Column by James Choy
Mounties center fielder Missy Mendoza practiced and played with a hunger that couldn’t be seen from firsthand observation.
But that also couldn’t be determined during her freshman year.
Last year’s Mounties softball team didn’t seem ready offensively going into championship weekend when they met Cypress and Cerritos.
I didn’t believe they would go far.
Mendoza was angry that her playing time was limited for most of her freshman year. Having to play behind big time players like Lucia Rodriguez (transferred to Cal State Monterey Bay), Randie and Kadie Baldwin (transferred to Cal State Fullerton), not much could be done on what Mounties head coach Kelly Ford needed to get the Mounties to win the championship last season.
They did manage to beat Cypress, who is one of the powerhouse teams in the southern conference. But the Mounties came up short against arch-rivals, Cerritos, in the state title game. The Mounties lost making the season painful going into the summer.
Maybe putting in Mendoza in the lineup against Cerritos could have changed the outcome. She did it this season with her first home run against them at their own house.
“I know I can do good for the team, but I need that chance to play more,” she said during an interview last year.
Enter Mendoza for 2009.The league wasn’t ready or curious about what she could do this year.
She blasted more triples than anyone in the southern conference. She was a star hitter for her Alma mater at Mater Dei High School.
Despite parting ways with most of her friends who went to play for Cypress, Mendoza felt Mt. SAC would be the right way to lead her softball career.
Her road to a state title this year was nothing short of legendary.
After contributing to key performances in four different occasions during the regular season, Mendoza made sure that her consistent .350 batting average would go no lower going northward to Salinas when the Mounties were looking to claim their fourth state title in the last seven years.
Maybe Ford realized that having Mendoza involved in the scheme of things for the 2009 season was something that should have been for 2008.
But the past is the past and the present is the present.
Mendoza smashed three home runs in three games this past weekend, but not just any three games-the three most important games of her life … the games that determined if she would walk away with a title.
Her first post-season home run that got her to beat Cypress last Friday was the sweetest, seeing the ongoing rivalry between both schools has been tracing back for almost three years. The next evening against Siskyious, Mendoza smashed a home run that put the Mounties ahead late in the game sealing the victory.
Both of those games had doom penned for the Mounties, until the team came and set things perfectly for Mendoza to do her dirty work.
The home run (grand slam) against Sierra for the state championship was her way of showing everyone in the softball world that she was the best and ready to take her game to the next level.
Mendoza’s work ethic is (dare I say) very much similar to one … Kobe? She’s quiet but observant, unseen but productive, mysterious but outspoken (through her contribution).
Behind the wide-careful eyes that scan across the baseball diamond from center field, only she knows exactly what is happening and/or will happen.
Unfortunately, with the Mounties not winning conference this season, Mendoza’s exploits didn’t catch enough attention or votes to make her conference MVP. Word floated around that Mendoza was one of the finalists for the award.
But does that matter?
Being all-tournament MVP, what Mendoza accomplished in a span of three days overshadowed all that she’s done for the two seasons she’s had at Mt. SAC.
And with that, Mendoza’s fury that was bottled up inside came out … in one weekend.
In that time, she came out of the 2009 season a champion, a most valuable champion.
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