SEATTLE — She was supposed to be the one who would step into the huge cleats of Danielle Lawrie.
Instead, Keilani Ricketts may have the distinction of being the one who made the best softball player in University of Washington history walk off the mound for the final time.
Once recruited by UW as a possible Lawrie replacement, Ricketts opted instead to attend the University of Oklahoma. That means the freshman left-hander will have a chance to finish off the Huskies and their senior star when the two teams play a best-of-three NCAA super-regional beginning tonight.
“It’s weird just coming back here and being on a different team,” Ricketts said Wednesday outside of the UW softball complex. “I think it’s just exciting being able to play one of the top teams in the country. We know it’s going to be a challenge going after them.”
The Huskies already know a little about OU’s freshman southpaw, and not just because she was a UW recruit. Ricketts faced the Huskies in late February and got tagged for three home runs in a 7-4 loss to UW.
“They’re a very disciplined team,” Ricketts said Wednesday. “They’re really smart hitters, so it’s tough to pitch around them.”
Washington coach Heather Tarr downplayed the significance of that game, saying it was too early in the season to take much from it.
“You’re not trying to win the World Series on Feb. (26),” Tarr said of the only other meeting between the teams this season. “They’re an accomplished program, and I’m pretty sure they weren’t losing any sleep over losing to us in the way that they did.”
During a stellar career at San Jose’s Mitty High School, the 6-foot-2 Ricketts was named ESPN prep player of the year and emerged as one of the most sought-after recruits in the Class of 2009. UW, Florida, Cal, UCLA and Texas A&M were among the final schools on her list, but Ricketts opted for OU because that’s where her older sister, Samantha, played and currently serves as a graduate assistant.
“I really liked Washington a lot,” Ricketts said Wednesday, “but one of the main things was having my sister there (at Oklahoma) to help me out.”
UW’s Tarr said that facing a girl she once recruited is nothing new. College softball is the proverbial small world, and top programs typically go after the same small circle of talent.
“We recruit against UCLA all the time, and Arizona and Oklahoma and Alabama and Florida,” Tarr said. “It always happens. And I’m sure it happens on the other side, too. I know Nebraska recruited Danielle (Lawrie) heavily, and so did Alabama.”
The Huskies did add a pitcher to this year’s freshman class in Longview native Baily Harris, who went 9-4 with a 3.71 ERA this season while Lawrie was resting her arm. Harris is likely to battle incoming freshman Kaitlin Inglesby of Portland for the honor of filling Lawrie’s cleats as the primary starter next season.
Thankfully for the Huskies, the “next” Danielle Lawrie won’t need to be anointed anytime soon. The senior pitcher still has some college eligibility, and she fully intends to continue using it well into next week. Lawrie said Wednesday that thoughts of playing her final game at UW haven’t crept into her mind.
“When I’m done, I’m done,” she said. “I’ve seen so many players get consumed over: ‘Oh, man, this could be my last game here.’ The bottom line is, I’m satisfied with my career here, and I still see some great things to happen in the next week-and-a-half.”
No matter what happens, Lawrie will go down as the best softball player — and possibly the best athlete — in UW history. She already has one national-player-of-the-year trophy and an NCAA championship, and both are well within her reach again this season. The right-hander from Langley, B.C., was named as one of three finalists for the NCAA player of the year on Wednesday — a surprise to absolutely no one.
If Lawrie is named the repeat winner of the award next week, she will become UW’s first two-time winner of that award in any sport — as far as the school’s records show. It’s safe to say that she may well be the best athlete the Huskies have ever had in any sport.
Tarr, much like Lawrie herself, is too focused on the next two weeks to start ranking her pitcher among the all-time greats.
“We’re still in the moment right now that we’re not in position to start planning banquets and writing down accolades and putting numbers on the outfield wall with retired jerseys,” the Huskies’ coach said. “We’ve still got a goal in mind, and we’ve got great players, and we’ll see what happens.”
In softball circles, Lawrie is starting to be mentioned alongside some of the sport’s all-time best players. On Wednesday, OU coach Patty Gasso called her “probably — no, definitely — one of the best pitchers to ever play this game.”
Gasso added: “She could possibly be the two-time player of the year, which is the ultimate honor. Besides the fact that she’s an outstanding pitcher, she’s a fantastic hitter. She’s just a complete player. You look back at someone like Lisa Fernandez, who threw and also hit; she’s that kind of athlete. And they don’t come around very often.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
