Come to think of it, hitting's not that hard, says Eldredge
By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Kaleo Eldredge doesn't need to think twice about her hitting philosophy.
University of California photo
"When you're up to bat, don't think about what pitch is coming, just react to it," said the junior center fielder for California. "Don't think about mechanics, go out there and do what you practice."
Baldwin graduate Kaleo Eldredge leads California to the College Softball World Series.
It seems to be working for Eldredge, who led the Golden Bears to their sixth straight Women's College Softball World Series appearance. It begins tomorrow in Oklahoma City at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Eldredge is the only player from Hawai'i whose team is in the tournament.
California plays Florida State at 3:30 p.m. HST, and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
Eldredge, a 2001 graduate of Baldwin from Kahului, Maui, is second on the team in batting with a .350 average. She has 55 hits, including nine doubles, seven home runs and 30 RBIs.
She was named to the Pac-10 and Pacific All-Region first teams, and was selected to the NCAA Region 5 All-Tournament Team after helping the Bears win four straight games to capture the region's World Series berth.
California defeated host Nebraska twice in Lincoln, something Eldredge said helped prepare the team for the World Series.
"Since they are a good team, they prepared us physically," she said.
And, Eldredge added, "the fans prepared us mentally" for what they'll encounter in Oklahoma City. "They were really nice, but there was a lot of them. They were so loud."
Another thing she finds in California's favor is that the field includes three other Pac-10 schools: Stanford, UCLA and Washington. Michigan, LSU and Oklahoma complete the field.
"Every Pac-10 game we played during conference, it feels like a World Series game," Eldredge said. "We all know each other, and that is more of a comfort; we know what the hitters have, we know what they've got."
Eldredge started as a freshman when California won its first World Series title two years ago. She said that experience helps her prepare her younger teammates for this week's tournament.
"I try to tell them not to be nervous, because when you're nervous you're tight, and when you're tight, you can't play well," she said.
But Eldredge isn't an old pro at everything, as she found out this past week.
She was watching a game between Creighton and Nebraska in the regionals when the announcer told the crowd to leave the park.
"He was like, everybody needs to go and get in their cars," Eldredge said. "All of a sudden there was lightning and thunder, and pouring rain. The people were like, 'There might be a tornado, you might hear the sirens'. The only time I've ever seen a tornado is in the movie, 'Twister.' "
She said after the regionals, the team decided to drive from Lincoln to Oklahoma City Monday, because "we didn't want to take any chances," with being held over, which had been happening recently.
"That was the longest bus ride in my life," she said of the eight-hour drive.
It got worse. At 8 a.m. yesterday, a tornado warning was triggered accidentally at the hotel, waking up the players.
"I finally got up and we were about to go down (the stairs), and they told us it was an accident," Eldredge said. "That scared us and we didn't want to go back to sleep afterwards."
She said all the inconveniences will not bother her in tomorrow's game.
"Once I step onto the field, I just blank everything out," she said.
That tactic came from advice she received from her father, Keith, when she was a freshman at Baldwin.
"When I was younger I used to just have fun," Eldredge said. "As I got more intense my dad used to tell me not to think, just go out there, and that's my thing now, not to think, to just do it."
Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.
