A Turnaround for Turner at LBSU
By Frank Burlison, Long Beach Press-Telegram
April 29, 2006 Michelle Turner spent a big portion of 2005 deciding if she ever wanted to play college softball again.
One can only imagine or if you're coach Pete Manarino shudder to think about what kind of shape the Long Beach State team would be in this season if Turner's decision hadn't been "yes!"
On the mound, Turner, a 2002 graduate of Kennedy High in La Palma who spent a little more than two years at UCLA, has collected 20 of the team's 23 victories while recording a 1.54 ERA, shutting out six opponents and walking only 16 batters in 172 2/3 innings.
At the plate, she leads the 49ers with 24 RBI, 34 hits (for a .264 average) and a .457 slugging percentage.
She also fields her position very nicely, with just one error in 118 chances in the team's 41 games for a .992 percentage.
The term "critical component" couldn't be any more apt a way to describe her role on a team that takes an 8-4 Big West Conference record (one game in back of conference-leading Cal State Fullerton) into its final home series of this season this weekend.
The 49ers face the Pacific Tigers (23-18, 5-4) in a doubleheader today at 1 p.m., then the teams are back on the 49er Softball Complex on Sunday afternoon at 1 to wrap up the series.
"We've always known she was a great athlete and quite a competitor," Manarino said, recalling watching her dominate the high school and traveling team circuit before she signed a national letter of intent to attend UCLA.
"But any time someone can throw 172 innings and win 20 games (with nine games remaining in the regular season), they've exceeded expectations."
The 5-foot-9 Turner, 22, might be spending a large portion of her non-classroom selling clothing in a store in Los Cerritos Shopping Center (you know, the place we've always referred to as "The Cerritos Mall") if not for a rekindling of her passion for a sport she had played since she was 6 years old.
Turner picked up the sales job shortly after leaving UCLA in December of 2004 and starting classes at Long Beach State less than two months later as a way to help pay for the college education that was no longer free after forfeiting her athletic scholarship with the Bruins.
She was 14-0, with eight shutouts, as a freshman on UCLA's 2003 national championship team but that was definitely the apex of her stint in Westwood.
Near-constant discomfort in her right (throwing) arm and shoulder led to exploratory surgery after that season.
"They found a partially torn biceps," she said. "And they removed some scar tissue and shaved my labrum, because it had started to fray."
"I basically didn't touch a ball for the whole summer afterward."
The Bruins won another title during her sophomore season, but Turner's role was considerably deflated, appearing in just 14 games and throwing only 7 2/3 innings.
She was back in classes the following fall but, by the time December rolled around, she knew it was time to relocate.
"It was a bunch of different things," Turner said, without delving into specifics. "But I'd gotten to the point where I didn't think I wanted to play anymore. It wasn't fun. It was a bunch of things piling up at once."
Did she leave on good terms with UCLA coach Sue Enquist?
"Probably not," Turner said. "Maybe if I hadn't left midway through the (school) year and at the end of the (school) year, like most people do, it wouldn't have been so bitter. But I was looking out for my best interests. I'd thought about it for awhile. It just wasn't a good fit anymore. I just needed to get out."
Turner said she considered transferring to "just about every school in California, including Point Loma (in San Diego County), but I knew that I wanted to go somewhere close to home."
Sorting through her old recruiting letters that she'd saved in a box in her bedroom in her family's Buena Park home, she found some correspondence from Manarino.
That was the spark.
"I met with the coaching staff and it was amazing … they were all so nice," she said. "It was close to home and seemed like a good fit."
Less than a year later "I just went to class and worked; I probably went to only a couple of practices and games," she said after wondering if her softball career had ended in Westwood, she was back in fall and winter workouts with the 49ers.
And now, despite the aches and pains in her arm and shoulder that are part of the price of throwing a lot of softballs over 16 years, she's enjoying the sport every bit as much as she ever did when a softball might have seemed as big as a volleyball in her tiny right hand.
"Most definitely," she said. "I'm having a great time (at Long Beach) and I love my teammates.
Was it waiting patiently on shoppers and gathering clothing in dressing rooms and re-hanging it that made her want to throw risers, drops and fastballs again?
Well, not entirely.
"I just didn't like the way things finished for me (at UCLA)," she said. "I'd put way too much time into (softball) and I didn't think I'd gotten enough out of it yet. I wanted my career to end on a positive note."
And Manarino and her teammates are positively delighted she felt that way.
Frank Burlison can be reached at frank.burlison@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1320. |
