With baseball bats cracking on the next-door diamond and field hockey players slashing up and down their nearby turf, the varsity softball team has its share of distractions at home games.
But what’s the only sound Tori Nyberg hears, as she winds up on the pitcher’s mound? “My dad. He loves to sit right behind the backstop, and he’s got a couple of key phrases he likes to throw out.”
Eric Nyberg nods in agreement. “Yeah, there’s ‘Battle!’ and ‘Put her in the books!’ ” the Belmont, Calif., businessman says. And Tori’s mom, Jody? “I’m always nervous when she’s pitching, so I stayed in the bleachers for a couple of years, where I could yell whatever I wanted to.”
The Nybergs, like the parents of the other three seniors on this year’s team, rarely miss a home game. Terry and Loke Ching shuttle over from the East Bay, Mark and Debbie Brangham put in three hours on the trip from Clovis, Calif., and Ed and Mariann LeCocq regularly make the six-hour drive up from the San Fernando Valley. “She’s our baby, and we haven’t missed a game yet,” Mariann LeCocq says about daughter Maureen, a.k.a. Mo, who pitches and plays first base. “We’ve traveled to Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Georgia—all over—and she seems to enjoy it.”
Like their parents in the stands, the four seniors are a tight group. Nyberg, LeCocq, outfielder Cassi Brangham and Kira Ching, who plays second base, even room together: as sophomores they drew into Arroyo House, and they’ve lived in a Jenkins suite as juniors and seniors. “We practice together, eat together, do weight training together and travel together on the road,” Ching says. “It’s sort of amazing how close we are, but we also have our own rooms, and if we fight or bicker we can close our doors.”
Together, the seniors also have seen their team reach new heights, according to coach John Rittman. “They’ve been to three straight postseasons, they’ve been ranked the highest of any team in Stanford history—No. 2—and they went to the College World Series in 2001, where they finished third.”
The seniors clearly have their sights set on a return trip to Oklahoma City for the CWS. “It’s every softball player’s dream,” Ching says. “It’s so intense and there are so many people and—” “And you’re on TV,” LeCocq finishes. Nyberg is definite about the series: “We’re going.” And Brangham ticks off the reasons why: “We lost four seniors [to graduation] and we got four freshmen, and each day we’re learning to play better together. I think we all know we can beat anyone on any day. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
All four began playing the game as young girls. “I was about 8 when I started really getting into it, started throwing the windmill instead of a slingshot—a full circle instead of underhand,” LeCocq says. “At 10, I started getting really competitive, and I thought this could be something I could take and run with.” These days, the seniors are leading the team (No. 13, 28-14), along with ace Dana Sorensen, a redshirt junior. At press time, Sorensen had 13 wins and Nyberg had 12. Brangham had a team-high 29 RBI, and Ching topped the list in doubles, triples and total bases.
The seniors’ leadership extends off the field, too. As a self-described “team/field crew,” they are the first to pick up rakes and smooth the baselines after home games, and Brangham says they actually enjoy hauling the “stinky beast” green tarp that covers the field. In the dugout they compose personalized, hand-clapped cheers for each player at bat, and off the field they have seen one another through difficult times. “Mo and Kira are the ones who’ve had serious injuries and surgeries, and they’re both real troupers,” Nyberg says. “They pretty much just suck it up and play through it, so it’s not hard to support them.”
As for post-Series, postgraduation plans? “We’ll definitely have reunions,” LeCocq says. “Especially for weddings.”
That draws a whoop that could drown out the scrum on the neighboring rugby field.
