Unfinished Business

Jaime Clark, Lauren Schwendimann and Eryn Manahan have played softball together since they were 8 years old. They have grown into high school seniors together at Foothill and know each other like sisters.

When they were 11, they played for the Tustin Bobby Sox all-star team that won a national championship. They made a pact to win a Southern Section softball championship for Foothill High.

“That’s exactly where we developed the attitude that we expect to win,” Clark said. “When you’re 11 and nobody can even touch you, why would you want it any different?”

Foothill Coach Joe Gonzalez says the Tustin Bobby Sox days “come up all the time” during his team’s practices.

“I can tell you, the year we beat Mater Dei in the semifinals [1997],” he said, “the first thing those kids did was go hug each other.”

But Foothill, seeded No. 1, lost in the final to an unseeded team, Upland, 3-1.

Last year, seeded second, Foothill lost in the quarterfinals to a wild-card team, Chino Hills Ayala.

“The greatest achievement out there is winning CIF,” Schwendimann said. “The ranking is what people think of you. The actual winning of the championship is what makes you the best team. Ultimately, playing, winning and achieving is what you want.

“You don’t want people thinking you’re the best, you want to be the best.”

Three years ago, Gonzalez called them the program’s best group of freshmen in six years. As seniors, their time has come.

“There’s no limit to how good this team can be,” Schwendimann said. “It has a lot of experience, a lot of incoming talent. Every year you’re hoping to win, but I think this year really is our year.

“You can feel it on the field. You know everyone is working toward the same thing.”

Both pitchers, Schwendimann and Times’ All-Orange County player Courtney Fossatti, are back. The Knights feature speed (sophomore outfielder Erin Mobley) and power (sophomore first baseman Kristen Mann). Clark and Manahan are probably the county’s best double-play combination.

But the journey has taken each senior down a different road. Manahan is coming off her best season. Clark is coming off her worst. Schwendimann didn’t contribute the way she had hoped because of an injury. The fourth member of that Bobby Sox all-star team that played for Foothill, catcher Cheri Nierman, isn’t on the team this season.

Replacing Nierman might prove more difficult than replacing graduated left fielder Rosie Gustavson, who’s now at North Carolina, or third baseman Lindsay Fossatti (Fresno State). Catcher is the team’s biggest question.

“It’s weird, painful, not being able to see Cheri out there,” Manahan said. “We always talk to her, but it’s different without Cheri. We’ve been playing with her as long as we’ve been playing with each other.”

The three friends remaining on the team have already committed to different colleges. As their final season together begins there is still some unfinished business.

Tough Season

Clark never expected to be a high school standout so quickly. She broke Foothill’s single-season record for runs batted in during her freshman season, driving in 31.

The next year, she had 32.

Last year, she had six.

“I’ve always had the attitude that if you want something, there’s no reason why you can’t have it,” Clark said. “There’s no reason why you can’t work hard enough to attain it. I always looked to myself for that.

“It opened my eyes. Just because you want something doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It takes a little more than that.”

Like some luck. Or Lauren Bauer.

Bauer, now at Arizona, was Foothill’s leadoff batter during Clark’s first two seasons. A swift center fielder who batted .491, Bauer stole 41 bases and scored 44 runs during her senior season. Three times she was on The Times All-Orange County team, and with Bauer getting in position to score, Clark had the season of her life as a sophomore, batting .470. With 39 runs and 32 RBIs, Clark accounted for more scoring than any player in the county.

But inconsistency at the top of the order last season affected Clark’s production. Clark’s production fell further when she was moved to the leadoff spot.

“When you look at the statistics, that’s pretty accurate,” Clark said. “But when you’re out there every day, you’re trying to do something so hard, it just makes it harder for you. I want to do so well, and I’m going a million miles an hour, but I’m not going anywhere.

“It absolutely refueled my fire for this season.”

Clark batted only .208 last season with runners in scoring position. She was moved from third in the order to leadoff. She batted .259, scored 19 runs and had those six measly RBIs.

“I’ve been fortunate to have great players around me, so if I have a disastrous season, it doesn’t affect the team that much,” Clark said. “We look at what’s in front of us, and how can you not be excited?”

Having already signed with Washington, Clark comes into this season looking bigger and stronger.

