Army marches on behind softball player from Hawai'i
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
You're down to your last strike of the Patriot League championship softball game with your No. 9 batter at the plate, and she is oh-for-the doubleheader.
Start bagging your bats?
Not if that batter is Army senior Michelle Parrish, a 1998 Moanalua High School graduate from Kane'ohe.
Parrish, a four-year starting left fielder for the Black Knights, hit a two-strike double to drive in the tying run.
"I knew it was going to be an outside pitch because she was pitching me there all day," Parrish said. "I took a couple of deep breaths and I flipped my bat out at it.
"Thank god, it fell in just the right place, kind of a bloop behind third base on the left-field line."
Moments later, Parrish raced home on another two-strike hit, by Bianca Brito, to give Army a 2-1 walk-off victory over Lehigh Saturday and an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
She crossed home plate and just kept running until her teammates mobbed her, Army spokeswoman Mady Salvani said. "What a day for all of us, especially our seven seniors," Parrish said.
"You couldn't have written a script any better," Army coach Jim Flowers said. "She's gritty as nails, like she was taught at home and learned here. She plays with her heart, mind and soul."
The run was the 82nd of Parrish's career and moved her to No. 3 on Army's runs scored list. Her name dots Army's career lists: fourth in at-bats (458), second in games played (169), second in bases on balls (52) and eighth in doubles (16).
"She's been a leader since she arrived," Flowers said. "She will be a great lieutenant." (After basic training this summer, Lt. Parrish will be stationed in Germany for three years.)
Parrish is nearly flawless in the classroom. Her grade-point average is 3.77 (art, philosophy and literature major) and she was Hawai'i's finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship last December.
She has been nearly flawless in the outfield, too, with four errors in 130 starts in the last three years.
Her batting average is a career-high .265 (27-for-102) in 42 games this year, one point over last season. She ranked in the top 10 in the Patriot League in batting (.359 in 17 games) and on-base average (.432).
MORE SOFTBALL
• St. Andrews Presbyterian (N.C.)
Four players from Hawai'i accounted for more than half of the team's total hits this season.
Senior first baseman Stacy Makahilahila (Kamehameha '98, of Kailua), sophomore pitcher-outfielder Tina Gonsalves (Sacred Hearts '00, of Kailua), freshman shortstop Mari Finn (Lahainaluna '01), and sophomore second baseman Kim Makahilahila (Kamehameha '00, of Kailua) combined for 184 hits.
The other eight St. Andrew's players got 167.
Stacy Makahilahila was chosen first-team All-Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference, earned academic all-conference, was chosen the team's Most Valuable Player, and last week received the Peanut Doak as St. Andrews' Outstanding Senior Athlete (male or female).
She and Gonsalves were picked on the conference championship tournament all-star team.
Makahilahila led St. Andrews in batting for the second year at .400 (50-for-122 in 43 games). She also led in on-base average (.483) and stolen bases (13 in 14 tries).
"Stacy is irreplaceable. She's by far the most talented player in the conference," St. Andrews coach Stevan Hernandez said. Although she has a year of eligibility remaining, Makahilahila will graduate Saturday and come home to get married and go to graduate school at Hawai'i Pacific.
Batting statistics for the rest of the Hawai'i players were:
Gonsalves .333 (53-for-159 in 52 games) with team-leading 15 doubles, team-leading five home runs, team-leading 31 RBIs and team-leading .522 slugging percentage.
Finn .320 (47-for-147 in 49 games) with team-leading 31 runs scored.
Kim Makahilahila .312 (34-for-109 in 45 games).
The Makahilahila sisters had the best fielding averages among infielders (Kim .969 and Stacy .955).
Gonsalves led the team's pitchers in starts (28) and innings pitched (187¡). She had a 3.40 earned run average and 12-18 record.
After an 8-22 start, during which Stacy Makahilahila missed nine games with a sprained right ankle, St. Andrews won 15 of its last 22 games.
• Northern Colorado
Freshman Jana Pintz was the Bears' designated hitter most of the season and she fulfilled the title. Pintz (Kailua '01, of Waimanalo) tied for the team lead in batting average at .373 (44-for-118), had a .551 slugging average with four home runs, and led in on-base average (.448) in 39 games.
Pintz had the second-highest batting average among freshmen in the NCAA Division II North Central Conference and was eighth overall.
• Puget Sound (Wash.)
Senior Jen Itano (Punahou '98, of Kailua) improved her batting average 77 points and more than doubled her RBI output this season and was rewarded Monday when coaches chose her as a first-team All-Northwest Conference outfielder.
Itano "had the best year of any of our players," coach Robin Hamilton said. "She improved in every facet of her game. She established herself as a top outfielder (converted from second base) with a strong arm and great range.
"She had a fantastic offensive season, hitting .316 with 22 RBIs, the third best on the team. In 2001, she hit .239 with 10 RBIs.
"Her leadership was a key to our 23-win season," Hamilton said. Itano, a scholar-athlete (above 3.5 GPA), will attend graduate school in a doctoral program for pharmacology.
• All-SCIAC
Junior first baseman Leah Au of Occidental and freshman second baseman Courtney Cho of Redlands were named to the second-team All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team.
Au (Kamehameha '99, of Salt Lake) batted .373 (22-for-59) in 23 games.
Cho (Kamehameha '01, of 'Aiea) led Redlands in nearly every offensive category. She was No. 1 in batting average at .387 (41-for-106), slugging average (.443), on-base average (.440), hits (41), runs (20) and stolen bases (11-for-13). She fielded .979 (three errors in 140 chances) at second base in 34 games.
"I've never seen Courtney without a smile on her face," Redlands coach Amanda Peterson said. "We had a lot of freshmen and she unified the girls."
