except for 2002 as noted above. These adjustments, if any, are not likely to affect the larger Western regions.

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We apologize to Sharon Drysdale. In our haste to publish late last night, we credited the coaches college to ASA, rather than the actual sponsor, NFCA. Indeed, we heard Sharon’s preview of the college during the NFCA annual meeting last November in Scottsdale. We are doubly embarrassed because our article elicited a good bit of favorable comment and also interest in future sessions.

To reprise, the NFCC College, under Sharon’s tutelage, conducted its initial clinic on January 4-6 in Denton, TX. The next session was held January 11-13 in St. Louis. A third course will be conducted February 22-24 in conjunction with the NFCA Leadoff Classic; the courses will be offered at Columbus State University. The same course on "coaching observation and participation" will be offered May 24-26 in at Oklahoma Christian University, in conjunction with the Women’s College World Series.

Future courses will include: professional self discovery and enhancement; teaching, analyzing, correcting and practicing position play; teaching solid team defense and strategy; game coaching; team management; and case analysis.

A reader in Northern California worries that teams which are not extensively reported in SPY may get overlooked by college coaches. We have received similar comments over time, and, while we attempt to plan our tournament coverage to see as many teams as possible, that effort gets overwhelmed by tournaments which use multiple fields at divergent sites. Time slots for teams we want to see are in conflict; tournaments fall behind schedule; etc. Given that we finance SPY exclusively from retirement savings, we can’t afford to hire assistants, so we rely on coaches to give us as unbiased an account as possible of games which we saw only in part, or sometimes not at all. But, too often, what we receive via email is too one-sided, and readers would ask questions about the opponents, questions which we could not answer from the material at hand.

We have a solution in the works, and, if we find the small amount of financing required, we should be able to announce a second communications link before travel ball season opens.

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We’ve heard positive comments about the first session of the ASA Coaches College, beginning with praise for the professionalism of Sharon Drysdale and John Tschida of St. Thomas MN. ASA would like to attract even more coaches; about 40 participated, ranging from D-1 assistants, JUCO, travel ball and highschool.

The curriculum emphasized the running game, the power and short games, and significantly (in our opinion) calling signals – including, we are told, insight on how an observer could pick up on the pitches our hurlers were throwing in the Olympics, and how the coaches/pitchers overcame that problem.

We just learned that the Bandits 18 Gold team has disbanded. Senior P,OF,3^rd Allison Cohen has moved over to the So Cal Prestige Belles, for whom she pitched at Marietta.

SPY has changed her listing on the unsigned seniors list.

The art of being omnipresent, or, everywhere at once, is not one of SPY’s goals in life, even though we will be on the road somewhere for 25 weekends this year, or more.

We rely heavily for roster information on tournament rosters, coaches and media guides. For some reason, as we look around the study which is strewn with hundreds of these documents, we are reminded of the comment by a Crown officer assessing an arriving group of Irish indentured servants at Botany Bay: Aye, lad, they’re a sad lot.

The girls are expected by every coach to play to the highest level of their skills and athletic ability. Surely, it is not too much to ask those same coaches to put a wee bit more effort into the documents that are the first link in the recruitment chain!

We’ve got tournament guides which are missing a third of the teams, leaving college coaches to play a version of the Lone Range game. We get rosters without numbers, and most do not have GPA or SAT scores – or that vital number, a birthdate. We’ve got media guides which are really advertising promotions – fine, but don’t stint on data.

We are very grateful to those who provide email addresses and contact numbers. And tip the Spyglass to those who provide travel ball as well as HS stats. Academic honors are as important as athletic records to college administrators. If a player went to a college summer camp or coaching clinic, list it – it may be a good reference. Pictures are good; forget the do’s and faux pearls and off-shoulder drapes; look like you will appear at the ball field (before you get dirty). Those darkened team pictures with no captions have no value to coaches.

If you know how to measure bat speed, list it, but, don’t guess at bat speed, throwing or pitching speed, running times.

We continue to be troubled by seniors who have not taken at least the PSAT. Waiting for the second semester of your senior year is like spotting the pitcher two strikes.

We’re coming out with our Class of 2003 list. We spend hours comparing summer and winter rosters – and we place a girl with the team on which we last knew her to play. If she changes teams, and SPY doesn’t know about it – well, that requires a crystal ball which we don’t possess. But, we are quick to make corrections.

Finally, if we ever find that magic lamp, our third wish would be that softball teams register domain names.

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Nikki Childress, from Roanoke, Va.got rave notices as the catcher for Cave Spring high school’s top-rated teams, but found herself playing for a community college in Florida, hoping for her chance to play D-1. Lady Gator coach Gary Fitzpatrick gave her exposure and we now have word Nikki has committed to Rutgers. Congratulations, Nikki.

In our reprise, we focused on Eastern players whom we think should be considered if ASA decides to expand and freshen its talent pool. Reviewing the very supportive comments from SPY readers reminded us how easily players can get overlooked – if they play Eastern but also if they are injured and out of the limelight. Two cases in point.

Jessica Van der Linden hit a shot off Cat Osterman at Gold nationals which curved foul; if it had stayed fair, and the Haning Batbusters had tied the game, a different outcome was possible. Given her yeoman work for the Batbusters – we enjoyed watching that screwball break at 63mph, we were surprised to learn that Jessica had never received an invitation – the more so because she pitched the Puerto Rican team into the Pan Am games.

Jamie Southern of Fresno State, who quite literally pitched the Fresno Force into the ASA National Championship at 16, and was the pitching mainstay of the Force and then the Clovis Rockets, was injured her freshman year in college – a devastating crimp in Margie Wright’s 2001 plans. She’s healthy, yearning to play.

They are just two more of a group of players whose college seasons should be watched closely, and, if they succeed as we think they will, they deserve consideration.

While a handful of readers expressed surprise that a particular player or two was picked, our mail was quite supportive – but uniformly in favor of picking more new faces for the final team selections. We disagreed with a coach who said any US team could beat any other international team, thinking back to the Sidney Olympics where the USA learned that it could be beaten. Still, we believe this is a time to expand and freshen the pool.

