No. 2 and Rising : Cal State Northridge Soaring in Softball Rankings After Getting Some Breaks and Making Them Too

Gary Torgeson might not yet be sitting on top of the world, but the Cal State Northridge softball team he coaches certainly is perched prominently enough for him to provide perspective.

The Matadors, winners of the recent Cal State Fullerton PONY tournament, have achieved the highest national ranking in the athletic program’s three years in NCAA Division I. Northridge, 26-3-1 and defeated only once in its last 20 games, is ranked second, behind eight-time national champion UCLA.

Ranked 14th in the preseason, Northridge has risen steadily in the polls since splitting a nonconference doubleheader against the Bruins in early February. However, the Matadors’ ascent has, in fact, been as much a mad scramble as it has been a constant climb.

Consider Northridge’s modus operandi in the PONY tournament: The Matadors swept all seven of their games but came from behind in four of their last five. In three of their final four games, they scored the winning run in their final at-bat. Included were victories over fifth-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, third-ranked Oklahoma State and previously top-ranked Arizona.

Asked this week if Northridge was that good or that lucky, Torgeson paused before replying, “Both.”

His comment was as accurate as it was glib. Northridge’s place in college softball’s high-rent district has been earned by attracting players with enough talent to create their own good fortune.

“When you’re good,” said Beth Calcante, the Matadors’ slugging left fielder, “luck comes along once in a while.”

But, truth be told, Northridge would not be so good had luck not played a conspicuous role in the team’s formation.

While Torgeson won recruiting jousts for such standouts as pitcher Amy Windmiller, third baseman Shannon Jones, shortstop Vicky Rios and first baseman Tamara Ivie, he lucked out in landing pitcher Kathy Blake, designated hitter Scia Maumausolo and Calcante.

A scout told Torgeson about Blake. The man--neither Torgeson nor Blake can remember his name--was a central California baseball scout for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The scout knew Blake from church and had seen her pitch for Paso Robles High. His knowledge of Northridge stemmed from watching the school’s baseball team in an NCAA regional in Fresno the year before.

“He was impressed with the baseball team, said he had heard good things about the softball program and figured that the school was on the move,” Torgeson said.

The man also said Blake’s 24-2 record and 0.00 earned-run average as a high school senior was no fluke. Torgeson, who didn’t know the man had placed similar calls to schools up and down the state, followed up on the tip. When he saw her pitch, he agreed.

Blake was 25-7 as a freshman for the Matadors, and is 9-1 with three saves and an 0.90 ERA this season.

Together with Windmiller, a highly touted Sacramento City College transfer who is 12-2 with an 0.94 ERA, Blake helps form a 1-2 pitching punch that Torgeson says is second to none.

And, speaking of punch, Northridge has 20 home runs, second in the nation behind Arizona, which has 22. Not only are the Matadors No. 2 on the pop charts, several of their home runs have been late-inning blasts that left opponents singing the blues.

A bottom-of-the-seventh-inning solo homer by Maumausolo off All-American Melanie Roche accounted for Northridge’s only run against Oklahoma State in the PONY championship.

Maumausolo, a freshman from San Diego Mt. Carmel High, was a late recruit who was brought to Torgeson’s attention by a friend who helps coach at Palomar College.

“I told him I was looking for a catcher and he mentioned there was a catcher down there I might want to go see,” Torgeson said. “I’m sure he wanted her to go to Palomar, but fortunately he mentioned her to me.”

Maumausolo is batting .325, second best on the team, and has three home runs.

The only Northridge player with better slugging statistics is Calcante, a player who recruited Torgeson every bit as hard as he recruited her. Calcante, a junior, has six home runs this season and 19 in her career, tying her for 12th on the NCAA’s all-time list.

Calcante wrote several letters to Torgeson when she was playing for Newbury Park High. Northridge started returning the interest after Torgeson heard about Calcante from a coaching associate and double-checked the information through his brother-in-law, former Newbury Park football Coach Ken Cook.

Then, in April, 1990, Calcante’s senior year of high school, she accepted a scholarship offer from Northridge.

At the time, she was a relative unknown, having played top-flight summer softball for only one season.

A few months later, she could have accepted any one of a number of offers. The summer after she signed with the Matadors, Calcante was the top hitter on an amateur team called the Ballhawks, who advanced to the 18-and-under national championship game.

In the final, the Ballhawks lost to the Panthers--whose top hitter was Ivie. “By the end of the summer, everybody wanted those two,” Torgeson said. “But we already had them.”

“It’s interesting how you get some of these good ballplayers,” Torgeson said. “There is a lot of talent out there but sometimes you have to turn over a few rocks to find it.”

Northridge’s luck has not been limited to recruiting. Lately, it seems, the Matadors can do no wrong when a game is on the line.

Before the PONY tournament, in a nonconference game against Kansas, Maumausolo struck out a school-record six consecutive times--the final two times with the winning run in scoring position. Still, Torgeson stuck with her, allowing her a seventh at-bat.

Maumausolo responded by tomahawking a head-high pitch for a single. Then, four days later, after striking out and popping up against Oklahoma State, she hit a similar pitch for the home run that made Northridge tournament champion.

Torgeson said he only briefly considered pinch-hitting for Maumausolo against Kansas, deciding instead that boosting her confidence was far more important.

“If I pull her in that spot, does she come through against Oklahoma State? That’s an interesting question,” Torgeson said. “Confidence is important, especially for a young player.”

Northridge would not have reached the title game were it not for other strokes of good fortune.

Ivie provided one in a preliminary championship-bracket game last Saturday. With Northridge trailing Western Illinois, 1-0, Torgeson instructed Ivie to punch a pitch to the right side to move the tying run from second base to third.

Ivie, a right-handed hitter who usually hits to the right side, pulled the next pitch over the left -center-field fence for a game-winning, two-run home run.

That victory, Torgeson said, was especially important because Northridge and Western Illinois had hotel rooms across the hall from each other. “They had been pretty loud the night before and we had to tell them to be quiet,” Torgeson said. “The thought of losing to them and having to face them back at the hotel wasn’t very appealing.”

That same day, Jones followed a two-error performance against Western Illinois with another miscue in a game against Las Vegas. “I thought I was going to have to call the paramedics,” Torgeson said. “She had a night from hell.”

The Northridge-UNLV game was halted in the seventh inning with the Matadors ahead, 4-2, because of rain. When the game finally ended Sunday morning, Torgeson said Jones was “still in the tank.”

Next up was Utah, and the Utes led 3-1 when Jones led off the seventh inning with a home run, cutting Utah’s lead to a run.

“When she did that,” Torgeson said, “our whole attitude changed.”

Two outs later, Terri Pearson walked, bringing up Jen Fleming and sending Torgeson into a fit.

From the third base coaching box, he gave Fleming a sign--the choke sign, the fingers of his right hand around his throat.

“I was all over her,” Torgeson said. “She’d been in the tank too, at least as far as coming through in pressure situations.”

Fleming, a junior who prides herself on producing in such situations, often exhorts herself in demonstrative fashion. “I was on her pretty good,” Torgeson said. “I was telling her to put her bat where her mouth was. She was so mad at me she was turning white and I’m like, ‘It’s all over.’ ”

It was. Fleming singled to left, driving a one-hopper off the glove of the left fielder that drove in Pearson all the way from first.

Calcante singled to right on the next pitch to drive in Fleming with the winning run. “That’s a perfect example of what we’ve been doing lately,” Torgeson said. “But, hey, the way I look at it, that’s making your own breaks.”

Staff writer Paige A. Leech contributed to this story.