Success, Smile Back in Fashion for Frederick : Softball: Cypress shortstop will be counted on for offense during Southern California playoffs.

Carrie Frederick wore an Oklahoma T-shirt and a wide smile when she sat down for an interview. Not long ago, it would have been unlikely for her to have either.

Recovery from an early-season slump is the reason for the smile. She bought the shirt during a recruiting trip to the University of Oklahoma.

Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge and UCLA also have expressed interest.

Frederick, a sophomore shortstop from Savanna High, and her Cypress College teammates open the Southern California playoffs at noon today. The Chargers (44-18) play host to Bakersfield (16-15). The championship game is 2 p.m. Saturday.

Frederick is hitting .310 (66 for 213) with seven triples, three home runs and 31 runs batted in.

But for about half the season, Frederick was mired in self-pity because her batting average was on the wrong side of .200.

The struggle took its toll on Frederick, who never figured out the source of her hitting problems.

“I guess I put my head in the dirt,” she said. “I’ve never done that badly before . . . It was very, very frustrating and I wasn’t having fun.”

The problem started to ease some when Cypress Coach Brad Pickler moved Frederick from leadoff to third in the batting order. “She thought she should be getting on base and driving in runs all the time,” Pickler said. “She thought she should be carrying the whole team. So we just tried to talk to her about it and get her to relax.

“But it wasn’t she like wasn’t hitting the ball hard. She just didn’t have much luck either.”

The slump vanished during spring break when Cypress played in two tournaments and a total of 13 games.

She was 20 for 48 (.417) and drove in 19 runs in that span. The surge raised her average from .213 to .263. And it kept going up.

“I really don’t know what happened,” Frederick said about the turnaround. “I guess I was just in a zone.”

Said Pickler: “It was unreal, everything she hit was hard. Even her outs were crushed.”

Playoff Notes

Fullerton, Orange Coast and Rancho Santiago are also in the playoffs. In games at Long Beach: Rancho Santiago (20-18) plays Long Beach (30-8) at noon and Fullerton (30-13) plays Chaffey (22-16) at 2 p.m. Orange Coast (23-13) has the longest trip. The Pirates play College of the Desert (18-13) at 2 p.m. at Antelope Valley. Pasadena (15-15) plays host Antelope Valley (39-8) at noon.

The winner at each site advances to the State Tournament May 21-23 at Riverside.