Hess Learns to Focus Her Attention : Titan Outfielder Concentrates on Improving Her Game

Used to be that Carey Hess spent a lot of time thinking, “What if . . . “

What if, for instance, the batter at the plate were to line the next pitch to Hess in right field? What would Hess do? What would be best?

“OK,” Hess would think. “The count’s 3-2. If this girl hits it . . . “

But before she gets any further, Hess said, “Boom, she hits it, and I’m still figuring out what to do.”

At the plate it was more of the same. For most of her life, she had just stepped into the box and swung, which had worked out rather well. But college softball was a bit different. These pitchers were better.

“OK,” Hess would think. “If she throws me an outside pitch . . . “

And then it was in the catcher’s glove.

Still, Hess was by no means struggling. After sitting on the bench at Fullerton as a freshman, the Loara High School graduate was the Titans’ starting right fielder as a sophomore last year. She was no great shakes defensively, but she had a pretty respectable year at the plate, hitting .329, third best on the team.

And for a time, she had been hitting even better. Her average late in the season was better than .350, but Hess got to thinking.

“OK,” Hess thought, taking out her calculator. “If I get three hits today . . . “

She might as well have sent out an engraved invitation for a slump.

“My last 20 at-bats, I just could not get a hit. I wasn’t even seeing the ball. The ball was just a blur.”

That slump and that calculating are all a laughing matter now to Hess, who finished the regular season this year much improved in the field and batting .413.

“She’s having an All-American year,” Coach Judi Garman said. “If she doesn’t get it . . . “

Garman can only shake her head at such a thought.

Already, Hess has been named first-team all-conference and set a school record for runs scored with 52, breaking Sue Lewis’ record of 47 set in 1981.

There’s another achievement waiting--the school batting mark. Right now, that belongs to Lewis, who batted .408 in 1981.

But Hess hasn’t won that record or the All-American honor yet.

All-American selections, which are announced during the College World Series, are based on regular-season statistics.

But Fullerton’s school-record statistics include postseason play, which means, for good and for bad, that Hess has a chance to blow it as Fullerton goes into the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. regionals.

The fourth-ranked Titans (47-13) meet eighth-ranked Cal Poly Pomona (40-21) tonight at the Titan Softball Complex in the first game of a best-of-three series. The winner will advance with seven other regional winners to the College World Series in Sunnyvale beginning next Wednesday.

Hess attributes her success this season in large part to improved concentration, thanks to her adherence to routines she developed with the help of Ken Ravizza, a Cal State Fullerton professor of health, physical education and recreation who works with some Titan teams on mental preparation.

The most visible result of Hess’ focus on concentration is in her precise batting routine.

A left-handed hitter--and the Titans’ leadoff hitter--she steps into the box purposefully, left hand held back to the umpire for time. With the bat in her right hand, she points the bat to a spot on the corner of the plate, pulls the bat up slowly and brings her left hand to the bat.

“As soon as everything is out of my mind, I bring the bat up, look right in the pitcher’s eyes, then at the release point, her hip,” Hess said.

She had begun work on this routine last year, but she was experimenting then.

“I’ve perfected it this year,” she said.

In the field, she has a similar routine, designed to allow her to concentrate selectively.

“Basically, if you play right field, you get maybe two balls to you the whole game sometimes,” she said. “But when the bases are loaded in a 17-inning game, and a ball hasn’t been hit to you in maybe three hours, you have to be ready.”

Hess tries to be ready by rationing her concentration. When a pitch isn’t hit, she “zones out” for a few seconds between pitches, thinking about anything, even the steak-house advertisement on the outfield fence. Then it’s back for a few more seconds of concentration, then another break.

The defensive improvement that Hess says has resulted has impressed Garman.

“With the recruiting year we had, the reality at the beginning of the year was that she might DH and not play defensively,” Garman said. “The competition in the fall made her realize she had to work hard. She made herself a better outfielder.”

She also has made herself a better hitter, enough so that she may become an All-American, following in the steps of Fullerton players she has admired in the past.

“If I do make All-American, it will be my dream since I was 12 years old,” Hess said. “When I was younger. I would see the All-Americans at Cal State Fullerton. When I heard that Susan LeFebvre (1983, ‘86) and Elise King (‘83) and Sue Lewis (‘81, ‘82, ‘84) made All-American, I just had so much respect. Now I look at myself and I say, ‘Carey, you’re here.’ It’s kind of scary, really, one dream is coming true. Sometimes you don’t think they will.”

NCAA Softball Notes

Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona have made the NCAA playoffs for eight consecutive years--every year since they began in 1982. The second game of the best-of-three series is at 1 p.m. Saturday, with a third game to follow if necessary. The Broncos are led by Denise Correa, a senior catcher from Kennedy High School who is batting .279 and has seven game-winning hits. Correa was named Thursday to the NCAA West Region first team, as were Fullerton first baseman Missy Coombes and right fielder Carey Hess. Fullerton pitcher Anjie Bryant was named to the second team, as were Pomona infielder Heather DeLuca and outfielder Nikki Busch.

Pomona’s Nicky Luce, the former Cypress High pitcher, is 19-11 with an 0.95 earned-run average and a team-high 83 strikeouts and 11 shutouts. She also plays first base and is batting .249. Pomona pitcher Lori Thompson, a Canyon High product who transfered from San Diego State, has a string of 54 scoreless innings dating back April 23. She is 19-7 with a 0.64 ERA.

Other players named to the NCAA West Region first team: pitcher Terry Carpenter (Fresno State, Edison High School), pitcher Carie Dever (Fresno State), second baseman Robin Long (San Diego State), shortstop Martha Noffsinger (Fresno State, Edison), outfielders Rae Ann Pifferini (Fresno State), Janice Richner (San Jose State) and designated player Gina LoPiccolo (Fresno State, Sunny Hills).