The season felt right from the start.
"It's going to be a good year," wrote senior outfielder Ramona Shelburne in the first installment of her online diary on gostanford.com. "You see, softball and baseball players are notoriously superstitious and getting the first pitch of the season over for a strike is like a good omen, a great way to set the tone for the year."
For the first time in the eight-year history of the varsity program, the softball team earned a spot in the Women's College World Series. On the way, the players racked up a school-best 54-15-1 record.
Shelburne recorded each win with increasing confidence. "'Little bites.' That's what we softball types like to say to someone who has been struggling for a while. Basically, it just means fix one thing at a time. Hit a ground ball instead of a pop-up. Then, hit a hard ground ball instead of a weak one. Then, work on driving the ball instead of muscling it."
When Shelburne was a freshman, the team was ranked No. 1 but didn't make it to the World Series. When the invitation finally came this season, she chalked it up to the players who had gone before. "This trip really is all about the entire process that got us here. Not just this season, but all the players who have built this program into a contender the last four or five years. Everything builds on past performances."
In the semifinal round of the Series, the sixth-seeded Cardinal fell to top-ranked Arizona 1-0. Still, the women ended the season tied for third in the nation, and Sarah Beeson, '02, Jessica Mendoza, '02, and Dana Sorensen, '03, were named first-team All-Americans. A "big bite" of a year, as Shelburne might sa
