For freshman Courtney Ceo, the game of softball is a family affair.
Ceo, the starting third baseman for the 19th-ranked Oregon softball team, has made a name for herself among teammates, coaches and opposing pitchers in 2011, taking the game she grew up playing with her three sisters to a new level.
The Meadow Vista, Calif. native has started all 38 games she’s appeared in for the Ducks, while batting .405 and leading the team in at-bats (126), runs (30) and hits (51). Her versatility — she’s seen time at shortstop, second base and first base — has made it hard for head coach Mike White to keep her off the field, while her offensive numbers speak to the time she’s put in outside of practice.
“She has a great work ethic,” White said. “You don’t have to tell her go take extra balls — she’ll go out there and take them. You don’t have to tell her to take any extra swings, she’s gonna take ‘em (and) do things without being asked.”
The freshman has made a seamless transition at third base after she was named a four-time first-team all-league shortstop at Bear River High School and was tabbed an Under Armour All-American middle infielder under head coach Duane Zauner.
Her two older sisters, Britney and Natalie, welcomed Ceo to the Bear River tradition as the three were teammates in 2007 — the first of four consecutive Sac-Joaquin Section titles Ceo had a hand in winning. Ceo’s youngest sister, Stephanie, now a junior at Bear River and verbal commit to play softball at the University of Texas, joined the team as a freshman three years later.
And while Ceo, who committed to play for Oregon during her sophomore year, had her eyes set on suiting up in green and yellow years before her arrival, the road to Eugene didn’t come without a few hiccups along the way.
Known for her lightening quick speed (she’s third on the team with eight stolen bases this year), Ceo suffered a major setback her junior year during a summer softball tournament in Boulder, Colo., that kept her sidelined through the fall.
Around that same time, Oregon chose not to renew then-head softball coach Kathy Arendsen’s contract after the Ducks suffered their worst season in 25 years. White was then hired in June 2009, and shortly thereafter he found himself in Colorado, watching Ceo, one of Arendsen’s recruits, suffer a season-ending injury.
The pair had met prior to the injury, but their first official meeting wasn’t scheduled until later that summer. Even with a blown-out knee, White had seen everything he needed to from Ceo.
“I told her that we were going to stick with her, and I liked what I saw, and we knew she’d come back stronger,” White said. “I showed commitment to her, and she committed to us and never really wavered.”
It was that take-care-of-your-own, family mentality that drew Ceo to Oregon in the first place, and even with the coaching change, she knew Eugene was the place she wanted to call home for the next four years. The small town feel with a Division I program reminded Ceo of her California home, and she’s been awfully comfortable both on and off the field this season.
During Oregon’s road trip to Berkeley last weekend — about a two-hour drive from Ceo’s hometown — she led the Ducks through a woeful offensive weekend, in which Oregon was outscored 12-2 in three games, by going 5-for-11 with one of the two runs scored.
Not phased by the Jolene Henderson’s of the world (Cal’s ace and the Pac-10 strikeouts leader), Ceo has kept the same approach to the game from the moment she stepped foot on campus in September.
“She came in as a strong person,” senior relief pitcher and mentor Brittany Rumfelt said. “What I meant by that is strong-willed, hard working, never gives up, and that has been the basis for her.
“With those personality (traits) you can’t help but take them under your wing and make sure they’re on the right track.”
Ceo admits she’s still finding the balance for it all, but with Rumfelt and sophomore pitcher Jessica Moore each extending a helping hand, the transition has been as smooth as she could have hoped.
“It took me a while to figure that (balance) out,” Ceo said. “And really the free time you just want to sit down and just relax and not do anything. But it took me a while to figure out when I can do that and when I can’t, without getting too far behind.”
Heading into a three-game series with the Oregon State Beavers beginning tonight at 6 p.m., Ceo and the rest of the Ducks hope to find some of that same balance as they move into the homestretch of the Pac-10 schedule.
Losers of seven of their last nine outings, the importance of picking up wins with four weeks remaining can’t be stressed enough.
“Any way we can,” Ceo says. “It doesn’t have to be that perfect base hit. If you take a pitch, get hit, get a walk, you lay down a bunt to move your runners, just anything you can to get our runners across the plate.”
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