HIGH SCHOOL PREVIEW / SOFTBALL : Fortunes of La Reina, Pitcher St. Pierre Continue to Rise

Bases loaded, one out and the tying run at third base. Rick St. Pierre, coach of the California Shilos, needed a stopper and he needed one pronto.

His options were limited. He had used two of his three pitchers and the third had pitched two complete games earlier in the day. It was the championship game of an 18-and-under American Softball Assn. qualifying tournament in Albany, N.Y. The winner would advance to the national tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn. And the loser, well, went home a loser.

The fatigued Shilos had played in several games throughout the day in the sweltering summer heat. Now it was nearly midnight.

St. Pierre had little choice but to call on his ace for the third time in 12 hours. But he knew this pitcher was a determined competitor--an athlete who frequently had dragged herself out of bed at dawn to practice and prepare for moments such as this.

His ace was none other than his own daughter, Michelle St. Pierre.

As Michelle headed toward the pitching circle, her mother, Cathy, who dutifully watched from the stands all day long, bolted from her seat. Cathy--”a normal mother who worries,” she says--could not bear to watch her daughter in such a pressure situation and opted instead to sit in a van until the game ended.

“I just couldn’t stand it,” Cathy said.

St. Pierre, also the ace at La Reina High, did not disappoint. She retired the side without incident and struck out the final batter on a rise ball--a pitch she had rarely used.

St. Pierre, a 5-foot-8 senior, is known for keeping her pitches low. She mostly utilizes a drop, curve, screwball and changeup--all with varying speeds. If she had an exploding rise ball, critics say, she would be the area’s finest pitcher. St. Pierre, who throws about 58 m.p.h., is well aware of concerns about her rise ball.

That is why she rolls her eyes and appears amused when she tells the story of The Rise That Retired The Side in Albany.

For now, St. Pierre chooses to use the rise sparingly and go primarily with what has made her one of La Reina’s most celebrated athletes.

“She knows that if you make a mistake on an up pitch, it can cost you the game,” Rick said. “A down pitch that’s a mistake is just going to be a hard ground ball.”

St. Pierre, who signed a letter of intent to play softball at Ohio State, is perfecting her rise ball under the guidance of renowned pitching coach Don Sarno, and she plans to use it more frequently in college.

Meanwhile, success has been bountiful for St. Pierre at La Reina, a parochial all-girls school in Thousand Oaks. She is a two-time Southern Section Division 1-A player of the year, guiding the Regents to section titles in her sophomore and junior years. In three seasons at La Reina, St. Pierre is 44-8 with an 0.51 earned-run average. She has 363 strikeouts in 345 innings.

It is St. Pierre’s pitch selection and mental toughness that make her a favorite of Don Hyatt, who has been the La Reina coach for eight seasons.

“Since I’ve had the program, I don’t think there is any question. We’ve had people who have thrown harder, but not a better pitcher, not a better competitor on the mound,” Hyatt said. “I can’t think of anyone I’d rather give the ball to.”

In six summer seasons of ASA softball, which is much more competitive than the Southern Section Division V (previously referred to as the 1-A Division), St. Pierre has compiled an 86-22 record and an 0.48 ERA.

St. Pierre, 18, began her softball career 10 years ago on a tee-ball team. About three years later, she began taking pitching lessons. Rick, a former amateur baseball catcher, responded enthusiastically.

“He wanted to learn all he could about it so he could teach me everything,” St. Pierre said.

When Rick realized his daughter was serious about pitching, he did everything possible to help her achieve her goal of attaining an athletic scholarship.

He installed a pitching rubber in the back yard of their Thousand Oaks home and built a backstop by mounting two steel posts in cement and draping heavy canvas over a crossbar connecting the poles. On the canvas were printed six targets--or locations--for her to pitch to when he was away on business and unable to catch for her.

“He’s an all-or-nothing type of guy,” Michelle said.

So much so, in fact, that Rick promised to buy his daughter the car of her choice if she earned a scholarship. She signed with Ohio State in November. A month later, she was driving her 1993 black soft-top Jeep Wrangler to school. She had admired the Jeep at a dealership while en route to a father-daughter pitching practice at Westlake High. On the return home, they stopped at the dealership “only to pick up some literature,” and ended up driving home in separate cars.

“I have a real difficult time saying no to her,” Rick said. “She was so excited and she had this look in her eyes like, ‘Please.’ ”

Michelle, a self-proclaimed tomboy who recognizes her family’s support as the driving force behind her success, has already pitched more than 160 games since she was 12. And there’s no telling how many thousands of pitches she threw into that canvas backstop. Or how many mornings the father-daughter battery awoke at sunrise to get in an hour’s work before Rick left town on business.

Those are the fond memories she and her parents will cherish forever.

