Softball Booming in San Diego

For people who suffered through lean years of collegiate women’s softball in San Diego, the 1991 season arrived like a heat wave in the dead of winter. San Diego State, the University of San Diego and UC San Diego each had winning records.

On the surface, softball success here would seem only natural. The sport is popular. The weather is perfect. Several local youth teams have won state and national championships, and the county is considered a national hotbed of softball talent.

But San Diego colleges have not reaped the benefits. It might be difficult to understand why the local universities haven’t capitalized on softball, but it is easy to understand why no San Diego team has become a national contender. USD and UCSD do not offer scholarships, and their academic standards are prohibitive. SDSU’s standards are less stringent, but the program is poorly funded. With no apparent changes on the horizon, San Diego’s best players will continue to go elsewhere.

So the 1991 season is not one to be forgotten. It might have been a fluke.

- The Tritons finished 21-20, but are ranked No. 14 in Division III and will be the No. 2 seed in the NCAA West Regional Tournament, which starts Friday.

- After seven consecutive losing years during which their average record was 23-36, the Aztecs finished 26-18-1 and fell one victory shy of winning the regular-season championship in their Western Athletic Conference debut. They were 21-38 in 1990.

- The Toreras, a lower-level Division I team, finished 34-14 after going 25-25 a year ago. USD, which won’t get a postseason berth, was 11-4 against Division I opponents. The Toreras started the season 1-5 but finished on a 20-3 run.

- San Diego’s best college program, U.S. International, probably could have been part of this celebration, but the team folded before the season began. Some had picked USIU to finish in the Division I top 20. Only two Gulls players (SDSU’s Debbie Burford and Barbara Dotson), continued playing ball in San Diego.

“The county has a lot of good softball,” USD Coach Larry Caudillo said. “I know there’s a lot more talent going out of town than is staying in town. The problem I have is trying to get people that are academically qualified to get in. We get quite a bit of inquiries, but the the good players are looking for scholarships.”

“Being from the East and knowing the reputation, California is where all the softball players are,” said UCSD Coach Melissa Jarrell, who was an assistant with 1989 Division III national champion Trenton (N.J.) State. “I watched some summer teams playing (in a tournament) over Thanksgiving break. I was in awe. There’s some summer teams . . . I’d take the whole team. There’s so many players out there, they have to go some place.”

Tiffany’s terrific time: The best thing about USD’s and SDSU’s seasons was that hometown players figured prominently in their success. Julie Doria (San Pasqual) finished with a .409 batting average, 52 hits and 19 stolen bases for USD. Teammate Laura Cisneros (Marian) hit .357 with a team-high 32 RBIs.

Tiffany Wasilewski, who once threw a perfect game at Mission Bay High but was never recruited, had an MVP-type year. A 5-foot-7 right-handed pitcher, Wasilewski finished 21-5 with a 1.37 ERA. She also hit .313 in limited plate appearances. In 1990, she was 9-13 (1.78 ERA) but led the team in hitting with a .392 average as a freshman.

“I really had a lot of fun this year; the whole team did,” said Wasilewski, who had a 4.0 GPA her senior year at Mission Bay and went to USD on an academic scholarship. “A lot of people live for (softball), and that’s what their academic career rests on. I think I wanted to play to softball no matter where I went. But it’s a different attitude on our team.”

Wasilewski barely missed throwing a no-hitter against UCSD in the season finale against UCSD Saturday, yielding only a leadoff single to Dana Chaiken.

Hope for the Aztecs: Has SDSU found a light at the end of a eight-year tunnel? The Aztecs were 186-253-3 during that span, playing in one of the nation’s toughest conferences, the Big West. But SDSU put together its best team this year under Linda Spradley, who softened the nonconference schedule and moved the Aztecs into the WAC. The result was Spradley’s first winning season, a second-place tie in the WAC (7-2) and a postseason appearance in the WAC tourney, which opens Thursday.

SDSU did it with 11 players from San Diego County, four of whom were added this year. SDSU’s season was a testimony of patience and perseverance for some. Seniors Michelle Wesson (Christian HS, 11-6, 1.53 ERA), Jennifer Droback (Madison/El Capitan) and Anna Mendez (Mira Mesa) will be three of only five players to last four years in the program. Lisa Perettie (Mt. Miguel, 9-4, 0.75 ERA) and Stephanie Chapel (University City, 35 hits, 7 doubles) are two players who could have gone elsewhere on full rides but stayed home.

If any program in San Diego is able to grow strong through good recruiting, fund raising and on-field success it’s SDSU. The 1991 season could be the foundation upon which to build.

UCSD identity crisis: The Tritons are the only team with a history of success. This is their fourth Division III regional berth. But said Jarrell their image is almost nil in San Diego. One reason is UCSD’s best players have traditionally come from out of town. Jarrell had only one local high school player contact her this year.

“We get confused with USD so many times,” she said. “That’s the stigma we have right now. We are the most overlooked college here. There’s been quite a few coaching changes at UCSD. No consistency. How can you expose your program?”

UCSD wouldn’t have that problem if Chaiken, a senior shortstop, were from San Diego. She’s a likely candidate for Division III All-American honors. She’s hitting .352. Her slugging percentage is .535, her on-base average is .406 and she’s stolen 24 bases in 26 attempts.

Chaiken, who is from Lafayette, holds UCSD records for stolen bases in a career (84) and a season (31), career batting average (.352), walks in a season (33), runs scored in a career (127) and is approaching the all-time single-season mark for hits (52). She has 50.

“We can be a definite contender out here, it’s just going to take a couple of years,” said Jarrell, whose second-seeded Tritons will face Simpson, Iowa, at 1 p.m. Friday at the West Regional in Pella, Iowa. “I need to get my own people in here and start fresh, and make people realize there is a UC San Diego.”