D6

MARYLAND 4A SOFTBALL

Salvarola’s hitting prowess emerged early

by Alan Goldenbach

Eight-year-old Kourtney Salva-

rola had already mastered smash- ing baseballs — not softballs — fired at 50 and 60 mph at a batting cage near her home in Anne Arun- del County. Her stepfather want- ed to challenge her, so Reese Kiple turned up the machine to rifle pitches at 70 mph at Salvarola. “At first, I was scared,” recalled

Salvarola, now a senior at Broad- neck. “There was a bunch of peo- ple watching me.” Reese Kiple assuaged Salvaro-

la’s fears with a little bribe: for ev- ery pitch with which she made contact, Salvarola would get a to- ken to play a video game at the ar- cade adjacent to the cage. She agreed, put on her helmet and stepped in.

“She went in there, and out of 18 balls, I think she missed two,” said Kiple, now in his second sea- son as Broadneck’s coach. “It was absurd.” Ten years later, Salvarola is en- tering the final season of a high school softball career that has thus far lived up to the promise she showed while tattooing base-

THE POST TOP 10

SOFTBALL

Anne Arundel County teams dominate this season’s first edition of the rankings. Broadneck has 12 players back from the team that won the Maryland 4A title and finished atop the rankings in 2009.

Team

1. Broadneck (20-0) 2. Northern (18-2) 3. O’Connell (23-4)

4. South County (27-2) 5. Broad Run (22-3) 6. Spalding (15-4)

7. Chesapeake (18-3) 8. Battlefield (23-3) 9. Arundel (13-4)

10. Huntingtown (16-1) Records, rankings from 2009

balls as a child. The three-time All-Met blasted 12 of her 28 career home runs as a freshman, setting a Maryland single-season record, and has become one of the best hitters to come out of the Wash- ington area in at least a decade, according to several veteran coaches.

She has batted at least .556 in each of her three seasons, includ-

LY

1

4

10 6 3

NR 8 7

NR NR

ing .617 last year, and elevated a program that had not won more than 12 games in a season prior to her arrival. The Bruins have won at least 20 games each year in her career, and went undefeated and claimed the Maryland 4A title in 2009. In addition to being a standout shortstop — the position she will play next season at South Florida — Salvarola has also been the Bruins’ top pitcher, going a combined 37-6 over the past three seasons. Yet, when high school softball success is often determined by which team has the most domi- nant pitcher, Salvarola has tried to show there is a different way to influence a game. “Softball is very mental,” she said. “If you get a big hit, it can really change the complexion of the game, and I like being the per- son who tries to do that.” No one knows this better than

Chesapeake, which has faced Broadneck in the Maryland 4A East Region final each of the past three years. Chesapeake won in both 2007 and ’08, en route to state titles, but fell to the Bruins last season. In the 2008 county championship, Salvarola hit two

homers and from then on, Chesa- peake has intentionally walked her each time up. “We always look for a batter’s weakness, but every time we throw it to her, we don’t get the ball back,” Chesapeake Coach Don Ellenberger said. “I’m not letting her swing the bat and beat us. The bad part is, she has the speed to steal second [base], third and even home on you. “I don’t know what her eyesight is, but it’s got to rank up there with the better college hitters. I know when they test the Olympi- ans [for vision], they’re some- times at like 20/9, where they can actually see the rotation of the ball. She can’t be far from that.” Salvarola laughed at that sug-

gestion. “I just got new glasses last

week,” she said. “I wear bifocals. I’ve just been hitting for so long, I guess I know how to do it.” So what, then, is Salvarola’s se-

cret? What makes her such a good hitter? “It’s like when you’d ask, how

did Mickey Mantle hit it that far?” said O’Connell Coach Tommy Orndorff, who also runs the re- gion’s most successful travel team,

BASEBALL

Nationals Journal

6Blogging at washingtonpost.com/nationalsjournal

Riggleman gets

the rotation in order

So much rain collected on the

field at Space Coast Stadium that, “Viera’s got some new lakes,” Nationals reliever Jason Bergmann said. So there was no game Monday, but the weather couldn’t prevent the day from being one of the more consequential of spring, even before it was announced that President Obama would be throwing out the first pitch on opening day. Nationals Manager Jim

BRADLEY C. BOWER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

It was a banner night in Philly when the Phillies clinched the 2008 World Series title over the Rays.

