THE COLLEGES : Okerlund Comes Through in Split With UCLA

After the first game of Cal State Fullerton’s softball doubleheader against top-ranked UCLA Friday, it looked as if hard times had fallen upon the Titan pitching staff.

Anjie Bryant, Fullerton’s top pitcher for much of the season, was hit hard in the Titans’ 6-1 loss, allowing eight hits. Although only one of the runs was earned--there were four Fullerton errors--Bryant definitely was not at her best.

The second game started no better for seventh-ranked Fullerton, which was playing one of its biggest rivals.

Although Fullerton took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning, Titan starter Chris Gage was ineffective from the start, and Coach Judi Garman pulled her after just five batters.

On came Janis Okerlund. She got out of a bases-loaded jam in that inning with only one run, but she got into trouble right away in the second inning, allowing three hits and three runs, one of them earned.

But just when things looked very bad for Fullerton--which had lost pitcher Jackie Pittman this week when she quit the team to focus on academics--Okerlund came on strong, shutting out the Bruins on two hits over the last five innings and helping the Titans to a 6-4 victory at UCLA’s Sunset Field.

The loss was only the fifth of the season for UCLA (33-5).

The Fullerton batters, who were held to just four hits by winning pitcher Lisa Longaker (17-1) in the first game, did their part in the second game, amassing 11 hits.

Debbie Schneider’s two-run single and Mich DeBree’s two-run double helped lead the way, and Valerie Douglas went 4 for 4 with a triple.

The history of the rivalry fuels this series. Most recently, last year in the College World Series, it was UCLA that eliminated Fullerton, then the defending champion.

UCLA almost won the NCAA title, needing only one victory in two games against Texas A&M;, but the Bruins folded and had to settle for second.

But for Fullerton (35-11), the most welcome thing about the victory Friday may have been Okerlund’s performance.

“Give her the credit,” Garman said.

At the end of last season, Okerlund, at 6-feet 1-inches and 278 pounds, didn’t figure too prominently in Fullerton’s plans for this season. Garman, the Titan coach, figured it was a “tossup” as to whether Okerlund could help much at all.

But lately this season, Okerlund has become the Titans’ most successful pitcher. Bryant has struggled some after a 12-0 start.

Okerlund’s transformation has been obvious to anyone who watches Fullerton softball, and not just because she has a 9-1 record.

She also has slimmed down to 215 pounds. Although Garman said she had been begging Okerlund to lose weight for some time, even threatening to take her off the team, it was Okerlund herself who finally made the decision.

“I did it for myself, not for softball. I did it more for social reasons,” said Okerlund who admits that her regimen of one potato and three hours on a cycling machine a day was hardly healthy.

But it did work, and Fullerton, if not the intended beneficiary, surely is thankful.

“I’m more excited than ever,” said Okerlund, a sophomore from El Toro High School. “I’ve been pitching more and more for myself. I decided to make the most of my career.”