We were saddened this week to read of the death of Igor Cassini, who gained fame as the gossip columnist Cholly Knickerbocker. He literally defined New York café society in the 60’s, and brother Oleg dressed the beauties of the day, including Jackie Kennedy. It was an incredible era, and a very young political reporter (younger then than some of the girls who tried out at Chula Vista) was dazzled by it. It was the heyday of the gossip columnist: Walter Winchell held court at the Stork Club; the Times, Herald Tribune, Journal American, Daily News, Mirror brought you Cholly, Louella Parsons, Dorothy Kilgallen and the best sportswriter of them all, Jimmy Cannon. Manhattan, LIU, CCNY and the Knicks played great basketball at the real Garden. If you bought a stein, you got a thick, sliced steak sandwich at Jack Dempsey’s for a dollar. Once you got a byline, your press pass ensured a discount steak at Schine’s; you could get a table at 21 and sometimes the Stork or Copacabana; you drank with the good and the great at Toots Shor’s saloon; and you could walk into P.J. Clarke’s, the political watering hole, and know 15 people before you passed the first barstool. You got comp memberships at the New York Athletic Club and the Playboy Club, and the political groupies would make Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders seem like Salvation Army bellringers. You bought suits off a rack on the lower West Side but you splurged on a tailored suit at Saks and sat in the dressing room with the likes of Rod Steiger, Michael Rennie, et al. You got tickets to the Yankees to watch the Mick, Moose, Maris and Yogi, you had a box seat at Shea to watch Broadway Joe, and went to the Garden to see the Rangers – and beautiful Lauren Bacall sitting mid-rink. There was the night at the Americana where Frank Sinatra Jr. opened, and Old Blue Eyes chimed in to help his kid. You caught Ella or the incomparable Sarah Vaughn, or took in the top jazz artists all over uptown and Harlem. You had an editor who knew even less than you about the new music and sent you to interview Bobby Vinton. That same editor made you sit through mind-numbing Con Edison hearings, but, when the 1965 blackout occurred, you were the only one in the newsroom who knew how the New York-New England power grid worked, and got your second journalism award and first taste of political power for a series which forced New York State to modernize its child welfare laws. On a rare Sunday morning, you took a really fabulous Saturday night date to the Plaza for a champagne brunch at the Palm Court – and scouted for free food at political bashes and deli openings for a week while your pocketbook recovered. You got invited to A&P heir Huntington Hartford’s swelligant apartment for a party because somebody read something you wrote they liked – and you got tailed and muscled by the Mob because they didn’t like what you wrote about the Mafia infiltrating the Teamster’s union. You were a print guy but your Beatles picture made Life magazine. Irish political wakes and Italian weddings were arguments for reviving Prohibition. You had a pilot’s license and flew astonished friends out to Montauk for a lobster dinner, and you got invited by people you didn’t know for yachting weekends and parties in the Hamptons, very rich people with attractive daughters – their hair always smelled good – you didn’t have the money or social pedigree to marry them but you knew all the fun spots in the Village – where you began a life-long friendship with Peter, Paul and Mary. New York was a city which never closed, and you had black and white tuxedo jackets. You drove an old Jaguar which wouldn’t start unless you said 10 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Marys. You played pickup softball on a field in Bayshore, until the day you dove for a sinking liner and landed on a flat rock, breaking three ribs. You covered Jack Kennedy’s triumphant last tour before the election – and you stood in the great rotunda of the nation’s Capitol to witness his funeral, two events which challenged and changed your generation. The dreams of the Sixties generation died on a Dallas street; what remained of our illusions drowned in a rice paddy as we learned that no one wins a war; some people just lose less than others. As a journalist, you tried to be objective about the war in Viet Nam, until the day they brought your little brother home. You travelled with Bobby Kennedy during his Senate campaign – and spent a wondrous day with Rose, the most impressive and gracious woman you ever met. Bobby and Martin Luther King were the most intensive people of the era – and then ML and Bobby died – and New York just wasn’t fun anymore. You wanted to be the next Harry Street; instead, you went to Washington, joined the State Department and had a thousand exciting moments but the champagne was never as effervescent. As Peggy Lee sang, they've burst your pretty balloon and taken the moon away.

So many memories, and some readers might find one humorous. In 1964, covering the campaign (Lyndon Johnson wore the ugliest green suit – and Murray Kempton and Jimmy Breslin stood in a hotel fountain arguing the election), a bunch of reporters ended up at the back of a barroom, after a Firewater for Goldwater rally. One very large, very irate, very inebriated conservative charged into the barroom, shouting "Rayburn." While I was hoping the bartender had a big bat, or even a cannon, a rather smallish, bespectacled fellow at the front of the bar, turned and said, "I’m Raburn." Whereupon, the big fellow cold-cocked him, and left. All we brave reporters then hurried to the front, and I asked this little guy, "Who are you?" He informed us his name was John Raburn, and he was a clerk in the local courthouse, and knew of no reason anyone would want to punch his clock. I assured him he was an accidental victim, and paid for his drink. We then left, only to find that the Goldwaterites had trashed my car.

Maybe it’s just a New York thing; maybe you had to be part of it to appreciate it. But, it was a rite of passage for a political generation -- including a very young man from a small town in Oklahoma, who learned that the most exciting thing about life is living it. As Sinatra would say, it was a blast.

Thanks, Cholly; the party’s over but we had a good time.

End

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All 22 of the players selected this past week by USA Softball as its core group attended colleges and universities west of the Mississippi. Putting aside for a moment the question of whether they are the best in the country, the geographical nexus is no surprise: 30 of the 52 players invited to the camp were from California; 5 from east of the Mississippi.

Having privately written out our own preferences before the list was announced, to see how close we could come, SPY correctly identified 17 of the 22, based solely on how well they played at various positions. The selection committee did well – and, like all of us who have ever had to cut players, made some difficult choices. Moreover, they get to do it again. Not being selected could have been a real burden for those players who have finished their college playing days and would not be competing during these intervening months before the final camp in late May, which would benefit the collegians.

Given that all but eight of the 52 invitations went to players from the Olympic and/or Red and Blue national teams which competed in 2000-2001, the invitee list was somewhat pre-ordained. Those rosters were similarly tilted overwhelmingly to the West, and especially to California and Arizona. That phase, however, is over.

Before actual teams are formed in late May, following the WCWS, USA Softball will decide on whom to invite to compete with the 22-player core group for about 32 slots on two national teams. The anticipation is that 30 additional players will be invited.

Logically, the hope among the 24 players who were not picked (only 46 competed at Chula Vista) is that they will each and all be among the 30 additional players. And, to be sure, there are some very talented players among this group of 24.

Mathematically, the expectation is that there will be at least 6 new faces among the 30 (assuming the 24 are each invited) but should there be more new faces?