Halladay’s arrival could keep the window open a little longer

phillies from D1

Phillies earned in 2008 — but it is something the Phillies ac- knowledge is on their minds. “Sure, that’s something we’d love to be considered,” said cen- ter fielder Shane Victorino. “But it’s going to take winning some more world championships, not just division titles and NLCS’s. You get that label by winning World Series. Win a couple more World Series, and yeah, people may consider us that.” The Phillies are built on an ex-

traordinary foundation — with a homegrown core of players, in- cluding Rollins, first baseman Ryan Howard, second baseman Chase Utley and left-hander Cole Hamels, and another wave of in-their-prime imports, in- cluding Victorino, right fielder Jayson Werth and closer Brad Lidge, who made mighty contri- butions to the 2008-09 pennant winners.

Equally impressively, almost

every significant Phillies player — including new ace Roy Halla- day, who came via trade this winter and signed a deal through 2013 — is locked into a long-term contract. But it is when you examine the end dates of those contracts that you begin to understand how quickly the Phillies’ win- dow is closing. Werth’s contract ends after this season. Rollins, Howard, Lidge, Hamels and left fielder Raúl Ibáñez all come up after 2011. So there’s your window, Jim-

my. “Yup, that’s it — this year and

next, ’10 and ’11,” Rollins said. “That’s all we can be guaran- teed, that these guys will be here for two more years. That’s the game today. I think all of us would like to stay here. But it’s all about economics now.” The closing of that window informed much of the Phillies’ offseason. It’s why they traded for Halladay, who represented both a means of maximizing the current window — he is argu- ably the best starting pitcher in the game — and a means of ex- tending it, since he showed a willingness to sign a longer-

DAVID J. PHILLIP/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Phillies are trying to become the first team since the 1942-44 Cardinals to win three consecutive National League pennants.

term deal at a below-market cost. It’s why the Phillies turned around and traded ace lefty Cliff Lee when they otherwise did not need to — he appeared less will- ing to sign long-term, and so he was sacrificed in the name of re- stocking the farm system. It’s why dynamic young out-

fielder Domonic Brown, already tabbed as Werth’s successor in right field, was considered off- limits in the many trade talks this winter. Perhaps indirectly, the immi- nent closing of the Phillies’ win- dow may also have given rise to the spring’s most shocking ru- mor — an ESPN.com report that the Phillies have had internal discussions about a Howard-for- Albert Pujols trade. Both the Phillies and the Cardinals quick- ly shot it down, but the notion of the Phillies making a desperate move to maximize their current window contains at least a germ of truth, even if the trade never comes close to happening. “We have to worry about right

now,” Victorino said. “Would this organization like to keep us all here for the next five years? I guarantee you they would. But that’s probably not going to hap- pen. And you can’t worry about it. You can’t worry about what’s going to happen two, three years down the road.” For Rollins, the Phillies’ soul, a look into the future requires

an acknowledgment that diffi- cult choices await, for both him- self and the franchise, with the outcome far from guaranteed: Will the Phillies have any use for Rollins after 2011, seeing as how he will be 33 then? Would they expect him to take a pay cut and give up his position in order to stay? And would Rollins agree to those terms just to stay in Philadelphia and hope the win- dow stays open?

