Play Like a Girl | Sports in Stilettos

About ten years ago, in May 1999, I spent Memorial Day weekend glued to the tv watching the Women's College World Series.

I was 13, and I loved softball. I wasn't very good, especially early on when I wasn???t yet strong enough to hit the ball past the pitcher's mound, but I could cheer pretty loud.

I was tiny, as was the strike zone when I was up to bat, and facing inexperienced pitchers, I tended to get hit. But I learned to wear my bruises like badges of honor, especially the softball-sized one where you could see the lace marks on my legs.

While I was no All-Star (ok, that's a lie, I snuck onto that roster twice), I was captivated by the girls who were: the ones in Oklahoma City, playing on one of the greatest softball stages in the world (especially now that it's not an Olympic sport anymore).

I marveled at UCLA's seemingly all blonde, tanned team - stereotypical California girls with great bat speed and the tightest blonde girl braids I'd ever seen. Nerd that I was back then, I couldn't get over the Bruins' pitcher, Courtney Dale, and her perfectly curled, mascara-laden lashes.

"Who puts makeup on to go play softball" I wondered (probably with a tone of disgust, not gonna lie).

Most girls who are playing softball in front of huge crowds and millions on T.V., of course, which my mom pointed out at the time but I didn't grasp until years later.

As glitzy and glamorous as the UCLA girls were, I rooted for the Washington Huskies. They didn't seem quite as likely to win. They looked less like sorority girls and more like softball players. I felt a connection to Huskies' second baseman, Rosie Leutzinger - she played the same position as I did, because she was tiny like I was, and she, too, got hit by multiple pitches during the series.

Back then, the entire tournament took place in Oklahoma City over that one weekend at the beginning of summer. I was in softball heaven, or as close as a girl could get without being out on the field.

Back then, the Washington Huskies kept battling back from deficits, scoring two-out runs to stay alive in the tournament. Until they ran into the Natasha Watley-led Bruins. The Huskies scored 8 of their 10 runs in the 1999 tournament with 2 outs but they couldn't pull off the comeback at the wire.

They lost, 3-2. I still remember my dad saying, "If two teams ever deserved to win, it would be those girls. You can't get a closer match-up than that."

Tonight, with a different tournament format, ten years after their last appearance in the championship game, the Washington Huskies won their first NCAA softball championship. The score? 3-2.

I'm only a Huskies fan when it comes to softball, dating back to the days of Rosie Leutzinger, but I can tell you it doesn't really get any better than that.

Washington's pitcher, Danielle Lawrie, said as much during her post-game interview. The Huskies lost the first of two games on Sunday afternoon when Lawrie walked in the winning run - in extra innings, no less.

That's a hard thing to overcome, especially when you have to back out for game two in just a few hours, but Lawrie did it in style - rocking her sequined purple headband as she hit a grand slam during her first at-bat.

It was the fourth grand slam in 24 hours at the Women's College World Series. Talk about girl power.

For softball fans, especially young girls excited about the game and looking for role models, this is as good as it gets.