We urge USA Softball to monitor closely the upcoming college season, and not just in the Pac 10. To be sure, if UCLA’s Keira Goerl and Washington’s Tia Bollinger have the kinds of seasons they had last year, they would merit consideration to return. But, if newcomers like Jennifer Wright at Alabama, or Kami Keiter at Oklahoma, or Katie Decker at Baylor, just to mention three, have great seasons, will they be invited?

USA Softball has a chance to make the next camp a truly national tryout. Perhaps the result will still be the same, and the two teams finally chosen will again wear a Western face. But, now that they’ve gotten past last year’s national teams, this is an opportunity for USA Softball to recognize new talent – and both expand and refresh its player pool. After all, the 2004 Olympics are two years away and time may dictate that the USA field some new players.

Every observer we talked to agrees that the catching was not uniformly good. Every catcher had some good plays but there was no one as dominant as Stacey Nuveman, and she was playing 1^st during the camp. Jenny Topping perhaps came the closest, and her bat is a factor. True, the group of 24 includes proven talent like Lindsay Collins and Jarrah Myers, among others. And, in our humble opinion, the challenge was especially difficult for catchers who had to call the pitches – and several of the candidates not only did not call pitches in travel ball, they also don’t call pitches in college. Remember: they may have 2 catchers identified but they need at least 4 to have two teams. Will they look ahead to 2004 and reach out to youngsters like Leigh Ann Danos at LSU if she has a good season or Annie Dell Aria at Notre Dame and let them compete?

Hitting picked up the second day, but, even with power in the bats of Nuveman, Crystil Bustos, Nina Lindenberg, Jennie Finch, Lauren Bauer, Alana Addison et al, would it be prudent to think ahead to 2004 and not only consider again such proven HR hitters like Toni Mascarenas, Jaime Clark and Mackenzie Vandergeest, but freshman belters like Jessica Braggins, LSU. Indeed, assuming solid spring seasons, the Class of 2001 has a number of players who matured east of the Big Muddy who should merit some attention when USA picks campers, if not this year, certainly in 2003. Players like Tessa Lynam, LSU; Danos and Dell’Aria; Brittani Houghton, Florida; Kristy Kwiatowski, Yale; Jessica Lesley, Oklahoma; Shelli Messer, Purdue; Malissa Moczulski, Maryland; Traci Tiensvold, Wichita State; Stacy Walkingstick, Tulsa etc. Will players get noticed if their teams don’t make it to the WCWS? To be sure, the freshmen classes out West are also chock full of good players, like Courtney Fossatti and Jackie Coburn at Arizona; Meredith Cervenka at Long Beach, Dani Jodoin at Oregon State, etc.

Maybe not this round, but, when the camps are called in 2003, a long list of players who were All Americans in 2000 and 2001 will have 1-2 years of college experience – and some of the better players will be in the East. Moreover, there are some excellent players graduating this June – in all parts of the country. Again, the West dominates softball at every level, and there are arguably more top players on Western teams as evidenced by championships at all levels. Still, USA should expand its player pool with fresh faces and some of those Eastern players should be given a chance to compete. Doing so will take us another long step toward creating a truly national sport.

How do these players, or any players, come to the attention of USA Softball?

We write all of this because, little noticed with all of the happenings on the Chula Vista field among national team aspirants, another committee was considering names of players to be invited to a different camp in 2002 who will be candidates for the USA team which will play in the Junior World competition in 2003 in China. Most of the names, for various reasons, will be of players from travel ball teams in the West, and, again, probably deservedly so (SPY is preparing to publish its Class of 2003 list and there are some very high quality players in the West who should be considered for this team), but, the camp itself should reflect the growth of this sport and the increasing excellence of players from throughout the country. If players from other regions compete, and are found wanting, so be it. But, they deserve the chance.

Will there be one Junior World camp? Or many? How will the next Olympic team be chosen? That five camp structure used in 2000 to decide who would be invited to San Diego/Chula Vista for Olympic tryouts – well, we won’t go into the myriad defects with that particular process, which gave new meaning to words like woeful and irrelevant. End.

Brittani DeRuiter - pitcher/1b - 3.95 GPA - 1090 SAT - 602.439.5759
Natalie Messina - 2b/OF - 3.50 GPA - 840 SAT - 602.439.4870

Jersey Outlaws NJ ASA 18-U State Champs
Chris Scott/Jim Mallon 856-931-4595
Michelle Schlichtig P, 3rd 3.8 856-546-0835

Spy Softball Home Page

Brittany Bassett. SS, San Diego Breakers, to Loyola Marymount

SPY reported that Tracy Jordan, who now plays for Panthers Gold (Romero) had been accepted at the United States Military Academy. The service academies do not use the traditional commitment/letters of intent process, given their unique admission procedures. Tracy has now given a verbal commitment to Eastern New Mexico University.

American pitcher Ali Arnold, the daughter of former New Zealand pitcher Graham Arnold, is bidding to make the Bartercard White Sox team for this year's world series. With her fastest ball reportedly travelling at approximately 100 km/hr (66mph) and a full array of pitches, NZ newspapers say Arnold has impressed New Zealand coaches with her performance on the mound for defending champions Wellington. Ali will attend the University of Iowa.

A few weeks ago, we asked what had happened to Shawn after pitching, hitting and ultimately winning the WCWS for Texas A&M. Shawn has responded; after working as an assistant coach for a few years, she is now happily married to her college sweetheart, basketball player Al Pulliam. Shawn said she was blessed with the opportunity to be national champion, but says motherhood is her biggest accomplishment. Now living down in the Brazos Valley, Shawn describes herself as room mom, soccer coach, T-ball coach, part-time pitching instructor, wife and proud mother of two. There is indeed life after softball – and, as Shawn confirms, a good and fulfilling life.

Subject: TOP IDIOTS OF 2001
Idiot # 1
I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the
poison control center. Today, this woman called in very upset because she
caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the
ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into
the hospital. She calmed down, and at the end of the conversation happened
to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to
kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter into the
Emergency Room right away.

Idiot # 2
Seems that a year ago, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided
to steal a life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in getting
it out of the plane and home. When they took it for a float on the river,
a Coast Guard helicopter coming towards them surprised them. It turned out
that the chopper was homing in on the emergency locator beacon that
activated when the raft was inflated. They are no longer employed at
Boeing.

Idiot # 3
A true story out of San Francisco:
A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the
branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag."
While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to
worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police
before he reached the teller's window. So he left the Bank of America and
crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he
handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from
his spelling errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told
him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a
Bank of America deposit slip. She said that he would either have to fill
out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking
somewhat defeated, the man said, "OK" and left. He was arrested a few
minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America! .