“Do you want to stay in a place where you can win, but make a little less money?” Rollins asked rhetorically. “Or do [the Phillies] have enough money [to where they] can buy you out from any competitor anyway? It’s a hard position, be- cause — look, I’ve got enough money. But how much do you undervalue yourself to stay here and be happy? Is that worth it — to be here and be happy and not worry about the dollars? “A lot of us have one ring, so

that part is fine. So do I play for another ring, or do I need to get as much [money] as I can? Be- cause once we’re out of the game, the checks stop.” These are big questions, ones

that can’t be answered in March. But they are questions everyone around the Phillies must con- template, as every day the win- dow on the franchise’s extraor- dinary run closes just a little bit more.

sheinind@washpost.com

Riggleman formally announced their first four starters. In order, John Lannan, Jason Marquis, Craig Stammen and Liván Hernández will pitch the regular season’s first four games. The competition for the fifth spot will come down to J.D. Martin, Scott Olsen and Garrett Mock, Riggleman said. Stammen and Hernández became the first two starters

from among the multitude of candidates vying for a starting spot to earn a place in the rotation. Stammen has “out-pitched everybody here except maybe Lannan,” Riggleman said. Stammen this spring had a 3.14 ERA in 141

⁄3

innings, allowing 14 hits and four walks while striking out 10. Hernández earned the start by coming into spring training in excellent shape and then performing. He allowed two earned runs in eight innings, allowing six hits and five walks while striking out five.

Strasburg’s schedule

Nationals General Manager

Mike Rizzo says pitcher Stephen Strasburg will make his minor league debut April 11 in Altoona, Pa.

The Nationals announced on

March 20 that Strasburg will begin the year in the minor leagues, in Class AA Harrisburg. His April 11 start is the day

that the fifth starter pitches. Strasburg’s last start was

March 24 in Viera, facing a collection of Nationals players likely to start the year in Class AA and AAA, He struck out nine and allowed a bloop single, three walks and no runs in 41

⁄3

innings. He threw 79 pitches; batters hit two of them into the outfield and swung and missed at 11. . . . Strasburg’s schedule is aligned for him to pitch Saturday, the same day the Nationals play an exhibition at Nationals Park against the Red Sox. The timing led to speculation Strasburg may pitch, but Riggleman quashed the idea Monday. “I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Riggleman said. “I have not heard that. [Pitching coach] Steve McCatty hasn’t heard that we’re going to do that.” Stammen is the likely candidate to start the exhibition game.

—Adam Kilgore

At long last, Desmond gets his shot

nationals from D1

“It’s a rough road going through the minors. He can take a bullet. I think he understands that there’s going to be punches along the way.”

At first, it seemed Desmond’s

path to the majors would be a smooth one. The Nationals in- vited him to major league camp less than a year after he played his final game for Sarasota High. Frank Robinson, then the Nation- als manager, watched him play shortstop and take batting prac- tice.

“Hey, kid,” Robinson told him.

“When you’re 22 years old, you’re going to be pushing for a spot in the big leagues.” General Manager Jim Bowden and Robinson played him during the first week of spring, and Bow- den watched him make three spectacular plays. “He has tre- mendous poise,” Bowden said at the time. “He reminds me of Der- ek Jeter — except those were Ian Desmond plays, not Derek Jeter plays.”

Reminded of that comparison this weekend, Desmond playfully rolled his eyes. “I knew at the time I was no- where near what Jeter was,” Des- mond said. “I was like, ‘Oookay.’ ” The external expectations heaped on Desmond never affect- ed him. The internal pressure he placed on himself did. He would make an out and think about it the rest of the night, his focus on the flaw in his swing and not the routine groundball rolling at him. He could be electric in the field, but he could also lose focus. “I always put too much pres- sure on myself,” Desmond said. “If I got out my first at-bat, there was no chance I could get a hit the rest of the game.” “As a parent, it was hard to

watch when he made an out,” said Pattie Paradise, Desmond’s moth- er. “He knows what he should do. When he makes a stupid play, he’s really his own worst enemy.” During his first year in the mi- nors, when he reached Class A Po-

