The Oregon softball coaching trio of Kathy Arendsen, J. Gaudreau and Mike White has either luck or recruiting know-how on its side.
Most likely, it’s a little bit of both that helped the Ducks nab Ani Nyhus from Central Arizona College and propel her into the circle of a Division I, Pacific-10 Conference, top-15 program. In fact, Oregon’s success this season can be traced to Nyhus. Her 17-7 record thus far reflects a small part of her contribution from the circle. In a March 27 victory against Utah State, Nyhus set a single-game strikeout record with 16 strikeouts on her way to a no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader. From the seventh inning of that doubleheader’s first game, through April 4, Nyhus pitched 38.1 scoreless innings. She also threw two one-hitters in the same span.
Nyhus has also thrown four shutouts and two one-hitters against Pac-10 opponents, and has started all but two of Oregon’s conference games, earning herself a 5-2 Pac-10 record. Arendsen recalled when Nyhus first caught her attention.
“(Assistant coach J. Gaudreau) and I were at the Canada Cup in the summer of 2002 and saw (Nyhus) pitch,” said Arendsen, Oregon’s head coach. “We thought she was going to be a freshman in junior college, so we had her on our list to watch for this year.”
The next year, Arendsen received a phone call one day from Vaqueras head coach Craig Nicholson. Nicholson called to let his friend Arendsen know he had a pitcher she needed to look at.
“When he gave me the name and said she’s from Canada, I’m going ‘oh my god, I know who she is,’” Arendsen said. “I was like, ‘All right, we’re interested. We want her. What can we do?’”
In speeding up their schedule to recruit Nyhus by an entire year, the trio found a pitcher who is working her way up the Oregon top-10 lists and record books, and at the same time, lending a hand in rewriting the conference’s — and nation’s — perception of what was a struggling Oregon program as recently as two years ago.
This weekend, the scene for Oregon softball — or at least this season — may very well rest in Nyhus’ glove and on the dirt of Howe Field.
Friday, the No. 12 Ducks (32-11 overall, 6-3 Pac-10) host Arizona State (30-21, 0-7) at 2 p.m.. The weekend games come at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday when No. 1 Arizona (43-1, 7-0) rolls into Howe Field.
Like the rest of her team, Nyhus knows not to overlook Arizona State, even though the No. 1 ranked Wildcats are at the front of everyone’s mind. Both teams are on Nyhus’ radar because they were the first schools that interested her after her stay at Central Arizona.
“I wanted to go to Arizona or Arizona State to stay in Arizona because I liked it a lot there,” Nyhus said. “But with (Arizona’s) Alicia Hollowell coming in my sophomore year as a freshman there, I knew, after seeing what she had posted, that I wouldn’t get any pitching time. Their head coach kind of said the same thing to me — that he would take me but he had no use for me right then.
“I wanted to go to a program that was going to be successful,” she added.
Being careful with her pitching has a new meaning for Nyhus. The White Rock, British Columbia native was used to just blowing pitches by every batter she faced.
“You’re going to face the best in the nation every game,” Nyhus said about the Pac-10. “UCLA was really my first look at that — I had to focus and be smart all the way through the order. Their No. 7 hitter hit a home run off me (Sunday). I mean, there are no weak spots in that lineup. Our team is the same way. Every team that we look at, there is so much talent all the way through the order that you have to be careful with every batter.”
When she arrived in Eugene, Nyhus was in the process of overcoming an injury she sustained during her summer playing for the Canadian National Team. Add in White, Oregon’s pitching coach, and her recovery was combined with essentially learning how to pitch — something she had been doing since she was six — all over again.
“We noticed right away that she had some mechanical things we thought we could improve on,” White said. “It’s not that she wasn’t a good pitcher already, it’s just a matter of we thought we could change some things and make her into an even better pitcher.”
Oregon might not be the only team to benefit from her improvement. Nyhus’ participation on the Canadian National Team means that she is in the running for a spot on the final roster for the Athens Olympics in 2004. That roster will be announced later this month.
In the meantime, Nyhus is concentrating on the Ducks and trying not to worry about what might happen north of the border. Her roommates help her keep her mind off it too.
“I met her on her recruiting trip last year,” Oregon second baseman Erin Goodell said. “I had heard a lot about her and how good her team was. (Beth Boskovich and I) told her she could live with us, because on her recruiting trip we got along well.”