NORTH-SOUTH ALL-STAR SOFTBALL GAME : Woodbridge’s Nasitka Hopes to End Year on Positive Note

Debbie Nasitka had planned on playing softball tonight.

She figured she would be playing for the Southern Section Division III championship along with her Woodbridge High teammates.

Instead, she will be playing with strangers at the North-South all-star softball game at 7 p.m. at Brea-Olinda High School.

Her Woodbridge teammates will be attending their team banquet.

And Laguna Hills will be playing Irvine for the Division III title.

Tonight’s game provides Nasitka an opportunity that many athletes don’t get--a chance to rewrite the end of their high school careers.

A senior shortstop who batted .308 with 24 runs batted in, Nasitka scored 14 runs and stole 16 bases. She was instrumental in Woodbridge (25-6) being No. 1 in the state Division II rankings and top-seeded in the Division III playoffs.

But they were upset by San Dimas in the quarterfinals despite allowing only two hits and four runners. Though Woodbridge had a runner in scoring position in five of the seven innings, it was San Dimas that won, 1-0, scoring with the help of Nasitka’s throwing error.

Not the storybook ending.

“We ended our season on a fairly bad note, and that wasn’t my best game of the year,” Nasitka said. “I want to end my career positively. I’d like to wear the Woodbridge uniform one more time in a more positive situation.”

It will be a relief to slip into red No. 14 one more time before going to Boston College, Nasitka shouldering the responsibility for the outcome of Woodbridge’s season-ender.

The words kept pulsating through her thoughts.

My fault. My fault.

“On the ride home, my team really lifted my spirits,” Nasitka said. “We had a lot of chances on offense. You have to score to win, and we were having a lot of trouble scoring. But yeah, I do feel that game was my responsibility and we would still be playing if it wasn’t for that error.

“I think the real part I had difficulty with was not being able to play again the next day, not being able to play with my team anymore.”

And the outcome still stings.

“It’s hard to lose to someone you know you’re better than,” Nasitka said. “It’s hard to see Irvine and Laguna Hills, whom we’ve both beaten, play in the finals.

“We felt we had a tradition to uphold, especially as the No. 1 seed. . . . I think part of the thing that happened, because we were carrying the tradition, we started playing not to lose rather than playing to win.”

A four-year starter who enjoyed the Woodbridge’s 1991 Division 3-A championship, Nasitka is a true Warrior, heart, mind and soul.

“It means a lot to wear the uniform one more time,” Nasitka said. “One thing I’ve always cherished is representing Woodbridge’s great softball tradition. To be a part of that, I take great pride in.

“It’s important for me to leave Woodbridge on a good note, on a positive performance. But this is not with my team, so it doesn’t mean quite as much as it would mean to me if we were playing again as Woodbridge High School.”

Sometimes, you take your second chances any way you can.