Braatz Makes Her Pitch, but She Prefers Her Bat

The question draws a smile and a slight laugh from Leah Braatz.

What will you remember most about your senior year?

Simple question. Most athletes who find themselves on the U.S. Olympic Festival softball team would recall championship games and 22-inning duels and whatnot. But Braatz doesn’t give the usual answer.

“I don’t have a specific memory,” she says. “Just the fun times we had.”

C’mon Leah, what do you really remember?

“I got rocked,” she recalled. “That I pitched and I got rocked.”

Rocked a lot, it turns out.

“I’m not a pitcher,” said Braatz, the only catcher recruited by NCAA champion Arizona and who is expected to start next year. “My (Batbuster) teammates tease me about it. My coach does, too. A lot.”

“She’s not a pitcher,” said her club coach, Gary Haning.

She had less difficulty pitching than Jose Canseco, but it was still a farce. Braatz is not a pitcher.

But she is a competitor, so she took the mound for Estancia High because she was the best the team had. The Eagles were 7-16 during the high school season. Braatz was 6-12 with an astronomical 3.75 earned-run average. Few high school pitchers this season had ERAs as high as 2.00.

Braatz was comfortable at the plate, though. She is a hitter. According to Estancia’s first-year coach, Bob Reynolds, she batted .375 with four home runs, 35 runs batted in, scored 27 runs and stole 17 bases.

In her element, against the best competition available, Braatz led the Batbusters--the defending 18-and-under national champions--in average (.484), runs scored (21), RBIs (21), doubles (12), triples (six), homers (four) and bases on balls (11) through their first 35 games.

She bats third in the order and is having the kind of season that made her return to Southern California worthwhile. She spent the first six months of her senior year in Montpelier, Idaho, after her father was transferred by his company in August, 1992.

Braatz was successful at Bear Lake High. The volleyball team took third in state, and she was the league’s most valuable player on the basketball team, averaging 15 points and 13 rebounds. She and her mother, Regina, took up residence with a Costa Mesa friend in February so Leah could complete her high school and age-group softball career.

Upon her return, Braatz could have attended any school, but chose Estancia because her friends were there.

“If I had made a choice just because of softball,” Braatz said, “I would have chosen a different school.”

There certainly would have been less frustration, which was a familiar companion.

“Some games, it was embarrassing,” Braatz said. “Our coach (Reynolds) doesn’t believe in the (10-run) mercy rule and some games we would just get destroyed.”

The team made mental mistakes and physical errors, and the girls competing alongside Braatz weren’t dedicated to nearly the same degree. It added up.

“Being out of position was really frustrating, too,” she said. “If I were to go and pitch for my travel ball team, it would be a joke. At school, they said, ‘Wow, she can pitch,’ but really, I can’t. (Opposing teams) hit me hard and it was frustrating because the team can’t make the plays. It was hard, but I just made the best of it. I would try to pump the girls up and make them want to play.

“It was difficult at first but I think the girls looked up to me and whatever I did, they did, too.”

And the school retired her jersey, No. 13.

“It made me feel really good,” Braatz said. “They’ve only done that to two guys, and I was the first girl. It was a neat experience.”