UW softball makes debut under the lights

SEATTLE — The first time Heather Tarr saw a University of Washington softball home game in person, it was under the lights.

Sixteen years later, she’ll finally do it again.

Tarr, the Huskies’ 34-year-old head coach, will lead her top-ranked team into its first night game in well over a decade when UW hosts Miami of Ohio at 5 p.m. in the opening game of the four-day Husky Softball Classic.

Thanks to donations from alumni, the UW softball complex has lights for the first time in the program’s history. The last time the Huskies played night games, their home was Hidden Valley Sports Park in Bellevue.

That’s where Tarr, as a senior at Redmond High School, took in a UW game as a fan.

“I remember it being a pretty electric environment,” said Tarr, who eventually signed with UW and played for the Huskies before taking over as head coach of her alma mater in 2005. “We’re hoping to get that same kind of electricity (tonight).”

The wattage may be tempered a bit when the Huskies (17-1) make history tonight, if only because a good percentage of the school’s athletic department is in Los Angeles for the Pac-10 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Because so many department officials are gone, UW won’t ceremonially commemorate the softball complex’s lights until the April 1 Pac-10 opener against UCLA.

But tonight’s game will certainly be a monumental moment for a program that has had to exclusively play home games during the day for so much of its existence.

“We always felt like we weren’t somewhat complete,” Tarr said.

After tonight, only two of the Pac-10’s eight softball programs will have complexes without lights: Oregon State and Cal. The feature will allow UW to schedule three-game homestands — something that wasn’t possible when only day games were available — and cut down on the class time missed by the players.

“That’s actually good,” sophomore infielder Niki Williams said. “Missing classes sucks. A lot of people would prefer it, but it’s so much easier when you don’t have to make the work up.”

Williams, who was recently named the Pac-10 player of the week, is looking at tonight’s game as an historic event for the program.

“I think it’s going to be incredible,” she said. “It’s not even the lights; it’s the meaning behind them. It’s about everyone that’s been here over the years.

“Everyone that’s been a part of this program has been a part of getting these lights. It’s not like it just happened overnight.”

Tarr is hoping that the night games help attract more of the student body to softball games, especially on Friday and Saturday nights.

“They’ve been inclined to go to more basketball games and have supported the volleyball team” on weekend nights, Tarr said, “so I hope we can get more of that crowd.”

Just as attractive as the new lights is a program that’s been under the national spotlight for nine months. Since winning their first NCAA title last June, the Huskies have continued to hold a No. 1 ranking nationally.

“We definitely can’t play the underdog card anymore,” Tarr said of the Huskies’ new role as defending national champion. “People can’t forget who they’re playing.

“But that could be an advantage (for the Huskies), too, because it puts pressure on (opponents) when they’re playing the No. 1 team. There have been teams trying to play harder, and that doesn’t always work out for them.”

UW returned its biggest weapon from last season in ace Danielle Lawrie. The senior pitcher is 12-0 this season with 133 strikeouts in 78 innings. With two strikeouts tonight, she would become just the eighth pitcher in NCAA history to record 1,500 in a career.

Lawrie, the reigning national player of the year, also has a team-high nine home runs and has allowed just 33 hits in 13 starts — 11 of which were complete games.

“Danielle had that extra year to grow and mature and learn,” Tarr said of the reigning national player of the year. “That year really helped her. Now she’s near the peak of her career. Last year, she was just peaking, and now she’s even beyond that. It’s fun to watch.”

The ever-growing legion of softball fans who want to watch Lawrie and the Huskies in person will finally get a chance tonight, in the first home game of the 2010 season.

It could be said that the lights will be on them.

“We take a lot of pride in what we do and what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Tarr said. “We’re excited to show Seattle who we are and what we’re all about.”

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