Idiot # 4
A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that
measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received
in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of payment,
he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he
received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time
of handcuffs. He immediately mailed in his $40.

Idiot # 5
Guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all
the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag,
the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the
shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier
refused and said, "Because I don't believe you are over 21." The robber
said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he
didn't believe him. At this point the robber took his driver's license out
of his wallet and gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over, and
agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and he put the scotch in the bag.
The robber then ran from the store with his loot. The cashier promptly
called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got
off the license. They arrested the robber two hours later.

(Idiot # 6
A pair of Michigan robbers entered a record shop nervously waving
revolvers. The first one shouted, "Nobody move!" When his partner moved,
the startled first bandit shot him.

(Idiot # 7
Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided
that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab
some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his
head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be
thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. Seems the liquor store window
was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape.

Idiot # 8
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked
into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 12:50 A.M., flashed a gun and
demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open
the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings,
he clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated,
walked away.

End

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Note: The separate file, Commitments 2002 Consolidated List, has been updated through 12/31, 2001, including the players shown below.

We thought of writing about September 11, or world peace, or the compelling urgency to remediate world poverty and hunger. Instead, as we pack up the old laptop for our trip to the USA national team exposure camp this week at Chula Vista, we thought about the first time we saw some of these players – many of them playing at ASA 14 U national championships. So, we pored through our boxes of records and found rosters which generated some very warm memories. You would love the team pictures. A lot of parent coaches; pin trading was an art form; the games were fun; the latent skills awesome.

Consider these players who participated in the 1994 tournament in Marietta, won by the Wardein Firecrackers, many of whom went on to college stardom: (many other players went on to play college ball; these we most readily remember or recognize)

So Cal Athletics: Lizzy Lemire; Lovie Jung; Amanda Freed; Shealee Dunavan.

San Jose Lady Sharks: Niki Stemberger; Melanie Alkire; Kirsten Voak; Veronica Nelson; Lori Meixner.

Texas Lady Hawks: Melissa Coronado

Houston Hit-N-Run: Britni Sneed (only person taller than Britni was her dad)

Lady Bombers: Shanna and Alanna Hazzard

CA Cruisers: Leah Gulla; Jennie Finch; Tiffany Thomas; Toria Auelua

So Cal Rebels: Leneah Manuma;

CA Classics: Sheri Oronoz; Heidi Foster; Nicole DiSalvio

Batbusters: Jamie Clark; Shannon Walsh; Nicole Giordano; Monica Lucatero;

Firecrackers (Smith): Jenny Topping; Lindsay Fossatti; Vanessa Preston

Phoenix Storm: Missy Hixon; Erica Beach; Shelly Musser; Kara Brun

Sagemont Storm (TX): Lindsay Gardner (you gotta love that hair)

CA Dynasty: Jessica Bashor

Tulsa Stingers: Kelli Braitsch

Spring Klein Impact: Shelley Laird

San Diego Thunder: Dana Sorensen

Firecrackers (Wardein): Erin Wardein; Angela Veronesi

The 1996 14U Tournament brought on a new cast of about-to-be stars:

CO Comets: Katie Decker; Kami Keiter, Danelle Arnold

CA Dynasty: Lindsey Bashor; Meredith Cervenka; Natalie Furrow; Keira Goerl; Shandrika Lee; Arleigh Thorp; Brittney Green

CA Cruisers: Allison Chislock; Juli Hoshizaki; Julie Watson

Athletics Gold: Christa Arriaga; Tia Bollinger; Erin Hogan; Wynter Turner; Jessica Vernaglia; Alexis Madrid

KC Invasion: Morgan LeCluyse; Jessica Leslie

Kingwood TX Force: Nicole Robinson; Cristin Vitek

Oklahoma Canes: Stacey Walkinstick

So Cal Crunch: Marcel Torres; Xochitl Ramirez

OC Batbusters: Elizabeth Bendig; Christina Clark; Courtney Fossatti; Erin Mobley

CA Breeze: LeAnna Hoglen; Kari Koller; Desiree Frees

Am Pastime (Craig): Jamie Farnworth;

OC Athletics: Kristin Farber; Shawna Goessling; Natalie Golda; Kristy Kwiatkoski; Amanda Matoy; Dora Webb; Phelan Wright

So Cal Stealth: Maureen LeCoq; Brandi and Lacey Cope; Jessica Vander Linden

PA Magic: Leah Conley; Julie Henneke

St Louis Spirits: Elizabeth Economon; Stephanie Cepicky

Fresno Force: Marissa Marzan

So Cal Outlaws: Shannon Anderson; Carrie Hagen; Kelly Wardein

Oklahoma Diamond Dusters: Adrienne Ratliff

So Cal Dynamite: Kristi DeVries

Thank you, ladies, and your former teammates, for the memories.

End

Spy Softball Home Page

We join with coaches and players around the country in offering condolences to the USA Olympic team and UCLA, on the passing December 12 of Stacy Winsberg. A star in college, Stacy served as the speed and conditioning coach for the Olympians. Stacy had battled cancer for several months.

We get asked about every conceivable subject, many unrelated to softball – comparing Marines to Green Berets to the old Rangers; the likelihood of war between Pakistan and India; who’s running in the 5^th race at Hialeah – but a conversation tonight was unique. Our own daughters never asked our advice about boys or dating, but a ballplayer told us she really liked this young man, but, he needed to change! Seizing upon opportunity, I informed her about young swains (and some not so young): They don’t change!

Double Trouble

This is for all of you who are still confused about which Drohan is which.

Reader Jim McGlynn once coached a team with six sets of twins, starting when they were five years old. They made local and national news, partly because they could play ball, but they were so cute every practice and game was like a photo-op. Jim says they came up with a unique numbering system: if one girl was #23, her twin was #32, and all the singletons had numbers like 22,33, etc. They finally resorted to having the girls’ FIRST names on their hats and shirts. Naturally, the team was called Double Trouble. Today, Kelly and Kate McGlynn are still playing for that same team; once, with older sister Kristen, they played 1^st, 2^nd, and SS for their highschool team.

That’s an old Irish expression to describe famous people. Since our write-up on the Brakettes, some readers have reminded us that other teams also played women’s majors – then and now – and a number of former college stars who played on those teams also have become college head coaches.

