Washington Sports Info Tia Bollinger
By Andrew Borders
Daily Bruin Reporter
Imagine coming to a giant university like UCLA from a quiet
suburban town, from a nurturing high school environment, and having
to jump right into a difficult major and get straight As.
“Good enough” suddenly isn’t good enough
anymore.
Translating that to softball, freshmen up and down the
conference have been handed the ball, still wet behind the ears,
with expectations of capturing the title of the nation’s most
competitive softball conference. Your teammates depend on you to
stifle the best hitters in the country, and your coaches depend on
you to make them look good with your success.
This weekend, the conference freshman with her feet most to the
fire visits Los Angeles, when Santa Ana native Tia Bollinger and
the No. 13 Washington Huskies visit the No. 1 Bruins.
UCLA Head Coach Sue Enquist cautions not to judge a pitcher by
her year.
“Their ability is not so much a reflection of their grade.
The athlete that is successful as a freshman says, “˜It really
doesn’t matter how young I am, I know what I’m capable
of doing,'” she said. “And that’s what Tia
has done.”
Bollinger is one of three Husky pitchers to record a decision
this season. Not extraordinary, until you see that her record is
24-3 with a 0.85 ERA and that she has gotten the win or loss in
almost two thirds of her team’s games. Her closest teammate
statistically, junior Shannon Walsh, a high school teammate of
Bruin catcher Stacey Nuveman, holds all but one of the other
decisions and is 3-10 with a 3.49 ERA.
But the Bruins have a freshman phenom to match. If not for the
success of junior Amanda Freed, rookie Keira Goerl would have
similar numbers. Goerl is second on the team in wins at 15-0 and
third in ERA at 0.94.
Last week, Goerl outdueled Jenny Gladding, Arizona’s
freshman star, who is second on the Wildcats in ERA at 0.44, and
possesses the third-best record at 12-2. Arizona State frosh
Kristen Swetel has the lowest ERA of any Sun Devil to record a
decision at 0.71, though she is third in wins at 4-1.
In Eugene, first-year player Anissa Meashintubby is the only
Duck pitcher with a winning record (2-1), and leads her team in ERA
at 2.54. Up the I-5 in Corvallis, freshman Monica Hoffman is second
in wins and ERA at Oregon State at 11-7, 1.42.
The two Northern California schools, Stanford and Cal, have no
freshmen pitchers who have seen action, but six of the eight to get
inside the circle are sophomores.
One might think that a freshman would be hesitant to be the ace
on a Pac-10 team, as Bollinger has done in Seattle. Not so, says
Bollinger’s head coach.
“I don’t know of anyone who is that competitive, who
would be recruited by anyone in the Pac-10, who would want to go in
someplace their freshman year and sit,” Husky Coach Teresa
Wilson said.
So far, the Bruins have compiled a perfect record at 1-0 against
these greenhorns, but Bollinger and her Huskies will put that to
the test.