Three Musketeers : As Pitcher, Hitter and Youth-League Teacher, Penrod Becomes Part of Moorpark Softball Lore

Mindy Penrod’s first softball team went 0-28, a record of startling futility even for the 8-year-olds who made up her league.

“Our team was so bad it was funny,” said Penrod, now a senior pitcher at Moorpark High. “The coaches, the players, none of us knew what we were doing. My dad was always telling me to look at the bright side of things.”

The bright side was usually confined to counting the number of games left in the Simi Valley youth softball season.

Now, Penrod and Moorpark (19-6) are hoping to extend the high school season as far as possible, beginning with today’s Southern Section Division V quarterfinal at Cerritos Valley Christian (14-4).

A four-year varsity player who started at second base as a freshman and has been the Musketeers’ primary pitcher over the past three seasons, Penrod (12-4) has helped her team to three consecutive Frontier League titles and a Tri-Valley League championship the season before that.

Though the Musketeers’ section title hopes clearly rest with Penrod, she appears unfazed. The girl in the pitching circle has been at center stage before.

Her nationwide experiences in club softball, where top tournaments can draw over 50 NCAA Division I coaches, have exposed her to more pressure than she’ll face in the high school playoffs. The tournaments also helped Penrod earn a scholarship to Iowa State, whose coaches made an offer after watching her play as an infielder and outfielder for the Orange County-based Gordon’s Panthers.

Despite her intense involvement with softball, having fun on the field is important to Penrod and was one reason she took more than two months off from the club team she played for in 1993.

“In the previous year, I’d had a grand total of one week off from softball,” she said. “I wasn’t having as much fun on the field and I really started to get down on myself. “That’s when I knew I needed to take a break.”

From September through late November, Penrod touched a softball only twice. Instead, she worked on her grades, startled her friends with her availability on weekends and lounged around the house. At Thanksgiving, she returned to her team for one of the largest softball tournaments in the country and commenced the business of earning a scholarship.

Penrod considered Southwest Texas and Oklahoma, but once she took a midwinter recruiting trip to Iowa State, she was sold on the Cyclones and bucolic Ames, population 47,000.

Penrod and ISU assistant Debby Day, a former Burbank High star and an All-American on Arizona’s 1991 national championship team, are both former members of the Shilohs club softball organization in the San Fernando Valley and have a mutual admiration.

“Mindy offers a lot of versatility by being able to play both in right field and at second base,” said Day, whose team finished last in the Big Eight Conference in 1995 but has signed four new recruits, including three Californians.

“She hits the ball hard and she makes all the plays in the field. Mindy has an excellent chance to start and be an impact player here.”

Penrod has already had an impact on younger players in the Moorpark Girls’ Softball Assn., which began play three years ago and has participants ages 5 to 16. In her first season of involvement, Penrod taught many of the younger players the basics of pitching and also began to umpire games.

Penrod has since given up her official coaching duties, but occasionally sneaks in pointers during the two or three games she umpires each week.

“In the games where the younger kids are struggling, she’ll stop and show them how to hold their bats and things like that,” said her father, Mike. “Parents won’t know the rules and be giving her a hard time and she’ll go over between innings and explain it to them.”

Penrod and several Moorpark teammates have been involved in the youth program long enough that Musketeer games have become a mecca for little girls in the area.

“For those girls to have a chance to look up to a high school player like Mindy is incredible for them,” said Moorpark junior varsity coach Ken Bentley, whose daughter was one of Penrod’s first pitching pupils. “They all know about her and when she’s umping, they perform for her.”

Penrod enjoys their efforts and says the experience gives her a link to the days when she was learning the game.

“In a 6-and-under game a few weeks ago, this girl got a hit and took off for third base,” Penrod said. “I just had to laugh, but the thing about it is that the girls laugh too. You have to have a lot of patience because if you get frustrated, they see that and get upset.”

Penrod has needed patience in high school over the last year. She batted .457, had 15 victories and a 1.31 earned-run average in 1994 and was selected the Frontier player of the year. Moorpark went 18-5 and was undefeated in league play.

But after Penrod sprained her ankle and left midway through a second-round playoff game against Oak Park, the Eagles overcame a 5-0 deficit and eliminated the Musketeers.

This season, Calabasas handed Moorpark its first league loss since 1993. Penrod has an 0.89 ERA but is batting only .297.

“I’ve been real stressed out about getting my scholarship, senior prom, all that stuff,” she said. “I haven’t been real focused.”

Her concentration has improved of late. Penrod threw a two-hit shutout and struck out 16 in a first-round victory over Templeton last Friday.

Tuesday, she drove in a run and scored another while throwing a three-hitter in a 2-1 victory over Pasadena Poly.

The team has also picked up its intensity in time for a playoff run. Outfielders and sisters Tina and Tracey Milburn, catcher Christina Gutierrez and designated hitter Christina Fernandez all have had superlative seasons. Although the team’s offense is not as strong as in 1994, Moorpark has improved defensively.

“We’re definitely more solid in the field,” Penrod said. “Even though we’re not batting as well, it seems when we need to get the hits, we do. All of our people have more experience and [the playoffs] is all a matter of how far we want to go.”