Hawthorne’s 1-2 Pitch : Tricia Waayers, Lisa Smith Strong-Arm Softball Title

Knock out 23 opponents and roll through the Bay League with a 13-1 record and someone is bound to take notice.

And, to be sure, the Hawthorne High softball team has received rave reviews during the 1989 season. The Cougars, riding a 10-game winning streak heading into next week’s CIF-Southern Section playoffs, are ranked ninth in the 4-A polls and this week secured the Bay League crown with victories over Leuzinger and Inglewood.

Power hitting, team speed, tight defense and experience have all contributed to the success of the team, but it is the one-two combination of pitchers Tricia Waayers and Lisa Smith that has floored opponents all season.

Smith, who improved to 8-0 Thursday with her third no-hitter in a 10-0 win over Inglewood, leads the South Bay with an 0.11 ERA and has struck out 57 batters in 55 innings. She’s given up just one earned run and 15 hits.

But Hawthorne Coach Noel Smith doesn’t even consider the hard-throwing right-hander with the wicked drop his No. 1 starter.

That honor goes to Waayers, whose 0.37 ERA is bested only by her teammate in the South Bay. Waayers, also a senior, finished the regular season with a 15-2 record, 163 strikeouts in 111 innings and three no-hitters. In fact, it was in her no-hitter against Santa Monica that she suffered one of her two losses, 2-1, because of Hawthorne defensive lapses.

All this has left Smith feeling like he’s the most fortunate softball coach in the South Bay.

“Having two pitchers like that is a blessing,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who’s starting for you because you just know you’re going to get the job done either way.

“In softball, pitching is about 90% of the game and it makes it a lot easier knowing they’re not going to walk anybody; that they’re just going to throw the ball and let the defense play behind them.”

Although both are control pitchers--Waayers has walked 16 batters, Smith just five--there are more differences in their styles than similarities.

Waayers relies on the fastball, delivering a pitch upward of 60 m.p.h. that has batters either swinging late, on their heels or backing out of the box. Noel Smith calls her intimidating and overpowering.

Lisa Smith, although she can also bring the heat, has developed a nasty drop pitch that results in many ground-ball outs. “I take a short step, pull my arm back and snap the ball at the wrist,” Smith said. “But it’s taken a lot of practice to get it where it is today.”

Noel Smith said he does not employ a set rotation, and instead matches the pitcher against the opponents’ style. Free swingers are more apt to face Waayers; contact hitters would most likely get a look at Smith.

However, he’s comfortable with either. So comfortable, in fact, that he has actually relieved both pitchers when they were working on no-hitters.

“They are both very hard workers and hard-nosed kids,” he said. “They don’t like to get embarrassed out there, and if the defense makes a mistake, they just get tougher.”

Besides Noel Smith, nobody knows more about Hawthorne’s aces than catcher Darla Cuiper, who has worked with both pitchers. Cuiper, batting .405 with 18 RBIs, said Waayers and Smith have made her job a lot easier.

“They are both really consistent, but Tricia throws a little harder. In fact, she’s hurt my hand a couple times,” she said. “Lisa seems like she’s just learning, but she’s consistent, too.

“Basically, when you give the signs you know exactly where the ball’s going.”

Waayers and Lisa Smith came up through the ranks of the Hawthorne girls’ Little Leagues, considered one of the most successful programs in the area. Both have played close to 10 years and would like to continue their careers next season when Hawthorne High is just a memory.

Waayers started pitching by default, filling in when her youth league team needed a hurler. Her father encouraged her and she kept at it until she developed into one of the area’s finest pitchers.

Said Noel Smith: “Tricia has earned everything she has.”

Over the years Waayers has learned to appreciate the importance of the position.

“I like to pitch because I like to be involved in every part of the game,” she said. “If it weren’t for my dad, I wouldn’t even be pitching. At first I was just pitching because I was needed, but he got me out there and encouraged me.

“It was hard at first, but you have to have the determination. You have to want to get out there and do that sort of thing.”

Lisa Smith is also the determined type, even though her natural talent sometimes belies the fact that she is working extremely hard. She has a fluid, easy motion that starts out with her rocking back on her heels and ends with a full stride, toes pointed toward the batter.

“You could tell by about the time that she was a 10th-grader that she was going to be outstanding,” said Noel Smith.

The coach also describes Lisa Smith as somewhat of a free spirit and says both of his pitchers are soft-spoken until they reach the mound.

“Both are very quiet and neither of them say much,” he said. “I just give them the ball and say, ‘Go out and get the job done.’ ”

Although his two pitchers were running neck and neck for the South Bay ERA title, Noel Smith said he never worried about rivalries or jealousies developing between them.

That’s why he relieved them when they were working on no-hitters, and that’s why neither pitcher knows who’s starting until they get to the ballpark.

But Smith and Waayers say having such close competition among teammates has provided impetus for improvement.

“We tried not to develop any kind of rivalry, but sometimes I think there was a little bit of one,” Waayers said. “I just look at the way Lisa’s pitching, and it puts me under some pressure because in the back of my mind I think she might get the top spot.”

Said Lisa Smith: “When someone that good is competing against you, you have to try harder either to do better or stay where you are. I hope Tricia is striving harder, too.”

A little friendly competition never hurt. It’s Hawthorne’s opponents that have to worry.