CHARLIE RIEDEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ian Desmond hit .280 in his September call-up last season.

tomac, Desmond still possessed the same promise the Nationals saw in the first spring training, but he had yet to fulfill it. “He’s thrown into a big man’s world and he’s 19,” Paradise said. “He was immature, you know?” The organization didn’t wait. Desmond started his second sea- son in Class AA. When he hit .182 in 121 at-bats, his trajectory through the farm system stalled. The Nationals sent him back to Potomac. “At the time, they’re like, ‘That’s our fault,’ ” Desmond said. “They put all the blame on themselves. But they tried to push me. I was ready to be pushed. But my game just wasn’t ready.” Desmond played the rest of 2006 and all of 2007 in Potomac. His batting average never climbed above .264. He never wa- vered — “I knew that eventually I was going to get to the big leagues,” he said — but he still al- lowed frustration to engulf him. “I would just go to the cage and

I was mad that I went 0 for 4,” Desmond said. “I would hit 1,000 balls, but I wasn’t getting any bet- ter.” He had his first physical set- back in 2008. He broke the ha- mate bone in his left hand, and doctors chose to mend the bone rather than remove it. Desmond discovered later they made the wrong decision. The hamate nev- er fully healed, and it broke again in spring training 2009. He would miss six weeks.

Desmond, though, was ready to turn a corner. He decided to take pressure off himself. In the Ari- zona Fall League after the 2008 season, he finally found the swing

that fit him best. He stopped tell- ing himself, “I’m still young.” He approached his job as if he was playing for fun, in the backyard with friends. He felt secure when the Nationals placed him on their 40-man roster. “It all just clicked,” Desmond

said. He mashed Class AA pitching for half of last year, got promoted and crushed Class AAA even more. In September, the Nation- als called him up. In limited time, he hit .280 with a .561 slugging percentage.He had made it. “It just feels good to show what

I knew I had inside,” Desmond said. “Ever since I decided to let stuff roll off me, it’s been a lot eas- ier. We can choose how stuff sticks with us. When it goes wrong, you can choose to linger with it the whole day. Or you can say, ‘You know what, I’m over it.’ “I think that’s something I’ve realized in my life. You’ve got to let stuff go. You can’t hold on to all that stuff. Otherwise, you’re going to be a .240 hitter. You’re going to make 175,000 errors. You just got to move on.” In January, Desmond married

Chelsea, his high school sweet- heart, the girl he’d had a crush on since fifth grade. She moved with him for the spring training. They’ve lived with Devin Ivany, his best man, Brian Peacock and a pit bull puppy named Bailey. “I think,” Paradise said, “he’s just really happy.” On Saturday, Desmond reflect- ed on how he had reached this point. He touched the uniform hanging in his locker and rattled the jersey numbers that he had worn — 99, 96, 95, 74. “You know, I got No. 6 now,” Desmond said. “Everything is get- ting better.” Still, he sat closer to his first

locker, the one next to Carlos Baerga, than the opposite corner, where the veterans congregate. “I haven’t made it past the half-

way point,” Desmond said, peer- ing toward the row of established players. “But maybe next year.”

kilgorea@washpost.com

the Shamrocks, and has faced Sal- varola. “It’s just being that good.” South Florida Coach Ken Erik-

sen knows what makes good hit- ters. He’s the pitching coach for the U.S. National team, and is trained at finding ways to beat good hitters. “Kourtney has an uncanny abil-

ity to get the bat on the ball,” Erik- sen said. “She has incredible strength in her forearms and

quick feet. She observes the pitch- er so well.

“But to simplify it as best I can, when you’re good, you’re good.”

goldenbacha@washpost.com

S

KLMNO

HIGH SCHOOLS

TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

JAMES A. PARCELL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

At age 8, Broadneck senior Kourtney Salvarola, above, had no trouble handling 70 mph pitches at the batting cage.

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