Mike Gives Voice to UCLA Title, Softball Tempest

Ginny Mike has 95 hits in her three-year college career, but the one swing of the bat she will never forget produced an error.

Playing against two-time defending champion Arizona two weeks ago in the title game of the Women’s College World Series, Mike, a junior outfielder from Camarillo High who bats ninth for UCLA’s softball team, hit what appeared to be a harmless grounder to Wildcat third baseman Krista Gomez to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning.

Gomez, an Alemany High alumna, fired across the infield to first baseman Amy Chellevold, a Thousand Oaks High alumna, who watched the ball pop out of her glove as Mike raced safely across the base.

Up to the plate stepped UCLA’s Kelly Howard, who lined a Carrie Dolan pitch over the right-field fence to give the Bruins a 4-2 lead.

Two innings later, UCLA was the national champion, winning by the same score.

“It looked like she caught it when I passed the base and then dropped it,” Mike said of Chellevold, an All-American who had committed only one previous error all season.

“I’ve been watching the tape,” Mike said. “I wasn’t that close to beating it out. I was surprised. I was relieved.”

Moments later, Mike was skipping across home plate with the winning run in UCLA’s unprecedented eighth national title.

“[The error] definitely pumped up our bench, because it gave us hope of a rally,” she said. “I’m pretty sure Carrie Dolan got shaken up. It’s great to bring back the championship to UCLA.”

Mike is thrilled just to be playing for the Bruins.

They did not recruit her during a 1992 senior year at Camarillo in which she batted .451 and led the Scorpions to the Southern Section championship.

She went to UC Santa Barbara instead and batted .294 her freshman year. But at the end of the season, Gaucho Coach Sandy Pearce, from Newbury Park, was hired at Stanford.

Subsequent rumors that UCSB might drop its softball program prompted Mike to request a release from her scholarship. She contacted both UCLA and Cal State Northridge, and was shocked when the Bruins called back first.

“They said, ‘We’d love to have you play. We’ve got a spot in the outfield,’ ” Mike said. “I couldn’t believe it, because I always wanted to play there. Everybody wants to play at UCLA.”

And 1995 will be an unforgettable year for her. On Nov. 11, she will marry her college sweetheart, Mike Mitchell. Mitchell, who plays first base in the New York Yankees’ organization, was a standout player for UCLA.

Mike hit .254 as a part-time player in 1994, but she rewarded the Bruins in the WCWS.

She had seven hits, including two doubles, a .500 average and she was chosen to the all-tournament team as UCLA finished fourth. This year she batted .300, appearing in 40 games.

She was one for two in the 1995 final against Arizona. But that game is now best known for the controversy sparked by UCLA pitcher Tanya Harding, the tournament’s most valuable player.

The right-hander from Australia, who joined the Bruins at midseason, packed her bags and returned to her country days after the championship. She didn’t bother to take her final exams or complete her only semester at UCLA.

The Bruins have since drawn criticism from those who believe Harding was brought in as a hired gun.

“I knew if we won, people would be kind of sore about it,” said Mike, Harding’s roommate. “All I know is it was all legal. Tanya told me they were trying to get her ever since she was old enough to go to college.”

Mike is not afraid to speak out on delicate subjects. She also has an opinion about Darwin Tolzin, her coach at Camarillo who was recently dismissed because of events stemming from an illegal workout with a player.

“I didn’t think it was very fair, actually,” Mike said. “I don’t know all the rules. But I’m sure a lot of coaches, almost all of them, do that and don’t get caught.

“Darwin’s a great coach and [Camarillo] should have done what they could to keep him there.”

*

Kevin Nykoluk has been playing the waiting game since arriving home Saturday night from Seminole, Okla.

The former Simi Valley High and Moorpark College catcher spent his sophomore year behind the plate for Seminole Junior College. He was lured to the Sooner State by a scholarship from one of the nation’s top junior college programs.

Nykoluk, who also played first base, led the Trojans with a .389 batting average, including 15 doubles and six home runs. He ranked among team leaders in runs (53) and runs batted in (50) for Seminole (52-6-1), which was ranked as high as second by the National Junior College Athletic Assn.

The Trojans also earned a berth in the JUCO World Series, making the trip to Grand Junction, Colo., for a record-tying 10th time. Playing before sellout crowds of nearly 7,000, Seminole was 1-2 in the 10-team double-elimination tournament, losing to eventual champion Middle Georgia.

Nykoluk received a healthy dose of what he sought in Oklahoma--exposure to college and professional scouts. Although he was not selected in last week’s amateur baseball draft and has yet to sign with a four-year school, Nykoluk has no regrets about leaving Moorpark after one season to play nearly 1,500 miles from home.

The highlight of the season was the trip to Grand Junction, where fans treated the players like celebrities.

“The stands were packed every night and little kids kept asking us for our caps and our wrist bands and our batting gloves,” he said. “It was a real nice experience.

“I’m glad I went to Oklahoma. It was definitely worth going.”

Nykoluk has yet to decide where or if he will play baseball this summer while he completes work for his Associate of Arts degree at Moorpark. But he has no doubts about his destination next season: a Division I college.

“I will be playing Division I next year, I just don’t know where,” he said.

“I just want to play with a team that has a chance to go to [the College World Series] and I want to help them do it.”

* Contributing: John Lynch.