Bittersweet Selection

It is a bittersweet day.

Throughout the weekend, we held out hope that the NCAA selection gods would shine upon the Pacific softball program and give the Boxers an at-large berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

We knew it would be a tough sell. Two losses in the final weekend to Whitworth at home really hurt, but we hoped that the committee would be swayed by a victory over No. 24 Willamette and another over No. 4 Linfield in a pair of rain delayed match-ups.

We hoped that an impressive 31-9 record and a 20-8 mark in a conference that boasts the defending Division III champion would be enough to send the Boxers to the regional in Tyler, Texas.

Alas, the word came down Monday morning. Pacific will be packing their bags for home for the summer, not for Tyler.

The odds for the Boxers were stacked against them. Those two losses to Whitworth surely didn't help and probably set the dagger. One of the region's power conferences, the American Southwest, had two top-five nationally ranked programs and ended up with three teams in the tournament field. In addition, La Verne pulled a quick one, winning the SCIAC Conference Tournament over regular season champion Redlands. They earned an automatic qualifier with a less than sparking 27-17 record.

And no matter what the Boxers did, they seemed to earn no respect with national or regional raters. The NFCA never gave the Boxers a sniff in the Division III Top-25 Poll, not a vote. For most of the year, the majority of teams on the poll had worse records than Pacific. The ultimate insult: Willamette earning a No. 24 ranking two weeks ago despite losing to Pacific three out of four times. Playing in the same conference as the defending national champion? That didn't help either.

It's a bittersweet day for me. I was hoping to see the Boxers get selected to send off a core of seniors who have sacrificed a ton to make Pacific a winner again. There is Caitlin Mastenbroek, the fiery team leader who Coach Tim Hill has called his extension on the field. She started every possible game of her career at catcher. I can think of no other student I have seen in my nine years at Pacific who so typifies a team leader.

There is Andrea Bansen, who physically and emotionally sacrificed to make herself better for the good of the team. Her physical transformation over the last year has been amazing and has made her not only a better pitcher, but a better person overall. Earlier this season, she gave me a bad time about a picture from last year that I put on one of the first game programs of the season. She had a double chin in the shot...she doesn't now. I teased her throughout the season about that in good fun, but more as an honor of what she had done. I wish I had that kind of fortitude and will power.

There is Amy Walters, the former Oregon 4A Player of the Year who nearly gave up the sport when the rigors of being a full scholarship Division I player soured her on the game. She moved back west and Hill, her former ASA softball coach, convinced her to come back to the sport and play for Pacific. If she had kept pitching, I am convinced that she would have been an All-American this year. As it was, Amy preferred to play the field and enjoy just playing the game for her final two years. She has been a quiet, but vital team leader over the last three years.

How important has Amy been to Tim Hill? In his office, he has a framed Softball Magazine cover featuring a 10-year-old winding up for a pitch. The little girl is Amy. the two could very well have been father and daughter. They are that close.

There is also Kim Whittaker. The consumate role-player, "Kimmi" (as she is known on the team) could have folded her tent when she lost her starting shortstop role to Alicia Hawes in 2007. Instead, she converted to the outfield, continued to start and continued to contribute as a key member of the program. Unassuming on the field, she is as much of a team leader as the other three seniors. On senior day, Hill said he wished he could have a team of Kim Whittakers. I can understand why.

Then there is Tim Hill himself, an amazing coach who is an even better man. This class of seniors was so special that he wanted to speak on the field about each one on senior did. He did, and prompting left the field. I found him later in the storage room off of the Boxers' third base dugout, crying his eyes out in the arms of his wife. As much as it is about winning softball games, to Tim it is more about the people he coaches.

It is also bittersweet for me because of what could have been. In my nine years at Pacific, I have only had one chance to follow one of our teams to the postseason. The Boxers' men's basketball team advanced to the first round in 2000, but a trip to Lewis & Clark College doesn't really count as a big trip.

I was looking forward to a chance to experience the atmopshere of a regional tournament in a site away from home. I was looking forward to the chance to write and broadcast that experience back to fans, parents and the Pacific Community. That chance will have to wait another year. Considering Pacific softball, however, I have a feeling we will be holding our breath again next year waiting for the committee to come through again.

Hopefully the Northwest Conference will earn a little more respect next year. We certainly deserve it.