Division I Suits CSUN’s Swank : College softball: Sophomore’s offensive production increases as Matadors’ competition improves.

Her specialty used to be taking hits away. Denise Swank, quick and athletic, was a slick fielder.

And at bat? Well, she was, after all, a very good fielder.

“Her hitting was still questionable coming into the year,” said Gary Torgeson, Swank’s softball coach at Cal State Northridge, “but she has proven to me she can do it and I’m very satisfied with her game output.”

And well he should.

Swank, a sophomore from Simi Valley High, has become the spark that ignites the Matador attack. She is batting .299, leads Northridge in runs scored with 31 and is batting a team-high .422 with runners in scoring position.

Last season, when Northridge played at the NCAA Division II level, Swank batted just .178. But since the Matadors stepped up to Division I, she has bolstered her production.

“The pitchers in Division I make me more aggressive because you hear about them all the time and you want to prove you can hit their pitches,” Swank said.

During the glory years when Northridge won four Division II championships in eight years, the Matadors relied on a bunt-and-run, speed-oriented style of offense that pressured an opponent’s defense.

This season Northridge has turned to more of a power attack.

“It’s a good change because in Division I they defend the short game a lot better and the pitching is a lot better,” Swank said. “In Division II, it was a lot of hit-and-run and, hopefully, they make an error.”

At the top level, there are too many sure-handed fielders for such an offense to work.

Swank is one of them. Playing primarily third base and also some shortstop, she is the only player to start all 62 games for Northridge. She has only 12 errors despite leading the Matadors in assists (141) and total chances (244).

“She’s very versatile,” Torgeson said. “She could play infield, outfield, she’s caught before, pitched and she has better than average speed.

“All those things make her a complete ballplayer.”

A third baseman last season, Swank was told late last spring that she also would play shortstop. To help with the transition, Swank recruited the help of Jon Tabakman, her former club coach.

Swank and Tabakman met twice a week to practice fielding. Tabakman, who has aided several top players, including former UCLA shortstop Karen Walker, believes dedication to their craft is the difference between Division I and Division II players.

“The difference is from the neck up,” he said. “They take it a lot more seriously than the Division II and Division III players. What Denise lacks in talent, she makes up for with her sheer desire.”

That desire has come in handy while playing for Northridge, which is 33-29 and ranked 16th in the most recent national poll. The Matadors are playing as an independent, without conference affiliation, which makes earning a regional playoff bid a difficult proposition.

In order to play a full schedule Northridge loaded up with early games, before other teams started their conference schedules. As a result, the Matadors played 47 games, including five tournaments, in the first 7 1/2 weeks of the season.

Swank started fast, batting .352 the first half of the season. Then fatigue began to take its toll. “My arm felt like when I swung the bat, it had a 10-pound weight on it,” she said.

After splitting with third-ranked Arizona and sweeping No. 8 Arizona State in doubleheaders on the road two weeks ago, Northridge also has sagged of late. The Matadors have dropped four of their past seven games and might have squandered their chance for a playoff invitation.

But even if Northridge doesn’t qualify for the postseason this year, Swank is confident that the Matadors, whose lineup is void of seniors, will do so soon.

“We showed a lot of people that we’re not just going to let them walk all over us,” she said. “We’ve surprised a lot of teams.”

So too has a slick-fielding infielder turned hot hitter.