THE COLLEGES / IRENE GARCIA : Not Wanting to Lose Out Again, Cal Lutheran Keeps Winning

Cal Lutheran’s softball team is in many ways having a repeat performance of last season. The Regals appear to be on the same track. They lead the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 12-2 record and are 17-6 overall.

Cal Lutheran has won nine of 11 games and the Regals have a five-game winning streak.

Playoff bound?

That’s how the picture looked around this time last year. The Regals won the SCIAC title and finished the regular season with a 29-7 record and a No. 18 national ranking in Division III.

With an ending like that the folks in Thousand Oaks figured they were a shoo-in for postseason play.

But the SCIAC champion doesn’tget an automatic playoff bid and the NCAA selection committee said Cal Lutheran was not worthy of one of 24 berths. Not enough power points, the committee concluded.

The Regals didn’t play enough top-ranked teams and they were really hurt, the committee explained, by losses to lower-division (National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics) teams.

Those excuses seem rather weak. The Regals feel they were cheated. They believe they should have competed in the playoffs in 1994 and should go this year if they keep up this winning pace.

“I was shocked,” Cal Lutheran Coach Kecia Davis said. “I thought, ‘Wait a minute! How can you not have us go?’ It was so frustrating because we had such a great year.”

Davis says she and her players have tried to forget about the whole thing. Move on and let the past go, she says. But sometimes it’s not so easy.

A feeling that the Regals got the shaft still lingers around the school’s softball field. The experience has served as an incentive for this year’s team and at times it has hurt players, according to Davis.

“There’s a positive and negative aspect to it,” Davis said. “It pushes us to play hard and do well, but sometimes it also serves as too much of a pressure.”

Obviously it hasn’t hurt the team enough to keep it out of contention this season. Most players have taken their game to another level.

Just look at junior pitcher Heidi Stevens’ performance. She’s not bitter and the so-called pressure her coach mentioned hasn’t hampered her one bit.

Stevens has an 8-3 record and a 1.90 earned-run average. She also leads the team with a .429 batting average that includes 20 runs, 17 runs batted in and three home runs.

“I have to have her in there offensively,” Davis said. “She’s our quickest pitcher, too, and she’s very versatile.”

Then there’s junior shortstop Aimee Sneider who is batting .407 with 18 runs, 17 RBIs and six doubles. Sophomore second baseman Tracy Little (.380) has 20 runs, 15 RBIs and seven doubles.

This is a team on a mission. The message has gotten through even to those who weren’t around last season. Freshman catcher Donna Scott has a .321 batting average with 18 runs and three doubles. Freshman pitcher Johanna LaRocque is 3-0 with a 1.58 ERA.

“We have a better physical team than last year,” Davis said. “Talent-wise we’re just much better.”

Davis, a graduate of Thousand Oaks High, was an NCAA Division II All-American catcher at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. In 1990 she became an assistant at Cal Lutheran and was named head coach before the start of the ’94 season.

She is also a full-time athletic trainer at Cal Lutheran and teaches sports medicine and physical education at the school.

Davis is a hands-on, get-dirty kind of coach. Even though she’s 6 1/2 months pregnant with her first child, she hits infield and outfield practice and coaches first base.

“I usually coach third, but I figured I better get out of the line of fire,” Davis said. “I guess when I get bigger I won’t be out in the field at all. That will be hard, though.”

Davis is expected to deliver her baby in June so if her team makes the playoffs in May, she will coach from the dugout. By then, she says, “I’ll probably be huge,” but she prefers to be in the dugout than home in bed.

The Regals should be on the field next month, not at home making summer vacation plans. Of course, that’s up to the NCAA committee again.

Regardless of what happens, Davis says she’ll put it behind her and start planning for the future. After all, she must be back at work by late August.

“I have to be back for football,” she said. “That’s a busy time in the athletic training room.”