EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Senior catcher
Stacey Nuveman chats with UCLA head coach Sue
Enquist during a NCAA Regional game in the 2001 season.
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The Bruins of the past and the Bruins of the present met on June
17 at Easton Stadium for a softball exhibition doubleheader, then
moved on in different directions for the summer.
For the UCLA players of the present, a two-month tour as part of
Team USA is in order. For the UCLA players of the past, a
summer-long excursion with the Women’s Pro Softball League
Tour of Fastpitch Champions calls them.
But on one long, hot summer day, these two entities
collided.
College players have the opportunity to make softball a 12-month
thing. For them, there is no such thing as a break, and they relish
every moment of it.
“It never ends,” said UCLA catcher Stacey Nuveman.
“Sometimes you need a break. We’re in shape, so
that’s not an issue, but sometimes we get a little burnt-out
from the games. But we’re playing for Team USA, so it’s
pretty easy to get pumped up.”
On the other hand, the veterans who have completed their
education at UCLA, outside of national team competition, have
limited opportunities to play from June through September.
They must train on their own during the long off-season and keep
in shape for chances like the one that the WPSL offers.
“Fortunately we have the WPSL,” said pitcher Lisa
Fernandez, one of five UCLA players with the Tour of Fastpitch
Champions and currently a Bruin assistant coach. “It’s
now providing us an opportunity to play on a team every summer,
otherwise it’s kind of limited to the national
team.”
UCLA head coach Sue Enquist was excited to be able to host the
exhibition games and have the Easton Stadium site available for the
event.
With Team USA playing in Hawaii, Canada and Venezuela the rest
of the way, this marked the only time Enquist was able to watch her
current players in action.
It was also one of Enquist’s few days off, with assistant
coach Kelly Inouye-Perez on the recruiting trail. Although
attending only as a spectator rather than in an active capacity,
Enquist did enjoy watching players doing their job, not to mention
her UCLA players interacting with the Arizona players who only a
month ago defeated the Bruins by a score of 1-0 in the national
championship game.
“I always say everyone looks good in red, white and
blue,” Enquist said. “The nice thing is these players
get to know one another after playing against each other so
competitively during the year.”
Enquist is proud of the fact the national committee selected
seven Bruins from the 2001 squad to participate in Team USA. On the
USA Red squad, Nuveman is joined by pitcher/outfielder Amanda
Freed, shortstop Natasha Watley, first baseman Tairia Mims and
pitcher Keira Goerl. The UCLA players in USA Blue include
pitcher/outfielder Courtney Dale and third baseman Toria
Auelua.
But Enquist felt proudest of the WPSL members displaying the
legacy of the Bruin program. Fernandez, first baseman Sheila Douty
and third baseman Jennifer Brundage play for the WPSL Gold team,
while pitcher Kaci Clark and infielder Lyndsey Klein represent the
Bruins on the WPSL All-Stars squad.
“I stand here so proud because we span the ’80s, the
’90s, 2000 and the new millennium,” Enquist said.
“We span a lot of decades and that says a lot for their level
of play over the years. Just look at Sheila Cornell Douty. To me,
greatness is sustained over the years, and she’s got
that.”
The games were almost secondary on the day where the past and
present met. USA Red and WPSL Gold squared off in the more
memorable of the games, despite the fact there was a no-hitter
thrown in the second game.
In 13 innings, USA Red prevailed 2-1 thanks to Freed’s
pair of RBI singles, the second coming against Fernandez, her coach
during the college season.
“She knows me and I know her, and it’s kind of like
a mind game,” Freed said. “It’s just a lot of
fun, and I was excited to hit off of her.”
Nuveman walked three times in six chances, as if nothing had
changed from the Women’s College World Series in which she
was walked nine times in 14 opportunities. Mims tallied two hits
and Douty and Brundage each managed to get on base with a walk.
Goerl pitched 3 1/3 no-hit innings to get the win.
Fernandez, a hard-luck loser pitching with a tender hamstring,
struck out 13 batters in seven innings of work before allowing an
unearned run on Freed’s single.
“I’ve worked with (the UCLA players) all year and
watched them grow, and I was proud that we were able to
compete,” Fernandez said. “They’re going to be
the ones that are going to be expected to carry this country come
the 2004 and 2008 (Olympic) Games and so on. So it was good to see
how they produced and how they performed.”
Team USA and the WPSL take different paths the rest of the way,
but in one sunny afternoon, the two collided to provide a glimpse
of the past and present of UCLA softball.
SOURCE: Team USA and WPSL Original graphic by TIMOTHY NGO/Daily
Bruin Senior Staff Web adaptation by MIKE OUYANG/Daily Bruin Senior
Staff