Case in point: Carie Deaver-Boaz who earned College World Series all-tournament team honors in 1988 and 1989 while guiding the Bulldogs to three runner-up finishes. Dever-Boaz also has the distinction of hitting a World Series home run over the fence into a trash can. Playing for coaching legend Margie Wright, Fresno State reached the WCWS all four-years of Dever-Boaz's career, beginning in 1987. Her senior season saw Dever-Boaz, a three-time all-American, post a 25-6 record on the mound with 31 complete games and 155 strikeouts. She led Fresno State in strikeouts as a junior with 165. Carie also played third base, earning the team's Golden Glove Award for her field prowess as a senior. Before breaking into the college coaching ranks at South Carolina, Dever-Boaz coached at Tulare Western High School (1990-92) and for the California Stars (1990-92). In 1993, she toured as a professional player with the National Fastpitch Association's Stars. As an amateur, Dever-Boaz played for the Visalia Sun Devils (1983-86), the Los Angeles Diamonds (1987) and the Orange County Majestics (1988).

And, we forgot a Brakette who was also on the 1996 Olympic team: Dionna Harris. Dionna was a great help to us in putting on our first clinic a few years ago, so we feel doubly negligent in overlooking her. Danielle Henderson was on the 2000 team.

SPY has been informed by Kirt Whiteside (ekw23@aol.com) that this exposure tournament this coming weekend is unique, in that it doesn’t bracket teams per se, but makes up 16 teams from individual players who have applied to the camp. The indoor tournament draws players from the Midwest and East, but also from Canada – and college coaches from these areas have been invited. To challenge the players, each batter comes to the plate with a 1-1 count. Come January 19-20, they will take 4 teams of 10 athletes each to Europe to play international competition, again indoors. In 2003, a team of 16 players, primarily selected by Whiteside including some players from this camp, will compete in the European Cup.

A college coach was fretting at the NFCA about reaching her 50^th birthday (we will never tell). Since we’re giving advice to young ladies, we though we would offer observations about the perks of being over 50.

That, folks, cleans out the SPY in-basket. Tomorrow: final 2001 updates and some memories.

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Nanson, Amy. AZ Cats, to Point Loma
Lowe, Nina. 3^rd, Spokane Sliders, to New Mexico State (spring ’02)

The weather outside may be frightful, but Kent State University has a state of the art fieldhouse which can field two games simultaneously – and 16 teams are preparing to play three games each on January 5-6 in the annual tournament sponsored by Easton.

The teams, some of whom SPY has seen, come from throughout the Midwest and Canada – including the hard-hitting Lady Jays from Ontario who played such a splendid game at Plantation before losing to the Miami Stingrays. Players from this contingent are eligible for selection to a select team which will play international competition this summer in the European Cup, which will be held this coming year in the Netherlands.

The sponsors report that, in addition to Midwestern colleges and universities, the showcase also draws coaches from as far away as Florida and Long Island. The sponsors say the list will include coaches from every division: I,II,III, as well as NAIA, NJCAA and NCCAA. (Website: kfastpitch.com)

SPY had not known of this event, and cannot cover it; we will be in Chula Vista for the USA national team tryouts. We will update the SPY files at least one more time before January 1, while we work on a new file structure.

Our Christmas Day report on former stars now coaching in college drew quite a response from people who saw those players and who tell us the report triggered many fond memories.

End

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Houston Power has already qualified for AFA Nationals next year, defeating LA Reflections in last week’s tournament. The Power were 7-0. The Power 16s also qualified.

That Osama bin Laden will be captured, and, unlike Hitler, made to stand in the dock before 12 "good and true" American men and women, and face his accusers every day, in an audience made up of survivors and the families of the dead. He should be made to spend the rest of his life in an isolated, windowless cell. Every day he should be made to recite the names of the men, women and children he killed on September 11.

That the leaders of every nation seek a realistic peace and meaningful freedom for all people – in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudia Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and throughout the Middle East and South Asia, in Ireland, in Asia and Latin America.

That all people acknowledge that a man’s (or woman’s) greatest freedom is his right to think, and that his most cherished possession, beyond family, is his dignity.

That this generation of Americans never again hear shots fired in anger.

Wealth is called the root of all evil, but poverty is in the incipient reason for wars and revolutions. Civilization has really not stepped far away from the jungle when children in the 21st Century continue to die of hunger and disease.

That TIME Magazine name a New York fireman as Man of the Year.

And, less ominously, we wish:

That every player who seeks to play college ball makes an intelligent decision about her education, and is recruited by a school of her personal choice.

That every coach realizes he/she has been given a special responsibility of managing the athletic careers of other people’s children, and, stars and bench sitters alike, that these are girls well on their way to becoming young women, a maturation process that can be both wonderful and bewildering. Life itself is a series of balls and strikes, hits and errors. From the top to the bottom of the roster, they deserve respect, if no other reason than they are wearing your team’s uniforms and colors.

That every player who accepts a scholarship realize that, in a very real sense, she has gone to work for that college or university, and needs to master employee relations.

That every coach recognize his role in the recruitment process, and provide timely submitted rosters and player information packets, in advance of tournaments..

That every assistant coach, at every level, be given full recognition for their contributions to a team’s success, the long hours, the travel, the endless detail, the practices which can be numbing in their repetition, and not least the happy face they have to show to players, parents, head coaches, etc., at all times, no matter the duress.

That every parent – and especially parent-coaches -- come to grips with their daughter’s true level of ability, especially regarding her teammates, her college preferences, playing time, position etc. (We were lucky; my father owned a minor league baseball team and, even before I lost most of the sight in my left eye in a gymnastic accident, he informed me on the day we won a championship that I lacked the talent to be a major leaguer.)

That every major tournament provide a supervised playground for siblings – that Santa reward every Janey and Johnny who travel to support big sisters and are bored big-time.

That ASA, having gratefully modified the Gold qualification system and separated their major national JO tournaments, continue on this progressive path by, inter alia, ensuring that Gold pool games determine seeding; defining a uniform code for obstruction and interference that is uniformly interpreted by its umpires; and structure its Council to be more broadly representative of the sport’s many divisions.

Not least, that each and every player, parent, coach and official who have contributed so importantly to the success of SPY have the merriest of Christmases and most bountiful of New Years. We thank you each and all.

When my brother and I were 10 and 11, our father, who was also the local magistrate, sold a farm on a slow note to an African American, and then hired us out as field hands. Neither practice was much in vogue in the Oklahoma of the late ‘40s, and very much unacceptable in Mother’s rather elitist social set. Had nothing to do with the Jim Crow laws he abhorred, the Judge said: If those two boys ever have to work hard in their lives, I want them to know how. (If nothing else, it heighted our appreciation of having and not having. My brother later worked summers as a "gandy dancer" on the Santa Fe, and if you don’t know what that is, you don’t know railroading, which means you’ve missed out on a fascinating element of Americana.)

