Long Beach State University Athletics
Beaver Succeeds at Favorite Passion
4/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
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Beaver Pursues Favorite Pursuit LONG BEACH - Any list of "a few of Jessica Beaver's favorite things" almost variably begins, and ends, with the same thing: She loves getting into a batters' box and taking her whacks at softballs. "Hitting is my favorite thing to do," the Long Beach State junior shortstop said earlier this week before a practice, her smile as bright as the sun beginning to beat down on the 49er Softball Complex infield. A quick glance at the 49ers' individual statistics demonstrates why watching Beaver at the plate is just as enjoyable for her coaches and teammates. She's hitting .386 for coach Kim Sowder's team (23-21 overall and 7-5 in conference), which takes a five-game winning streak into a crucial three-game Big West series this weekend in Stockton against the University of Pacific Tigers, who are currently in second place. And, with nine regular-season games remaining, the 2004 graduate of Hemet High has eight home runs and 37 runs batted in - the latter figure just six behind the single-season program record established by Jessica Smith in 2000. "Jessica is a very gifted athlete," said Sowder of Beaver,
who has also been nearly flawless, defensively, in conference (just one
error in "And she has worked extremely hard. The biggest thing with her (success), though, is her mental game. She's really matured in that area. She takes things `one at-bat at a time' now. And if she doesn't have a good at-bat, she lets it go." Beaver hit .220 as a freshman and .210 last season. She gives a lot of the credit for her increased productivity at the plate to the help of assistant coach Tairia Flowers, the UCLA graduate and member of the gold medal-winning U.S. softball team during the 2004 Olympics. Obviously, Flowers has worked her magic up and down the LBSU roster: the 49ers' team average is .276, up 42 points from a year ago. "She is a phenomenal coach who has really helped me with my swing," Beaver said of Flowers, the wife of 49ers women's assistant basketball coach Jason Flowers. How quickly did it take for Flowers to make an impact on Beaver? "The very first practice she had me hitting off a tee and she wasn't afraid to tell me, `Hey, maybe try this,"' Beaver said. "And we watch a lot of video (of their swings), too, and she points out a lot of things that way. It's helped a bunch. "I used to get up in the box and just swing for the fences every time. Now I'm striving to just make contact each time and try to drive the ball up the middle. She has me thinking more (at the plate)." Beaver was playing baseball with her brother, father and grandfather "by the time I was 4," she said. She was playing organized softball three years later and was hooked. "I just love the game," said the Communications Studies major. "Anytime I had a lot going on in my life, it (the softball field) was the place to get away from everything else. It was an escape." Beaver seemed genuinely surprised when told what her average is (and it's a blistering .429 in Big West play) and said she had "no idea" how close she was to the RBI standard "until you told me just now," she added. "I'm all about the Ws (wins). Just being able to say `We won!' means more to me than my batting average." And she and her teammates know they need to ring up a bunch of Ws over the next three weekends if they are to advance to NCAA Regional play for a fifth consecutive May. "We have to look at things `game by game' instead of looking at the `big picture,"' she said. "But we know we can't afford many more losses." |
