Rouse Closes Script With Happy Ending

Priscilla Rouse would like to be an actress someday and she already is building an impressive resume.

She’s been a star in four different series and currently plays a leading role on another top-rated hit.

OK, so maybe that’s cheating a bit. Rouse is a softball player, but the biography almost fits anyway. She has been selected to four tournament all-star teams and is the leading hitter for No. 1-ranked Cal State Northridge.

Rouse is batting .440 after spending her previous two years at CSUN playing part time.

Her collegiate career has enough ups and downs to make a decent movie script. Rouse was recruited by Northridge Coach Gary Torgeson out of Kennedy High, where she was a three-year starter at second base. She chose instead to walk on at UCLA and take her chances at earning a position on the team.

She did just that, not only making the squad but moving into the starting lineup as designated-hitter. That wasn’t good enough, however. Rouse was unhappy with her progress in trying to learn to play the outfield. Her years at second base had left her with the habit of throwing sidearm--a fundamental no-no in the outfield.

“I was a young pup going to big old UCLA and I didn’t realize how dumb I was being,” Rouse said. “I thought I was bad, but here I was walking on at UCLA--the defending national champions--and starting as a freshman at DH. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone I respected to tell me how good a situation it was.”

When her freshman season was over, she left the team. It was a difficult decision to make.

“I left so much at UCLA,” she said. “That’s why I stuck it out here, even when I wasn’t playing all the time. That, and I could see a light at the end of the tunnel. I knew I’d get my chance.”

That came this season when Torgeson put her in the lineup and left her there.

Rouse, a senior, leads the team with 5 triples, 3 home runs, 21 sacrifices and a slugging percentage of .612. Her batting average is 43 points higher than the existing school record.

Don’t you just love those happy endings?