The backstop is gone now and the pitching rubber and canvas target have been given to a neighbor. Rick and Cathy, whose oldest daughter Joelle attends Boston College, are moving to Lake Tahoe this summer.

And Michelle, the quintessential California blonde with the green eyes and frequent smile, soon will be off to Columbus, Ohio, to fulfill a dream that began 10 years ago--before she even knew what a rise ball looked like.

TEAMS TO WATCH

SOUTHERN SECTION

* Simi Valley (Marmonte League)--Six starters return for the Pioneers (26-3), who are ranked first in the Division I preseason poll. Junior right-hander Sara Griffin (16-2) is the ace. Griffin (0.18 ERA) struck out 133 in 117 innings and led the Pioneers to the 5-A (now called Division I) championship game, in which they lost to Cypress, 1-0.

Simi Valley shared the league title with Thousand Oaks last season and again looks like the team to beat.

Senior Yody Roache, an All-Southern Section outfielder, will move to catcher. Roache batted .296 and drove in a team-high 16 runs. Also returning are three-year starters Dayna Skinner (.288) at first base and left fielder Kris Lufkin (.310, 15 runs batted in).

* Thousand Oaks (Marmonte)--The co-league champion Lancers (20-5), ranked No. 5 in Division I, also have six starters returning. Seniors Carrie Russell and Nicole Ochoa head the list.

Russell (20-5), the workhorse last season, should get relief help from newcomers Shannon White and Jessie Davenport. Ochoa, an All-Southern Section selection who signed a letter of intent in the fall with Cal State Long Beach, returns in center field and is perhaps the finest power hitter in the area. Ochoa hit .471 in league play. Senior Dani Burns has moved to first base from left field. Senior Shannon LeBaron will start at third and junior Heather Pierskalla will start at second or shortstop.

* Buena (Channel)--With six returning starters the Bulldogs (19-6) seem poised to challenge Division I teams for the championship. Buena, defending league champion, lost to Cypress, 1-0, in the first round of playoffs.

Coach Sharon Coggins is calling this team a winner: “Position for position, this team is as good as the team that won (Division 4-A in 1989).”

Pitching however, remains an unknown quantity. Coggins has four candidates but would like to trim the rotation to two. Senior Nichole Suel and junior Rhondi Golden are expected to be the aces, followed by junior Jenifer Malson and senior Karsti Greysen.

* Hoover (Pacific)--The Tornadoes (22-3) are a threat because of senior right-hander Nancy Evans. Evans, the 4-A co-player of the year last season, is perhaps the finest pitcher in Southern California. She has signed a letter of intent with second-ranked Arizona. In 194 innings, Evans struck out 379, walked only six and sported an 0.25 ERA. In her high school career, she has pitched 11 perfect games, 18 no-hitters and 22 one-hitters.

Hoover is ranked No. 3 in Division II. In addition to Evans, five starters return. Senior Kelly Christiansen (.350) is an all-league catcher.

* Hart (Foothill)--The Indians (19-6) have notched six consecutive league titles under Coach Al Weil. Hart, ranked No. 2 in Division II, welcomes back seven starters from the team that finished runner-up to Foothill in the 4-A final last year.

Headlining the talented cast is senior center fielder Erin Hull (.448), who is attracting interest from several NCAA Division I schools. Junior right-hander Lauren Fenstemaker (19-6, 1.19 ERA) returns. Junior Lisa Kelley (.417) will move to second base, junior Amanda Deutchman (.270) is the catcher and senior Danielle Bragdon (.242) is at first.

* La Reina (Tri-Valley)--With St. Pierre in the circle and all but two players returning from last year’s 1-A championship team, the Regents (18-4), two-time defending 1-A champions, are almost certain to three-peat. Top returning starters include junior catcher Erin Petrick (.315), senior shortstop Jennifer Brant (.320), senior first baseman Jaye Brant (.395) and junior second baseman Michelle Nuesca (.300).

* Moorpark (Frontier)--The Musketeers (23-5) are coming off the school’s finest finish since it opened in 1919. Moorpark was runner-up to former league rival La Reina in the 1-A final last season.

With five returning starters, the Musketeers are loaded again. But Moorpark will have to do it without pitching sensation Cara Shea (18-5), a junior right-hander who for personal reasons decided she didn’t want to pitch anymore. Shea (.292), an All-Southern Section pitcher, will start at third and leave the pitching to sophomore right-hander Mindy Penrod, an off-speed specialist who played sparingly last year.

Junior first baseman Cher Tinnerello (.349, 20 RBIs) and senior center fielder Karen Richter (.284, 20 RBIs) were All-Southern Section selections.

CITY SECTION

* Granada Hills (West Valley)--With the talent Granada Hills (15-3) has returning, the Highlanders should challenge for the 4-A title. Of the six starters returning, three were first-team All-City selections last year: senior Brandy Brennan and juniors Bobbie Dushane and Jessica Shapiro.