ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, May 17, 1996 TAG: 9605170060
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
CATCHER KATHY DONOVAN, a part-time campus police officer at a California junior college, provides order and stability on and off the field.
Kathy Donovan, ace catcher for the Chapman (Calif.) University softball team, doesn't limit her police duties to the basepaths.
When time allows, Donovan works as a member of the campus police force at her former school, Fullerton (Calif.) Junior College.
``We watch campus, kick people off who don't belong, pull people over, the usual stuff,'' Donovan said Thursday at Salem's Moyer Sports Complex.
Back on the softball field, Donovan's play behind the plate is anything but the usual. In two seasons at Chapman, the senior has caught every inning of every game (592 2/3 innings). She has not made an error in 293 chances this season and has thrown out 59 percent of the runners attempting to steal against her.
When she's standing at the plate instead of squatting behind it, Donovan bats .383 with a team-leading 49 runs batted in.
Chapman spokesman Jim Moore said of Donovan, a psychology major: ``The only way to keep her off the field is in a straitjacket on a stretcher.''
And if one of the Panthers says Donovan knocks herself out when she plays, they wouldn't be exaggerating, either.
On May 10 against Hope (Mich.) College in the Central Regional, a Flying Dutchman batter hit a short pop-up behind the plate. Just as Donovan was about to catch it, her head smacked into a pole. She collapsed to the ground as her teammates rushed to her side. They came with a dual purpose - to wipe the blood from her forehead and pry the ball from her glove. ``Greatest catch I've ever seen,'' Moore said.
According to her coach, Lisle Lloyd, Donovan's first words were, ``Don't you dare take me out.''
Lloyd never would be so bold. The same, however, could not be said for the Flying Dutchmen. Three pitches after the game resumed, Hope's first-base coach sent a runner toward second on a steal attempt. It took just a few seconds for Donovan to throw her out, but the effort brought her to her knees, light-headed.
``The girl was trying to take advantage of her,'' said Chapman pitcher Christy Guidorizzi, as if stealing a base on Donovan is against the law.
Donovan has caught Guidorizzi in every college game the sophomore has pitched. Together, they have 29 shutouts, six no-hitters, 17 one-hitters, a perfect game and four first-team All-America citations.
``I feel so comfortable with her back there,'' Guidorizzi said. ``I know she's always right. I always throw what she calls.''
For Chapman, that's the law.
Thursday's games
Simpson (Iowa) 1, Ithaca (N.Y.) 0, 8 innings: Melissa Tracy scored when the Bombers' Jennifer Hoselton bobbled a hard grounder by Jamie Johnson, and the Storm won its first NCAA softball championship game.
Tracy came home from second base as the throw went too far up the third-base line. ``I didn't know what happened. I just saw him waving me,'' Tracy said of her coach, Henry Christowski.
``That's the way it's supposed to be,'' he said.
The Storm had left eight runners on base before the eighth inning, and Christowski said he didn't want to see another one. ``In that situation, there was no reason for her to stop,'' he said.
Simpson's starting pitcher, Marcy Potts, worked six innings, giving up three hits and striking out two. Ithaca's Nicki Swan went the distance, surrendering eight hits. The Bombers will face Wisconsin-Stevens Point at 7 p.m. in the losers' bracket, and Simpson meets defending champion Chapman at noon.
``We lost our first game at the regionals, so we kind of know the mental toughness it takes to get back,'' said Deb PaIlozzi, Ithaca's coach.
Allegheny (Pa.) 2, Wisconsin-Stevens Point 1: Laura Fromm, limited to pinch-running duties because of a broken right arm, scored the tying run, and her replacement, right fielder Laura Chalker, had a game-winning double as the Gators edged the Pointers.
``That's the deepest ball she's hit since she's been here,'' said Deb Peffer, Allegheny's coach.
The Gators' Laurie Machuga had 10 strikeouts and became the first pitcher in Division III history to record 1,000 strikeouts in a career.
Allegheny meets Trenton (N.J.) State at 2 p.m. today.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines KEYWORDS: SOFTBALLby CNB