Pastorini Finds Sanctuary Behind a Mask : Taft Softball Catcher Glad to Escape the Glare of Tennis’ Spotlight

The powerful stroke is back. So is the swagger. And the air of defiance, that’s back too.

Taft High’s Brahna Pastorini has returned, but it’s a different Pastorini playing a different sport: softball instead of tennis. The often-temperamental singles player who won the City Section championship in 1992 but lost the final last December is making a bumpy transition to a team sport with daily shepherding from Coach Donna Hetman.

Polished and powerful on the tennis court, Pastorini plays a humble, unglamorous position in softball: catcher. Pastorini, who never played youth softball, is a work in progress on the diamond.

“She’s such a good athlete, it’s scary,” Hetman said of Pastorini, who rode the bench as a junior last year but has been groomed for a successful senior season. “But she’s learning what it’s like to be a part of a team, and we’ve had some long talks about that.”

Pastorini becomes quiet when asked why she took up softball--she tried it, she liked it, she said. But as the only daughter of high-profile parents--her father is former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini, her mother is actress June Wilkinson--she has tired of the spotlight.

The attention proved particularly uncomfortable in December when she advanced to the City tennis final but lost in three sets to Dorsey freshman Kendra Segura. The score of the match--7-6 (7-2), 2-6, 3-6--won’t be remembered. But the dozens who saw Pastorini, the reigning champion who had a 41-0 varsity record, won’t soon forget how she lost.

With a blistering serve and hard ground strokes, Pastorini had blown away each of her opponents in ’93. But Segura, a spindly 14-year-old, returned everything and ran Pastorini, who was playing on an injured ankle, into the ground.

By the second set, Pastorini seemed to sense defeat, and so she mocked it. She started hitting balls out on purpose.

Spectators looking down on the Studio City Racquet Centre court groaned. Murmurs of disapproval swept through the stands.

For a time, Pastorini managed to mask her frustration behind a cold glare. But eventually, the poker face disappeared. After the match, she cried.

She declined interviews. All she wanted was to be left alone.

But now she is back with her familiar strut and power game, handling the pitchers and knocking in runs for the Taft softball team.

“It’s fun,” Pastorini said. “Less pressure.”

But catcher?

“The position was sort of given to me,” Pastorini said. “(Hetman) said, ‘You can get an attitude on the field. You can be aggressive.’ ”

And she is.

In a recent game against El Camino Real, Pastorini stared down a runner she had thrown out at second base.

Hetman marvels at the 5-foot-8 senior’s ability.

“She’s got a great arm,” Hetman said. “It comes from her serve in tennis. If she had more experience, she’d be great.”

But softball is just a diversion for Pastorini, whose future is NCAA Division I tennis. She is close to accepting a full scholarship at Cal State Long Beach.

Still, she says hitting a softball is easier than hitting a tennis ball, and she makes a good case. She entered the week batting .450. Seven of her 18 hits went for extra bases--three doubles, three triples and a home run. She has driven in 16 runs.

She has thrown out 15 runners and has not made an error.

Pastorini’s contributions have aided Taft (8-8), which has struggled to a 2-5 start in Northwest Valley Conference play after going 17-4, 9-1 in 1993.

Not many tennis players would attempt this switch. Softball is no country club sport. And few catchers are held to tennis-like standards of etiquette.

Catchers crouch much of the game. Pastorini takes foul balls off the chest protector and must hold her ground when runners slide into her oft-injured ankles. The game seems more suited for her aggressive, if not tempestuous, personality.

She’s making plenty of noise with her bat. But Pastorini’s teammates don’t give her the star treatment and Hetman calls the pitches and gives her constant coaching.

“We all know what she did in tennis,” Taft center fielder Dikla Orevi said, “but she’s one of the players here, where everybody contributes.”

And that comes as a relief for someone who felt uneasy under the scrutiny that came with her status as City tennis champion.

“It’s like everybody’s looking at you,” Pastorini said. “And you’re going, ‘God, why do they have to look?’ “Here, you have a family sort of feel. You work together. In tennis, we have a team and all, but it wasn’t really family. When you’re out there on the court, you’re on your own.”

When pressure comes in softball, Pastorini can put on a face mask.

“It’s fun just blending in instead of standing out,” she said. “It’s a new change.”

But it hasn’t been a smooth one. Pastorini can be moody and demanding, Hetman said. She nearly cut Pastorini last year for arriving at practice late and trying to leave early. Hetman spent as much time showing Pastorini how to behave around teammates as teaching her how to bat, catch and throw.

“I have to constantly stay on her,” Hetman said. “She needs lots of attention.”

But Hetman does so freely, knowing that Pastorini is reaching out. She was not raised by her famous father, who is divorced from her famous mother. In fact, Pastorini has remarked that she wouldn’t know her father if she saw him on the street. Her mother is frequently out of town.

“Brahna practically lives on her own,” Hetman said. “Or she stays with our pitcher (Nicole Ortiz).”

But Hetman, who also coaches the Taft junior varsity football team, takes a tough-love approach to Pastorini.

“I have to constantly remind her it’s a team sport when she gets into a sulk,” Hetman said. “I say, ‘You have to pick up the pieces. You still got to go out there and catch Nicole. You have seven more innings.’

“I’ve never played tennis; I’ve never played an individual sport. Maybe you need that mentality in tennis: me, me, me. But in softball we win together, we lose together.”

It’s a lesson in humility, perhaps far greater than the tear-jerking loss to Segura.

“We had a long talk before the season,” Hetman said. “I told her she would be playing an important position and she would have to be a leader. And being the catcher, she’s starting to realize the focus of the team.”

Pastorini has continued to practice tennis every day and play in weekend tournaments. Her private coach, Gene Malin, said he wants to see her spend more time on the court and less time on the softball field. But he supports her decision to play softball.

“I played team sports in high school,” Malin said. “It helps. You get a little different attitude. You’re not as cocky.”

Said Hetman: “Playing with other people is going to make Brahna a better person all the way around.”