Liberty Christian’s Caruso Can Compete at Any Level : Softball: Small school catcher, who batted .476 with four homers last year, continues to prove she has big-time talent.

A lot of slow-pitch recreational softball players still seeking their glory days wish they could hit .476.

In fact, you usually can’t shut them up if they manage a .300 average in a Level C co-ed Tuesday night league.

But when Liberty Christian catcher Jen Caruso hit .476 with four home runs and 37 runs batted in last year against rising fastballs thrown from 40 feet, there were coaches and players from Orange County’s larger high schools who scoffed at her statistics.

“Look who she played against-- small schools ,” they said, as if that explained Caruso’s success. “She’d never do that against real competition.”

Well, if the Big Ten Conference counts as real competition, Caruso has her supporters, too. This month she’ll make a recruiting visit to Michigan, which is most definitely not a small school but is most definitely interested in having Caruso play for the Wolverines.

Liberty Christian Coach Rudy Sass shares Michigan’s opinion of Caruso, an all-around athlete who also excelled in volleyball and basketball for the Minutemen.

“There’s not a school around that wouldn’t love to have Jen play for them,” Sass said. “Oh yes, we hear the comments about her average being inflated because of the level of competition, but Jen would be a top hitter against the big schools, too.”

For her part, Caruso, the Academy League MVP as a junior, could care less about the could-she-or-couldn’t-she discussion.

“I like where I play, and it’s more important that I prove to myself what I can do,” Caruso said. “What other people think doesn’t bother me.”

That’s because Caruso is used to having to prove herself. At age 5, she was playing T-Ball against the boys on her father’s team. For the next eight years, she played for her dad at various levels of Little League and thrived on being the girl against the guys.

“I loved it,” Caruso said. “It was great being better than some of the guys, because they’d get so mad.

“My dad would ride us down to the park on his bike everyday and we’d practice together. It was always fun.”

Caruso had so much fun in Little League that she didn’t play organized softball until the eighth grade. At first, she had difficulty adjusting to the pitching (“Those rising fastballs were harder to hit than I thought they’d be”), but she soon felt comfortable swinging at the larger ball.

In her freshman year at Liberty Christian, Caruso made an immediate impact on the Minutemen program.

“From the first day, she wasn’t afraid to get in there and mix it up with the older and bigger players,” Sass said. “She grew up playing hardball, and it showed in how aggressively she played. Jen’s always done a great job blocking the plate and doing all the physical things that catchers have to do.”

Caruso has been catching since she played T-Ball and has little interest in other positions.

“I like to be involved on every play,” she said. “I couldn’t see myself out in left field, waiting for a ball to be hit to me.

“I’m at home at catcher. I like to get dirty and throw people out.”