ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605200032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
SOME TEAMS in the NCAA Division III softball tournament believe rituals or some foods bring victory.
If you ask an NCAA Division III softball player what the most important ingredients are to winning a national championship, her response is likely to include green M&Ms, red-hot cinnamon fireballs and country line dancing. Hits, runs and strikeouts usually take care of themselves. It's the little things that require the most attention.
``When we pick up a recruit, the first thing they teach them is that dance,'' said Chapman (Calif.) co-head coach Lisle Lloyd, whose team is one of two here into country line dancing.
As players advance through their softball careers, they learn more dos and don'ts, superstitions and jinxes.
At Trenton (N.J.) State, players don't care about their pregame meals just as long as they include a green M&M candy. Andrea Grove, a Lions team manager, separates them from the pack - plain only - before each game.
``One takes it like a pill, and another one wants hers smooshed up,'' Grove said.
``We got the idea from a commercial from a long, long time ago,'' she said. ``A kid passes them out one by one and says, `Here, this color's for a single, this is a double,' and so on. Green ones are for home runs.''
Trenton State's players have long sweet teeth. During pregame warm-ups, if a player hits a whiffle ball back at coach Sally Miller, Miller has to make them dessert.
``They go crazy if they ever hit her,'' said assistant coach Tiffany Tootle. ``They get ice cream, whipped cream, the whole nine yards. Nothing easy.''
For Ithaca, the taste of success has a tart, cinnamony flavor. Atomic fireballs, the candied variety, help the Bombers account for big hits and runs. Ithaca's assistant coaches, trainer and sports information director put them in their mouths and they aren't allowed to take them out. ``When we need a hot-ball inning, we go to it,'' said Ithaca spokesman Bub Parker. ``We try not to do it too early.''
Parker estimated the fireballs accounted for five or six runs in the NCAA East Regional. But in the Bombers' first game Thursday against Simpson, the fireballs didn't go off. Maybe those bought at Valley View Mall don't pack enough punch.
Simpson (Iowa) and Wisconsin-Stevens Point say they don't have any superstitions. For Simpson, that's mainly because its archrival, Central (Iowa) takes the superstitions and routines to an extreme.
Central has a routine for every play, one of its pitchers has her own rake for the mound, and its shortstop does a dance after every pitch, which usually results in a delay of the game.
Another Central rule is that no one but the coach can touch the ball at the end of an inning. During a recent muddy meeting with Simpson, the ball wallowed in the mire, gaining damaging weight by the second.
Central's coach asked an assistant to pick it up, but the assistant said, ``No, I can't touch it.''
``We don't do any of those things,'' said Henry Christowski, Simpson's coach. ``We play ball and that's it.''
Stevens Point coach Dean Shuda, a longtime American Legion baseball coach, said he was shocked when he saw all the routines his Pointers did when he took over three years ago. ``I told them, `If it does something for you, fine. But I don't know what it does for you,''' he said.
So these days, the Pointers don't have any superstitions, sort of. Before their first game here, the players didn't want to do interviews because they believed doing too many before their conference tournament jinxed them.
As a team, Allegheny (Pa.) doesn't pay much attention to superstitions, but senior center fielder Abby Kennedy credits a superstition about the training room for giving her a pain-free career. Kennedy has never set foot in the Gators' training room and refuses to do so. ``She's never had an injury,'' said coach Deb Peffer.
Kennedy might take after her coach. As an undergraduate at Allegheny, Peffer tore the anterior cruciate ligaments in both knees, yet never had surgery.
Chapman, like Trenton and Ithaca, is wary of doing anything to injure its championship chances. Before last season's title game, Lloyd had worn the same outfit to every game. Then, on the day of the championship, he switched everything.
``They said, `Gosh, you're going to kill us,''' Lloyd said. ``But everything worked out all right, so now they don't care.''
The Panthers aren't about to give up their dancing, however.
``It's a spiritual thing,'' said sophomore pitcher Christy Guidorizzi. ``It gets the attention on us, and that's what we like.''
Friday's games
Simpson (Iowa) 2, Chapman (Calif.) 1: The Storm was down to its last strike in the top of the seventh inning when Chrissy Mathews hit a two-run homer to give Simpson the victory over the defending NCAA Division III champions.
``No Division III team has challenged us like that before,'' said Janet Lloyd, Chapman's co-coach. ``But if it has to happen, I'd rather it happen now than in the championship game.''
Simpson (31-8) plays Trenton (N.J.) State at 1 p.m. today.
Mathews, who was hitless since the regular season, went 1-for-2 with two runs batted in. Mathews' last previous hit, on April 21, also was a home run. Of Friday's blast, she said, ``When I hit it, it kind of squished a little.''
The Panthers' Kathy Donovan gave her team a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth with a single to left-center field that scored Jessamine Maiben.
Trenton (N.J.) State 1, Allegheny (Pa.) 0: The Lions advanced in the winner's bracket when Suzanne Merrill came home on an error by Gators shortstop Annie Lawrence.
Allegheny committed four errors in the game, compared with one for Trenton State (36-3). ``Defensively we played a good game,'' said Sally Miller, the Lions' coach.
Chapman (Calif.) 4, Wisconsin-Stevens Point 3: The Panthers (38-8) avoided elimination by scoring two runs in the top of the eighth inning.
The Pointers ended their season and first NCAA championship appearance with a 33-12 record.
The game was the highest-scoring affair of the championship thus far. Stevens Point led 2-0 after the first inning.
``Hey, that usually wins around here, doesn't it?'' asked Dean Shuda, the Pointers' coach. ``Chapman's No.1, I knew they weren't going to quit.''
Chrissy Guidorizzi knocked in the go-ahead run to make it 3-2, and a Kasie Chavez single and Stevens Point error made it 4-2. Pointers catcher Dena Zajdel hit a solo home run on the first pitch in the bottom of the eighth.
``We needed that win,'' said Janet Lloyd, Chapman's co-coach. ``It brought us back together.''
Allegheny (Pa.) 2, Ithaca (N.Y.) 0: The Gators advanced to a 3 p.m. meeting with Chapman after eliminating Ithaca (25-11).
Allegheny (30-13) got its first run in an odd fashion when Bombers pitcher Nicki Swan fumbled the ball in her windup. Julie Good then made an opportunistic sprint down the third-base line to home plate.
The Gators added a run on three hits in the sixth.
Starting pitcher Laurie Machuga added a victory and nine more strikeouts to her burgeoning totals.
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART Staff The Chapman Panthers do a line danceby CNBas part of their pregame ritual to bring them luck. color.