Fernandez Tries to Stay One Pitch Ahead

Lisa Fernandez, who was voted the nation’s top collegiate softball player last year, refuses to glance over her shoulder.

Fernandez, a junior who pitches and plays third base for top-ranked and undefeated UCLA, leads the Bruins in earned-run average (0.10), victories (10), shutouts (8), hits (30), triples (4) and batting average (.455).

“If you ever turn your back, people are right there at your heels, just nipping,” Fernandez said. “You have to look forward.”

The Bruins have their sights on the future, too. After Arizona denied UCLA its fourth consecutive NCAA title last year at the World Series in Oklahoma, all the Bruins want to do is to win the national championship.

Success for UCLA, which has five freshman starters, hinges on its pitching staff, which has returned all three starters, Fernandez, Heather Compton and DeDe Weiman. Last year, the three pitchers had a nation-leading combined ERA of 0.38.

Fernandez has improved her game to meet this year’s challenge. She knew that batters were starting to read her signature pitch, a drop ball, and she needed to develop a rise ball. She worked all through the off-season, and in December she finally felt her first good snap on a rise ball. It has become one of her best pitches.

But no matter how hard she tries, the 5-foot-6, stocky Fernandez is limited on the mound, where most of the game’s best pitchers are tall and lanky with long arms. “God may not have given me the physical build to be a great softball player,” Fernandez said, “but I do think he gave me the drive and determination to keep going.”

After two weeks off, UCLA (22-0, 2-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play host to Oregon State, 20th-ranked Oregon and 10th-ranked Texas A&M; this weekend. The Bruins play host to second-ranked Arizona on April 7.

The Cal State Long Beach softball team (17-13) fell out of last week’s rankings from its preseason No. 12 spot.

Although the 49ers stumbled through a tough, early-season schedule, Long Beach won the Cal State Bakersfield tournament this weekend by defeating 19th-ranked Cal State Northridge in the finals, 4-0, on Sunday. In pool play on Saturday, Long Beach defeated sixth-ranked Cal Poly Pomona, 3-2.

The 49ers are 5-10 against top 20 teams in the first month of its season, and five of those losses were to top-ranked UCLA. Long Beach won its season opener in the Arizona tournament, Feb. 14-16, with a 1-0 win over Arizona State, which is tied in the rankings with Cal State Fullerton at No. 10, but it lost to third-ranked Cal, 4-0, and to second-ranked Arizona, 3-2, in the finals. Long Beach defeated eighth-ranked Minnesota, 8-5, on Feb. 20, and split games with fifth-ranked Nevada Las Vegas on March 4. The 49ers were swept by Fullerton on Wednesday.

The next top-20 team that Long Beach faces is Northridge on April 7 in Long Beach.

The Loyola Marymount softball team lost two starters in the past two weeks. Soon after Iris MacGuire, Loyola Marymount’s starting catcher, returned to her home town of Hilo, Hawaii, two weeks ago, Lions Coach Ed Aronin discovered that left fielder Jodi Salvaryn, a transfer, was academically ineligible because she was four units shy of the required 24 at Santa Monica Junior College. Senior Kathy Willie will replace MacGuire, and Tracy Stanbridge, a freshman from Burlingame, will replace Salvaryn.

The Lions (0-4) have four returning from last season’s 6-24 team. Returning pitchers Mary Dugard, who also plays second base, and Theresa Conway, who also plays center field, are the Lions’ strongest players.

The only NCAA Division I teams Loyola plays this season are San Diego State on Mar. 18 and Oregon State on Mar. 23.

After the Pepperdine women’s basketball team won eight of its last 10 regular-season games for its best overall season since 1981 and its best West Coast Conference season ever, it advanced to the inaugural conference tournament, where its hopes to become the first WCC team to make the NCAA championship tournament were dashed.

The Waves (17-11, 9-5) lost to top-seeded Santa Clara in the WCC tournament semifinals on Friday, 65-60. Shannon Frowiss, a senior, led Pepperdine with team-high 20 points and seven rebounds.

Frowiss, an all-WCC first team selection for the third year in a row, led Pepperdine with a 13.4 scoring average and a 6.9 rebounding average in her final season.

The best beginning in five years turned into the worst ending for the Loyola Marymount women’s basketball team. The Lions won five of their first six games for their best start in four years, but finished 6-21 overall, their worst record in five years. Also, Loyola was 0-14 in the West Coast Conference for last place and its poorest WCC showing ever.

The Lions skidded after Jamie Jesko, a 5-foot-9 forward who helped Loyola Marymount to four victories in its first five games, had to redshirt because of a back injury.

“We didn’t have the leadership on the team that we needed,” said Tanya White, a forward who was selected to the all-West Coast Conference freshman team. “A lot of young people had to come in and play at a level that we weren’t used to playing at.”

Forward Joelle Longobardi, the sole senior led the Lions with a 13.8 average.

Next season, Fresno State transfer Sheri Brown, a forward, will be eligible after sitting out the season in accordance with the NCAA transfer rule. Amy Lundquist, a 6-foot-5 center who averaged 27.2 points this season at Frederic High School in Frederic, Wis., will add strength in the middle.

This is a twice-monthly column focusing on non-revenue Division I sports at UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Cal State Long Beach and Loyola Marymount.