This Long Beach State Team Maintains Softball Tradition

Well be- fore the 1998 softball season got under way, Long Beach State Coach Pete Manarino knew he was going to face perhaps one of the biggest challenges in his 15 years of coaching. Only four starters were returning from a team that won the last two Big West Conference titles, and he had lost all of his starting pitchers to graduation.

Still, expectations remain high for a program that has had 14 consecutive winning seasons.

“We have always had a good reputation here,” Manarino said. “We’ve played in 10 regional championships and have had five College World Series appearances, so the standards here are pretty high.”

So far, Long Beach State, despite its youth, is continuing its winning tradition.

The 49ers’ three-pitcher rotation consists of two freshmen and a sophomore transfer from Virginia. Four other freshmen are in the starting lineup.

“Coming in, I wasn’t sure how things would materialize,” Manarino said. “I knew we needed to fill some positions, so we brought in a new group of freshmen. And you never know when you put together a new team how well they will jell.”

With the new faces, the 49ers have a surprising 23-9-2 record and are ranked 13th in the nation.

If Manarino was unsure how the season would play out, he got a glimpse of just how good his team could be in the first three tournaments of the season.

At Arizona State, Long Beach State was tied with No. 1 Arizona late in their game before losing, 2-1. Although the 49ers lost, they showed they could play with any team in the country.

The following weekend, Long Beach State won the San Diego State tournament, beating No. 2 Michigan and No. 15 UCLA along the way.

At Cal State Fullerton, the 49ers swept two games from No. 14 Stanford, rallying in both, and finished the tournament at 5-1.

The momentum carried over to Big West conference action the next week.

In a doubleheader against Cal State Northridge, the preseason favorite, the 49ers won the first game, 7-4, and were tied in the second, 4-4, when darkness halted play.

Since, Manarino’s team has matured into a competitive, experienced and talented softball team.

“I’m very proud of this team,” he said. “I like the fight in them. We’ve come back three or four times already this year, and they seem to never give up. That’s a good sign when you have a young team.”

The 49ers’ success is not a one- or two-player story. Everybody in the lineup is contributing.

After their first 33 games, seven of 11 players with 30 or more at-bats were hitting better than .250, and seven had at least 10 runs batted in. Junior center fielder Melanie Muniz leads the team with a .377 batting average and is 10 for 10 in stolen bases.

But the real strength of the team may be on the mound.

Freshman Traci Hensel (10-4, 1.49 earned-run average) and sophomore transfer Kristi Fox (10-3, 1.28), are pitching well beyond expectations. However, Hensel will be out at least three weeks after breaking her ribs during a fall down a dormitory stairwell last week. Freshman Kelly Nasrawi (3-1, 1.44 ERA) moved up to the No. 2 spot in the rotation and won her next two starts.

In the field, shortstop Deidra Oliver and second baseman Amanda Favorite, playing their third season together, might be the best combination in the country. They lead a defense that has given up more than four runs only five times and are in the team’s top five in batting.

“I knew we had good student-athletes on this team, it was just a matter of which players were going to be thrown in the mix,” Manarino said. “But if someone told me at the beginning of the year that we would be [ranked high] in the country, I’d say I would be a little surprised.”

But among the players, confidence is growing fast.

“I think we’re starting to have that team camaraderie, we’re starting to play well as a team,” Hensel said. “And I think we’re going to get better.”