Their Common Denominator : Seniors Dacquisto, Yorke Share More Than a Statistical Rivalry in Softball

Statistically, they are without peer.

Softball players Lisa Dacquisto and Robyn Yorke have played against each other the past four years. Both are center fielders, both lead off for their top 10-ranked teams, both batted over .600 this season.

They share the same running coach.

They share the same goals.

They share the same competitive nature.

They share the same disdain toward the focal point of their four-year rivalry.

“I wish there weren’t statistics because, sometimes, it makes you too competitive,” Dacquisto said Thursday after going 2 for 3 and improving her batting average to .613, the county’s best for the second consecutive year.

But Yorke--who went 0 for 2 but scored a run in Marina’s 2-0 victory--got the last laugh. She finished with a .603 batting average and her team won the Sunset League title, something Dacquisto has never done at Ocean View. It was Yorke’s second--she won a Southern Section title during her freshman year, when her sister, Christa, was a senior. Next year, Robyn will join Christa at Fresno State on scholarship.

This has been a rivalry of give and take. Statistically, Yorke has finished second to Dacquisto yet enjoyed the greater team success. Last year, after batting .532, scoring 26 runs and stealing 14 bases, she was named the league MVP after Marina finished second to Fountain Valley in the league. Dacquisto batted .552, scored 19 runs and stole a county-high 46 bases. She finished second in the MVP voting and Ocean View tied for third. This is her first trip to the playoffs since playing a wild-card game as a freshman.

“I don’t like (published statistics),” Yorke said. “I think the team comes first and when you single out people like that, it ruins your team unity. It really doesn’t matter what your batting average is, you still have to score runs to win a game.

“I would rather go 0 for 4 and win than 10 for 10 and lose. (Our league title) shows it takes more than one batter to win the game.”

It does, but the talent of Dacquisto and Yorke separates them from most others.

Dacquisto’s 158 career hits is an Orange County record and fourth-best all time. She’s batted .528 over her career, which spans 299 at-bats. Her mark of 123 stolen bases is also a county-best record, and the third-best all-time, according to the section record book.

Yorke probably would have broken the county hit record--140, set by Irvine’s Jennifer Brundage from 1988-1991--had she not suffered a severe hamstring injury her sophomore season. She got 18 hits that year, and didn’t have fewer than 30 (in her freshman year) in any other season. She missed nine games and fell 12 hits short of Brundage’s mark. She could have more stolen bases, but Coach Shelly Luth says she holds her back for fear of re-injury.

It was after that sophomore season that Yorke approached running coach Doug Myers--who worked with Dacquisto and also coached Ocean View this season to a second-place finish. She learned how to run all over again, and her speed--like Dacquisto’s--has made her a dangerous offensive weapon.

“I think both her and Lisa made each other what they are because of the competitiveness,” said Myers. “They push themselves to a level that has helped them achieve what they have.”

Yorke’s objective is to swing hard and slap the ball to the left side of the infield--get a bounce if she can--and beat it out. She always uses a running crossover step, and says the key to her success is to keep her feet moving. “My slap is the best part of my game,” she said. Her dad, Dave, made her learn to bat left-handed when she was 12, and it has paid off handsomely.

Dacquisto is more wacky. She is superstitious--she puts good Bazooka Gum fortunes in her lucky bra on game days, uses a lucky rubber band to hold her hair, and crams as many wishes as she can into one minute every day, 12:12 p.m. She also runs the anchor leg on the track team’s 4x100 relay, and finished third in the league long jump finals (16 feet, 10 3/4 inches) after a game. She was the league long jump champion last year, though she claims she has no form.

She’s going to Arizona State next year.

She didn’t learn to bat left-handed until she was 14, and remembered going 0 for 12. Five months later, as an eighth-grader playing with freshmen and sophomores, it all came together and she batted .520 at the Junior Olympic 16-and-under national tournament, helping the Orange County Athletics to a fifth-place finish. Dacquisto has developed the bunt into an art form, almost, with a one-handed sneak bunt (she holds it with her left hand) that occasionally has an unusual spin to the right, and two-handed bunt. She can slap the ball, run and hit or hit away, though she concedes, “I’m kind of shaky on the hitting away part.”

But who needs to hit away when you’re batting .600? Both were batting that high entering the final week of the regular season--each was 42 of 70--and when they met in the final game of the season to decide the league champion and the county batting leader, their four-year rivalry came to a head--and a probable end, barring a meeting in the Division I playoffs.

Myers and Luth have watched their players develop--and look over their shoulders.

“These are the two closest kids in the world,” Myers said. “They have so many great attributes athletically. They are so focused and so dedicated and so much farther along than any other kid, it seems. But they push each other to an extreme.”

Neither girl says it’s a big deal, however. Yorke said the competition is good.

“It makes you try harder, makes you concentrate a little more, and gives you a goal to strive for,” she said. “ . . . (But) I don’t have a personal thing going against Lisa.”

Dacquisto also sees the value of being pushed. But she also sees the nature of their rivalry.

“If she does great, great--I’m happy for her,” Dacquisto said. “And I expect her to be the same for me.”

There are more than 1,200 reasons to be happy between them. Statistically speaking, of course.

How They Compare

Category Lisa Dacquisto Robyn Yorke Height/Weight 5-3 3/4/115 5-6 1/2/140 Bats/Throws Left/Right Left/Right Bat size 33 inches, 25 oz. 33 inches, 27 oz. College Arizona State Fresno State Major Veterinary medicine Childhood development Favorite food Spaghetti Spaghetti Favorite movie Victor/Victoria Pretty Woman 1990 BA/SB/Runs .467/12/12 .297/11/20 1991 BA/SB/Runs .478/22/17 .474/8/13 1992 BA/SB/Runs .552/46/19 .532/14/26 1993 BA/SB/Runs .613/43/26 .603/31/30 Career BA/SB/Runs .528/123/74 .459/64/89