Robitaille’s Improvement Highlights Titan Turnaround

Christy Robitaille’s freshman season as a pitcher for the Cal State Fullerton softball team fell below her expectations.

“I felt like I was a different person than the one they recruited,” Robitaille said. “I didn’t show what I was capable of.”

Robitaille went 86-16 in four seasons at Woodbridge High, but she finished 10-10 with a 2.99 earned-run average in her first season with the Titans.

This season, Robitaille is 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA in a team-high 27 appearances. She has seven complete games in 15 starts.

“She’s come a long way,” Titan Coach Michelle Gromacki said.

So have the Titans.

Fullerton is 34-11 and ranked 15th in the nation after finishing 36-29 last season. The Titans play a key three-game Big West Conference series at home against Cal State Northridge beginning Friday with a doubleheader at 5 p.m., followed by a single game on Saturday at 2 p.m. Northridge is in first place in the conference with a 13-2 record, and Fullerton and Long Beach State are tied for second with 9-3 records.

Fullerton enters the series with a team ERA of 1.78 compared to 2.95 last season. Robitaille and two other young pitchers--freshmen Jodie Cox (13-3, 1.59 ERA) and Gina Oaks (11-3, 1.86)--have played key roles in the improvement.

Last weekend, Robitaille earned two victories and a save in the Titans’ three-game Big West sweep over UC Santa Barbara.

In the first game of a doubleheader Saturday, she pitched four scoreless innings in relief, giving up one hit, to earn the victory as Fullerton won, 10-4. Then Robitaille started and won the second game, giving up two runs on five hits in 4 1/3 innings of a 7-2 victory. She earned her sixth save Sunday when Fullerton won, 6-3, holding the Gauchos to one hit in the final two innings.

“I think having one year under my belt has helped a lot,” Robitaille said. “I’m more confident.”

Gromacki, a former Titan assistant who took over as interim coach this season when Judi Garman retired, has seen the change.

“We believe success is built on confidence, and we’ve worked to build her confidence this season,” Gromacki said. “She’s matured so much as a pitcher. Her mental approach is so much better.”

Gromacki said there were times last season when Robitaille became frustrated with umpires’ calls.

“She had trouble dealing with that frustration, but this year she seems to have learned to adjust to those kinds of things,” Gromacki said. “She had a lot of walks last year, and she’s working on improving that.”

Robitaille said Gromacki’s experience as a catcher in college at Fullerton as well as for U.S. national teams has helped her develop as a pitcher.

“I know she wants me to be the best pitcher I can be, and she’ll do everything she can to help me get better,” Robitaille said. “She’s the one who recruited me, and she knows what I’m capable of.”

Robitaille chose Fullerton over Long Beach State, Nevada Las Vegas, Oklahoma State and Florida.

Robitaille said there is good camaraderie among the three pitchers.

“We try to help each other whenever we can,” Robitaille said. “If one of us isn’t pitching well on one day, we know one of the others will be able to come in and help us. There’s no competition between us. I think the chemistry is good for the entire team.”

Gromacki is pleased with the effort of all three pitchers.

“They’ve been a big factor for us,” Gromacki said. “We had a good hitting team last season, but we had trouble holding people.”