We cite that story because it relates to a major factor in softball. Catchers may never get to call games in travel ball or college, but they certainly must know how. Every pitcher and catcher (and not a few coaches) should be given intensive instruction on pitch selection, starting not later than 12U. Absolutely essential for those catchers who are allowed to call games. And, smart coaches should listen to smart catchers and pitchers. SPY isn’t arguing for or against catchers calling pitches; we all share the goal of improving our game, and this is an area which we think bears improvement – not just by coaches on teams, but very much in some clinics and camps we’ve seen which were lacking quality, detailed instruction on this very important element.

We learned valuable lessons listening to Karen (Sanchelli) Johns and Michelle Gromacki, two of the smartest, ablest catchers to don a mask. When Team USA played China in Nova Scotia a few years ago, Karen noted that they were practicing against fast balls, anticipating Lisa Fernandez. They got Lisa, but Karen did not call a fast ball the entire game. We watched Mack conduct a catching clinic (she had such rapport with those kids she could have converted them to the religion of her choice) teaching them what to look for when a batter is taking practice swings in the on-deck circle as well as in the box. In short, Karen and Michelle studied hitters – hands, feet, bat position, swing style, etc., and factored that into information on batting order, batter history, game situation. Both are successful Division I coaches today because they still study hitters.

Don’t all coaches, pitchers and catchers do that? No. (SPY has a list of about 10 things the pitcher-catcher should look at facing any batter; we will include it next year.)

The Third Law of Confucius is: Don’t throw changeups to a big girl with a slow bat. We remember saying that to the Shamrocks’ Lesley Palmer just before she threw a changeup to a very large but lumbering cleanup hitter and lost her perfect game.

When Ernie Parker and Dee Dee Weiman were conducting separate clinics at the NFCA, they stressed movement and location over speed. This might be called the First Law of Haning; when Gary’s Batbusters were at Chattanooga Gold, Keira Goerl was fascinating onlookers as the numbers on our Jugs gun crept upward and finally tallied 70mph. The problem, Gary said afterwards, is that some player with quick hands will clock that ball which doesn’t have much movement at that speed, and jack it over a fence – which one player did. Meagan Denny could nail an Arizona roadrunner on the fly but as the Tucson meet progressed, hitters solved the Texas Elite fastballer, and somebody needed to change the pitch selection (and not have Meagan pitch every inning, every game)..

Yet, as obvious and logical as that sounds, we noted in several recent tournaments that someone, mostly coaches we suspect, is calling "bad" pitches – the sequence is fixed, or the pitch isn’t working, or the opponents are "seeing" particular pitches, or it is simply the wrong pitch to the wrong batter in the wrong game situation.

We watched very capable Emily Turner giving up long balls (most of them outs but well hit to the deepest part of the outfield) when the Lightning played the Grapettes at the Batbuster and wondered, along with some college coaches, who was calling for all those fast balls against a team with known sluggers like Kristen Amegin. The same could be said of a game between Gordon’s Panthers and the Choppers, when the pitch selection for usually-proficient Christine Luppachini made power hitters out of both ends of the Panther lineup as well as the middle. Watching Monica Abbott of the Salinas Storm at the Batbuster (one of the outstanding junior pitchers, she dazzled the Panthers in an earlier tournament with her curve, and we fully expect Larry Mays to alter his left-right lineup if they meet again), we and some college coaches were saying to ourselves that Monica, a dominant presence on the mound, has to bust a fastball inside from time to time. Indeed, coaches like Jacquie Joseph, Robin Petrini and other college coaches had that comment about several pitchers. You’ve got to come inside, which is why we like Lauren Nydam and Katie Gustaveson of the Sliderz and Robyn Ford-Feitz of the American Athletics and others – young pitchers who like to come inside with heat and work to perfect it – along with a variety of offspeed and setup pitches, curves and drops.

Variety! An old maxim of Vaudeville (ask your parents) was: don’t follow a banjo act with another banjo act. We were curious during one Gordon’s Panthers game why Alicia Hollowell, who pitches no-hitters with fastballs and curves, was throwing so many offspeed pitches, well below her top Jugs marks, and she told us she needed to work on her whole arsenal of pitches to be ready to face any type of hitter. This from one of the best pitchers in today’s travel ball. You 12 and 14s pay attention!

Favorite pitches can be an albatross. The screwball is a work of art, and when you can break it off at 63mph as Jessica Vanderlinden did two years ago at TOC, it’s a winner. But, when it isn’t working! We saw Shamrock Brittany Detwiler, playing for another team at a California tournament, throw two screwballs to a team’s known HR hitter; Brit likes the pitch, the NY coach liked the pitch; the hitter liked it so much she parked two HRs over the LF fence. If it isn’t working, tell the coach and catcher beforehand. If the coach still calls the pitch, as this one did, you’re playing for the wrong kind of coach. Kathy Arendsen was well known for speaking her mind to coaches and, even if you’re not 6’3", nor anywhere near as talented as Kathy, your coach should respect you.

Repetition makes good musicians, but it can spell havoc on the mound. At a TOC game two years ago between Tyronne’s Batbusters (Dominique Van Nordwick pitching) and Fresno Force, the catcher was so fixed on her pitch calls to Marissa Marzan that even the Batbuster parents picked up on the sequence and were calling out changeups. The Force finally won an extra-inning tiebreaker, but only after John Marzan realized his catcher’s repetition had been detected, and started calling signals himself.

A knowledgable, in-command catcher is like having another coach on the field. We recall fondly a Flash D’Gold game at St. Louis Gold, when Pam Newton was pitching a very young Roxy Moran, but had the very able Jessica Bashor as catcher. An old pro (a college freshman) was obviously coaching the "kid" on how and what to throw, and it worked. Annie Dell’Aria, NFCA catcher of the year, steadied three years of young HS and travel ball players for the Shamrocks, which is why Notre Dame prizes her so.

A raft of very capable catchers moves on with the Class of 2002 – Durant, Ortega, Miller, Peterson, Thompson, Zaplatosch, Lappin, Holden, Iapala, Darling, just to name a few off the Gold teams, but, there is just as big a boatload coming up, catchers who should be brought in on pitching decisions. DePippo, Haines, Creps, K. Abbott, DePompa, Tucker, Boag, Eadus, Guerrero,Wike, M Diaz come immediately to mind. There are others who know first-hand what’s working, and get the closest possible look at hitters. (Apologies to those not mentioned; we saw these players at the Batbuster and Plantation and did not do a team by team comparison).

