Taking a Peek Into a Unique Baseball Career

Crystl Bustos. Jenny Dalton. Nancy Evans. Cara Blumfield.

Superior softball players who first honed their skills on a baseball diamond, excelling against boys.

None wanted to switch to softball. But each reluctantly gave way to peer pressure and, well, reason.

Years later, Amanda Peek of La Crescenta is fighting the same battle.

And, by all accounts, winning easily.

Peek, 12, has convinced her baseball coaches since she was 8 with her arm strength and an explosive bat.

“She can be as good as she wants to be,” said Dan Mulcahey, Peek’s Little League coach the last three years.

“Her mindset is to play baseball and to be good at baseball.”

Mulcahey said Peek is probably the best youth player he has coached in 26 years.

Best pitcher. Best catcher. Best hitter. Bar none.

“She could probably be the best shortstop, too, but I need her to pitch and catch,” Mulcahey said.

Mulcahey had his eye on Peek long before she joined Crescenta Valley Little League three years ago.

“She was my top draft pick when she was 10,” he said.

Since then, Peek has made a name for herself.

She was 13-0 with 119 strikeouts this season and was the only girl to play baseball for Crescenta Valley Little League.

She was also a pitcher’s nightmare, getting intentionally walked at least a couple dozen times, Mulcahey said. A .507 batting average, 11 doubles and eight home runs in 24 games can have that effect on pitchers.

But as Peek approaches her teens--and boys start catching up to her athletically--will she be able to maintain the pace?

Her baseball coaches are betting she can.

“I see Amanda trying out for the baseball team [in high school],” said J.C. Cabrera, Peek’s travel baseball coach the past four years.

“I wouldn’t doubt that she will make the baseball team wherever she chooses to play.”

With another year to go before she enters high school, Peek will have ample time to mull over the big question: baseball or softball?

She will get a lot of input whether she asks for it or not.

“Everybody talks about it all the time,” said Wilda Peek, Amanda’s mother. “She’ll hit the ball hard and some mother will say, ‘Hey, that’s great, good for her,’ and the father will say, ‘When does she start softball?’ ”

Peek, who is in Hutchinson, Kan., competing this week in the U.S. Specialty Sports Assn. World Series for 12-and-under majors, has been hearing those things for years. And she has gotten “bent out of shape” over it on occasion, her mother said.

But more often, it’s a nonissue.

“She doesn’t talk about it,” Wilda Peek said. “All she wants to do is play ball.”

For now, her choice is clear.

“She says she hates softball,” said Cabrera, coach of the Sun Valley Park Bums.

Peek played one season of softball when she was 8 because her parents were uncertain if she would be able to compete in baseball. She played for the Little Darlings, but she doesn’t want that getting around.

“She always says, ‘You can’t tell them that, they’ll all think I’m soft,’ ” Wilda Peek said.

But coaches say “soft” is not a word anyone would use if they saw Peek play.

“She holds her own against everyone,” Mulcahey said.

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A recent 16-and-under softball game between the Southern California Diamonds and Santa Clarita Kaos showcased Chaminade High’s options for replacing ace Maureen LeCocq next season.

The Diamonds’ Christina Lupacchini outdueled Ashley Freeman, winning a 2-1 decision.

Lupacchini, who was 2-3 last spring while LeCocq recovered from a dislocated shoulder, will be a sophomore in the fall.

Freeman, an incoming freshman and former teammate of Lupacchini, will battle for Chaminade’s top pitching spot, or at least force a two-pitcher rotation.

“If you’ve got two talented pitchers who can throw, they should,” said Ray Lupacchini, Christina’s father.

“It’s an interesting tactic. But [Steve Harrington] is a real smart coach. I’m anticipating that he will use these two kids wisely.”