“Jaime is going to be a monster this year,” Gonzalez said.

Big Year

While Clark struggled last season, Manahan picked up the slack. She batted .400 with runners in scoring position, and finished the season with a .345 average. She led the team with 19 RBIs and was named the Knights’ most valuable player.

“I went out there the same way I’ve always gone out there, with the same attitude, it just happened to go my way,” Manahan said. “Being a junior and with all the college recruiting, it worked out for me. Your junior year is the one [when] the colleges look at you.”

Manahan will play next season at California.

“Her strength has always been defense,” Gonzalez said. “We think she’s one of the top middle infielders around--she’s so quick with her release and so smart, and she’s got great range.

“In this county, it’s tough for a second baseman to get any significant recognition--you have to hit .400. If we say Eryn’s fielding average was .975, everyone asks, ‘What’d she hit?’ If you say she hit .255, they say, ‘That’s great, come back and see us when she’s done more.’ ”

And that’s what happened. Manahan had batted .255 as a sophomore and had 21 RBIs, but was overshadowed by Clark (32 RBIs) and Lindsay Fossatti (31 RBIs). Manahan’s fielding has remained spectacular. She committed only three errors in each of the last two seasons.

She had three doubles and two triples in 1997, but eight doubles and two triples in 1998, with a 90-point jump in batting average.

“It was a career year for her,” Gonzalez said. “She’s a great player. I think she’s going to be spectacular for us this year.”

Having played together for half their lifetimes, this final season is bittersweet.

“Being with Lauren and Jaime this year, it would mean so much to us to end our high school careers with one last championship,” Manahan said. “We’re going to go to our own colleges and we’ll never play on the same team again.”

Actually, it will be about four weeks before they play this season: Manahan is to have arthroscopic surgery today on her left knee to repair a torn meniscus, the same injury Schwendimann had last season.

Ready to Go

Schwendimann’s injury prevented her from being the player she wanted to be.

The pitcher who is the brunt of jokes, who is not only laughed at but laughed with, was an unwitting accomplice in making the Knights better in the long run.

She had arthroscopic knee surgery in February 1998, and while she was on the mend, Foothill turned to freshman Courtney Fossatti.

“She wanted to be a bigger contributor than she was last year,” Gonzalez said of Schwendimann. “[Her injury] opened the door for Courtney and that helped us. It made us stronger for this season.”

Schwendimann didn’t wallow in self-pity or resentment.

“I was focused on the immediate next step, on physical therapy,” said Schwendimann, who played for the basketball team last season. “First, I was worried about basketball. But once I realized surgery was needed, I thought I should have it right away. . . . Maybe I didn’t do as well as my potential, but I wasn’t thinking about that.

“Since we have so many talented and experienced players--and [Foothill’s] history has been that there’s not one dominant player--it’s not really the pitcher’s responsibility to win games for the team. We take advantage of the defense we have, and we’re so aggressive on offense, it doesn’t leave it to be my responsibility to be the star.”

Schwendimann was used to having the spotlight pointed at her. As a sophomore, she gained the confidence of her coaches in the middle of the Century League season, then started all of Foothill’s playoff games, including the title game.

She went 13-1 with a 0.42 earned-run average, striking out 111 in 100 1/3 innings.

Last year, Schwendimann was 10-2 with a 0.48 ERA, striking out 120 in 87 innings--a solid season. However . . .

“There were times I was frustrated because I could do better, but for some reason it just didn’t happen,” Schwendimann said. “I didn’t come to realize until this year the difference in confidence I had between this year and last year.

“I don’t know if it’s because I’m more prepared--this is the first year I’ve ever only played softball, so maybe that prepared me. I do feel I have more confidence in my ability. Maybe it just comes with age, growing as a pitcher.”

She certainly showed maturity last season as Fossatti emerged. Fossatti made The Times all-county team, the Knights’ only representative. Fossatti, sister of former pitcher Lindsay Fossatti--the pitcher Schwendimann nudged out of the rotation as a sophomore--was 9-2 and, along with Mater Dei’s Marissa Young, had the county’s lowest ERA, 0.07.

“It’s funny how we’re competing pitchers but we get along so great,” Schwendimann said. “It’s nice to be on a team where there’s not that selfish ambition working against the overall goals of the team.”