The "wrong pitch/wrong time" syndrome also occurs at the college level. The father of Harvard pitcher Kara Brotemarkle called us just before the Crimson played California. Our advice: walk Veronica Nelson. The father said his daughter could pitch to anyone; two home runs later, Kara knew why Veronica leads the NCAA in walks. Similarly, when Notre Dame played Fullerton at the KIA, Jenny Topping came to bat with two out and none on, tie ball game. From the top of the stadium, Tyronne Davis and other coaches were yelling, "Walk her." When the count reached 3-2, the shouts were even louder. But, Notre Dame pitched to Jenny who obligingly smacked the ball over the fence. Months later, Liz Miller told us that was still the one pitch she would like back.

"It" can happen to any pitcher. Obviously, even when the appropriate pitch is called, the pitch can be off. (Just ask Mariano Rivera) Instruction on scouting hitters won’t eliminate the game-winning hit, but, it will reduce the odds considerably, and heighten knowledge of the game. Even if the coach calls the pitch, the pitcher and catcher should know, instinctively, why the particular call is made.

Again, this kind of pitch selection instruction should start at 12U – pitchers and catchers. The ’03 and’04 classes are rich with pitching and catching talent; we hope they (and all the wannabe’s coming up), are well-schooled when they reach Nationals – where one pitch can change not just the game but a championship. Just ask the Cruisers.

Finally, we hope to see another kind of selection process working. Given their Pac-10 schedule, Washington may not have had much alternative to pitching Tia Bollinger game after game, and she responded magnificently. But, in travel ball, most competitive teams have two or more capable pitchers – indeed, this fall we saw rosters which gave coaches great matchups because they carried three pitchers. You wouldn’t use each randomly in a championship game – everyone anticipated Arizona’s Jenny Finch and UCLA’s Amanda Freed squaring off in the WCWS finale -- but use them selectively, or risk burning out your franchise pitcher. To be sure, staying undefeated at Nationals can mean playing nine or fewer games, but, as wondrous as Catherine Osterman was and is, we had hoped the Katy Cruisers would give more time to their other pitchers. We have admired NM Sundancer Genevieve Kelly for two years, but, she carried too much of the pitching burden. The same could be said of Tessa Lynam pitching for Georgia Elite, and Kristen Schmidt when she pitched for TX Heat, and too many other pitchers. The T.E. Elite may have winced every time someone other than Jennifer Wright pitched, but the coaches were committed to giving other pitchers innings at Nationals and did so.

Rotation! The top Gold teams rotate pitchers and lineups. Could they be onto something? End

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I’ve been in some quiet places: the landing beaches and cemetery at Normandy; the jardins des Luxembourg where Patton is buried; Pearl Harbor and the Punchbowl, and now the vast crater which once held the World Trade Center. Like those other hallowed places, this is a killing field – and also a cemetery, for the dust that remains contains the essence of more than 3,000 people who vanished in a holocaust of flaming jet fuel and crumbling steel and concrete. There is nothing left to bury, only memories to clutch.

The remaining walls of the North and South towers, still five stories high, came down last weekend. Today, they were dismantling Building Seven.

As on any day in lower Manhattan, you hear dozens of languages and dialects on the streets jammed with people, yet, as they gather in never-ending clusters at the few points where onlookers can see anything at all, they are profoundly silent, awed by the magnitude of the destruction, humbled by the instant death of so many. The best vantage point is on the balustrade of St. Peter’s, and many go in to pray. The noon mass was in Latin, and we remembered the prayers learned so painfully under the stern eyes of Mother Superiors who could give lessons on discipline to Marine drill sergeants.

Bill Maher still believes it was politically correct to infer that it took courage to pilot a plane into a building. Only cowards kill the innocent. Great courage was displayed by the firemen and policemen who ran into those buildings to save those innocents – and died with them. On Vesey, Broadway, and Church Streets, there are walls of mementos – and haunting pictures of those never-to-be-seen-again rescuers. You note that most are in uniforms, proudly worn, then you see the mementos of their children, and you remember an ancient maxim of war: we all lost on September 11, but none more than these children. I once gave speeches in WTC auditoriums; I am told an agency with which I worked many years ago had moved its offices to the upper floors, and reportedly some of those who succeeded me died there. Many onlookers talk to police and firemen as they come in and out of the work zone; their ranks are so depleted by this catastrophe that they work 13-hour shifts, men and women who have literally shouldered their losses and are ready to stand where their comarades willingly stood – in harm’s way..

I found evil on the scope of Auschwitz numbing to comprehend, the more so as I watched a group of young Israelis examining Dr. Mengele’s laboratory, knowing that Jews still die because of their beliefs; now, we see the devastation caused by another great megalomaniac whose madness rivals Hitler. Osama bin Laden brought New York to its knees, but, it is regaining its balance, and, as you pray with these New Yorkers, you instinctively know that, while many want vengeance for the dead, they all pray in behalf of the living for justice. Any sustainable concept of humanity demands justice so total in sweep that those children no longer fear havoc being visited upon them again. RFH

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Fifty-one of the USA (and the world’s) best softball players are coming to the Women’s National Team Camp at the ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA, January 2-5 – including players from the 2000 Olympic team, and the Red and Blue USA national teams which competed this past summer.

A core group of athletes will be selected to return to the 2002 National Team Camp in May. A team will also be selected to represent the USA in the 2002 South Pacific Classic in Perth, Australia.

Olympians participating include Laura Berg, Crystl Bustos, Sheila Douty, Lisa Fernandez, Amanda Freed, Lori Harrigan, Danielle Henderson, Teri-Klement-Goldberg, Kelly Kretschman, Stacey Nuveman, Leah O’Brien-Amica, Michele Smith and Christa Williams.

USA Red team members will be Lindsey Collins, Lindsay Gardner, Michelle Gates, Nicole Giordano, Keira Goerl, Lovie Jung, Lizzy Lemire, Toni Mascarenas, Jessica Mendoza, Tairia Mims, Catherine Osterman, Trena Peel, Kristen Voak, and Natasha Watley.

USA Blue team members will be Toria Auelua, Lauren Bauer, Tia Bollinger, Jaime Clark, Courtney Dale, Kim DePaul, Jennie Finch, Missy Hixon, Nina Lindenberg, Keri McCallum, Jarrah Myers, Jennifer Sharon, Britni Sneed, Nichole Thompson, Jenny Topping and Kellie Wilkerson.

