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Allan Hancock College is a softball powerhouse—with two straight conference titles tucked firmly into its softball cleats, the team marauded the world of community college ball with a 34-game winning streak. That streak ended the weekend of May 8 in the Super Regionals tournament, which the Bulldogs played host to in Santa Maria.
Santa Ana took Hancock 8-2 on May 8, and the bulldogs fell to Santiago Canyon 8-7. Hancock won’t see the state championships this year, but the end to the softball team’s winning ways doesn’t take away what it accomplished this season, which included a berth in the Super Regionals for the first time in almost two decades and a slew of record-breaking players, some of whom will be heading to Division I schools in the fall.
At the helm of the Bulldog’s forward motion were pitcher Katie Chenault and hitter Jessica Rothanzl.
Coach Scia Maumausolo said she once heard a youth coach of Chenault’s describe the pitcher perfectly: “She’s got ice running through her veins,” the coach said.
“She doesn’t flinch,” Maumausolo said. “Jessica’s the same.”
Both girls stay cool as glacial run-off when it’s their turn under pressure. The psychological antifreeze that usually comes with being the one at bat or the one on the mound when the bases are loaded, the Bulldog’s are down, and there’s two outs on the board doesn’t phase them, Maumausolo said.
Chenault will strike the batter out, and Rothanzl will hit that softball exactly where it needs to go to bring the runs in. The two have played together for the duration of their athletic careers and will continue that legacy when they hit the dirt for Cal-Northridge—Maumausolo’s alma mater—in the fall.
On May 5, Chenault was named an All-American by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association; she was one of two pitchers named to the California Junior College all-American Teams. At the time, she led the state with 34 wins and 383 strikeouts, averaging 12 strikeouts per game. She set a school record in 2014 with 370 strikeouts, and proceeded to one-up herself in 2015. As of that same date, hitter Jessica Rothanzl ranked among the top 10 players in the state, with a .538 batting average, 10 home runs, 58 RBIs, 56 hits, a .577 on-base average, and .942 slugging percentage. She broke Hancock’s record for most RBIs in a single-season, most career RBIs—111, most career doubles—27, and highest single-season batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.
Rothanzl led the offense, and Chenault was key to the defense. But there’s more to the team than the two players who received the Western State Conference Gold Division’s highest honors this year: Conference coaches named Rothanzl the Player of the Year and Chenault the Pitcher of the Year. Maumausolo was named Coach of the Year, and five other Bulldogs were named to the All-Conference First Team: Missy Regalado, Teanna Silveira, Megan Love, Micheala Valencia, and Judith Salazar.
“It’s not really just a few players, it’s the entire lineup,” Maumausolo said. “Anyone can step up at anytime.”
Coming off the 2014 season, with that first of two conference titles in glove, the team lost a couple of players, but picked up some freshmen who landed in lockstep with the rest of the team. The Bulldogs didn’t skip a beat.
Five of the teams’ players, including Rothanzl and Chenault, were members of the Ernest Righetti High School softball team that won the CIF title in 2013, after taking Sunny Hills High School in the championship. Having those battle-tested players on the team is a sort of mental boost; it’s one of those things that can’t be coached.
“When you take an athlete with a CIF title and you put them in a clutch situation, it’s almost like they thrive, they expect these moments because they’ve been there before,” she said.
And all of the girls grew up playing together; they know each other’s moods and movements and once they get going, the Bulldogs are like a freight train of momentum. There’s no stopping them.
They went down a run in both of the postseason playoff games against San Diego Mesa on May 2.
“They weren’t used to that, and how they responded was perfect,” Maumausolo said. Hancock came back to win the first game 10-1 and the second 8-1. “When they have timely hitting and they do what they’re supposed to defensively, that’s the kind of team they are, they can take off no matter who we’re playing.”
Contact Editor Camillia Lanham at clanham@santamariasun.com.
PHOTOS BY KAORI FUNAHASHI
This article appears in May 14-21, 2015.
