Cornerstone

Soon after Coach Peter Ackermann was hired in May to start the softball program at Oaks Christian High, he had questions.

Would there be enough girls to field a team?

With only freshmen and sophomores, would the Lions play a varsity or junior varsity schedule in their first season?

“I would come in and ask the registrar if there were any girls interested in softball,” Ackermann said.

“Then when I saw Ashlee Freeman’s name, and found out it was a 10th-grade transfer, I knew exactly what level we were going to play at.”

Ackermann found some answers in Freeman, a sophomore transfer from Chaminade who is among the most talented pitchers in the region.

The 16-year-old right-hander with the jumping riseball first caught Ackermann’s eye as a youth player. He liked her then, raves about her now.

“Anybody who knows softball knows that the person standing 40 feet from the plate controls the game,” Ackermann said. “And I’ve been blessed to have as good a one in the circle as there is around right now.”

Freeman’s dominance has helped ease the growing pains of a mostly inexperienced varsity team. Six players had never played and some didn’t know on which hand to wear the glove.

But when your pitcher has 171 strikeouts and allowed only 25 hits and one earned run in 85 innings, you can hide the novices.

Freeman (10-2), who is batting .550 with a .925 slugging percentage, is everything a coach could want in a pitcher.

“And more,” said Ackermann, who coached successful teams at Newbury Park from 1994-99.

“Ashlee Freeman could pitch in the Marmonte League and do very well.”

She is selfless on and off the field, Ackermann said, a generous tutor to the new players.

Freeman is so talented that a former coach once dubbed her the next Maureen LeCocq, the former Chaminade ace who pitches for Stanford.

But the polite and well-spoken Freeman escaped that comparison when she left Chaminade after an injury-riddled freshman season.

She was splitting pitching time with Christina Lupacchini and playing second base and shortstop before pulling a groin muscle.

“We were practicing late one night and it was dark,” Freeman said. “I couldn’t see a ball that was thrown and I went up at the last minute and heard something [pop].”

Freeman stopped pitching but continued to play despite the pain.

But days later, doctors and Don Sarno, Freeman’s pitching coach, urged her to stop playing.

“With the doctor’s advice and Don’s advice, I decided to rest it,” Freeman said.

Freeman said the decision created an awkward situation between herself and Coach Steve Harrington, who resigned after last season.

“There was a miscommunication between the coach and myself and the team as to the extent of the injury,” Freeman said.

Harrington said Freeman’s injury was a distraction.

“I was pretty much baffled by the whole thing,” Harrington said. “One day she pitched, the next day she was hurt. But no one told me.”

Freeman continued to support teammates at practices and games, but by midseason she and her parents went looking for another school.

“We just decided to look around and see what was out there,” Freeman said.

Once Freeman’s mother toured Oaks Christian and described the new campus to Ashlee, the decision was all but made.

“I fell in love with this school,” said Freeman, one of 159 students at Oaks Christian. “It’s kind of fun to think that you’re getting something started. Like you’re leading the way.”

Freeman, who will be in the first graduating class in 2003, is doing exactly that at the 18-acre campus.

Oaks Christian has outscored opponents, 79-23, and recently won the Lincoln tournament, beating several schools with enrollments 10 times larger.

On Wednesday, Freeman threw a no-hitter, her third, and struck out 19 against Inglewood in a 9-0 victory.

A day earlier, Freeman pitched a two-hitter and struck out nine in a 3-1 nonleague loss to El Camino Real, the region’s best City Section team. Not a bad outing for the little school with the big pitcher.

“I’m so fortunate to find a kid like this to build a program with,” Ackermann said.

Although Freeman might never get the chance to compete regularly against larger schools with established programs or with teammates of her caliber, she isn’t concerned. She’s content.

“Everyone is improving a lot and working really hard,” she said. “For the caliber of our team, we’re in competitive games.

“No regrets whatsoever. I am ecstatic to be here.”