Other invitees include Alana Addison, Kelli Braitsch, Jocelyn Forest, Jaime Foutch, Courtney Scott, Mackenzie Vandergeest and Nichole Victoria.

While 16 games are scheduled, the emphasis is upon evaluation, so games may not traditional formats, to enable the judges to see as many players in as many game situations as possible.

Within those practicalities, SPY will report on the games played – but will not offer player evaluations, which is the province of the judges. It will be great softball, in any format, given the abundance of talent at every position.

End

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While major issues continue to be debated with ASA -- use of college players; simultaneous scheduling of Gold/18A/16U tournaments; revision of the Gold point system; prohibiting play in qualifiers once a berth is won; tournament oversight and management, etc. -- Fall Ball in 2001 features at least five major exposure tournaments.

The Batbuster (Davis) tournament is October 6-7, followed by Oktoberfest in Lancaster CA October 19-21, and the new Tucson tournament on October 27-28.  November begins with the Rising Stars tournament in Plantation, FL (Nov 2-4), followed by the Batbuster (Haning) pre-Thanksgiving tournament Nov 17-18.

Each of these tournaments should draw as many as 60 Gold or 18A teams (Tucson is concentrating on drawing the top Gold teams and could have a smaller field).  The large number of D-1 coaches who attend Plantation each year is resulting in a wider draw among Gold and 18A teams who are becoming aware of this exposure opportunity.

There is even a 12-team college tournament, September 16-17, in Binghamton, NY.

SPY plans to cover them all (with the possible exception of the first Batbuster tournament) and looks forward to seeing the new rosters, especially among the pitching corps.

Pitching coach Brandi Landry has resigned at Baylor to pursue a career in nursing.  Baylor will conduct a nationwide search.

Brandi Bailey, Mississippi State freshman pitcher, will join the Extreme Force, not the TN Thunder as previously reported..  The T.E.Elite have picked up All-state outfielder Brooke Johnson and power hitter Camille Harris for Marietta.

The VA Shamrocks have added Karie Morrison, lead pitcher for the Blue Ice who won the 2000 PONY 16U national championship, and also Heather Wrenn, the Blue Ice stellar midfielder.  The other Blue Ice pitcher, Krista Brotemarkle, has joined the VA Redbirds, also headed for Marietta.  The VA Firebirds have added Lexi Myers, standout pitcher for the MD Heartbreakers, for Salem 18A Nationals.

Other pickups and team changes were noted (in red) on our recent state by state listings of Class 2002 players.

Fordham University has named Bridget Baxter its new head softball coach.  Bridget has been the head coach at Cabrini, which she turned into a national contender in D-3.  Bridget played college ball under Maria DiBernardi at Villanova.  She began recruiting players to fill squad vacancies at the Pegasus tournament in Lionville.

Other News This Past Week

Frank Reed is expected to be named new head coach at Tennessee Chattanooga, replacing Ralph and Karen Weekly who have taken the coaching job at Tennessee.  Daughter Dana Reed is the senior UTC shortstop.

Danelle Arnold, who catches Katie Decker on the CO Comets, and who like Katie played freshman ball at Nebraska, has been released and will join Katie at Baylor.  Also committing to Baylor:  Kelly Osburn, star shortstop on the Katy Cruisers when they won the 2001 ASA Gold national championship.  Osburn will again play for the Katy Cruisers in Marietta as they seek to defend their title; also coming back is Ilya McMichael and, as previously announced, Cat Osterman and Jessica Alister.

The years rolled back this past week when Michelle Grainger conducted a pitching clinic in Falls Church, VA, in behalf of USA Softball.  When she raised her arm in that so-familiar high stance, you waited for that split-second it takes her pitch to arrive at home plate - and she started from second base -- much to the delight of the several dozen wannabe's in her audience -- and to those of us who got to see her over the years including the 1996 Olympics.

Baylor University strengthened its Big 12 potential this week by securing transfers of two highly-rated players.  Katie Decker, the Nebraska freshman whom SPY just praised for her pitching for the CO Comets at last week's Fireworks tournament, has taken her 60mph+ pitching and power hitting to Waco.  So has Kelly Levesque, a middle infielder who played her freshman year at LSU and is now playing women's majors.

Coaches

Former Tar Heel Melissa Jarrell has been named head coach at UNC Wilimington.  Caryl Drohan has joined twin sister Kate's staff at Northwestern.

See Behind the Backstop for other coaching news.\

Previous Reports

The pitching ace from the Houston area, whom NCAA tabbed statistically as the #4 college pitcher in 2001 and who stunned the softball world by announcing she would leave Notre Dame, called LSU coach Yvette Girouard today (Thursday) to commit verbally to the Baton Rouge school -- which finished 3^rd nationally.

Schmidt, who really matured as a pitcher under Irish assistant coach Deanna Gumf, will join a very talented Tiger team which, with All-Americans Britni Sneed and Schmidt, automatically moves into the top ranks of projected 2002 contenders.

Schmidt excelled against Big East pitching but now will face reputedly more competitive foes on the LSU schedule.  The move from one top ranked team to an even higher-ranked team essentially fulfills a principal goal of this college freshman: to be closer to home.

SPY has been informed by reliable sources that Notre Dame has narrowed its search for Liz Miller's successor to assistant coach Deanna Gumf and three other active women's coaches, each of whom presents impressive credentials for taking the Irish helm.

Given that the other three women are all currently employed in high profile positions, but only one of the four can be chosen, SPY declines to name the other contenders.

Ralph and Karen Weekly are firmly established in their new co-coaching positions at the University of Tennessee, and were wearing Volunteer orange when they appeared at the Firecracker tournament today in Aurora. No word yet on who will be officially tabbed to take over at Tennessee-Chattanooga.

These changes improve the careers of coaches in every sport, and, like every other sport, these changes in softball affect the institution, the team and especially the new recruits. The Weeklys recruited shortstop standout Malissa Moculski from the national champion Blazing Angels. Sheila McAllister recruited highly prized pitcher Kacie Flinn of the St Louis Chaos, but has now resigned at Bradley. At least 16 coaches are rumored to be interested in the Bradley position. NCAA should consider a more automatic waiver process for players who sign letters of intent with coaches who leave before those players have actually enrolled -- restoring the player her full rights and eligibility so that they may choose another school if they desire.

More continuity is had at Oklahoma State where long-time assistant and co-coach Marge Rebenar will take the helm vacated recently by Sandy Fisher.

RFH

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