Intensity within Burns white-hot

Tuesday, May 14, 1996

Pitcher shows little outside, but inside is need to lead team to
championshipBy Brent Boyd

Daily Bruin Contributor

Luckily for the UCLA softball team, B’Ann Burns finds trees more
alluring than cactuses, she thinks sand belongs at the beach and
she likes green much more than the color brown.

Burns, who grew up in Phoenix and played softball only a short
car ride away from the University of Arizona, did not need much
convincing to desert her favorite childhood team and join the
Wildcats’ arch-rivals at UCLA. Spending her adolescent years
traveling to Tucson to watch games and participate in clinics held
by the Arizona coaches, Burns had always envisioned herself someday
becoming a Wildcat.

However, one trip to Southern California completely changed
everything.

"At the beginning of the recruiting process, I thought it would
be a tough decision," said Burns, the Bruins’ junior pitching ace.
"But when I visited UCLA, I knew I wanted to come here. I loved the
trees and the greenery and really liked the atmosphere. It was kind
of a dream school."

Most people agreed. It was just a dream. Burns couldn’t possibly
continue the tradition of Bruin greats on the mound such as Lisa
Fernandez, Debbie Doom and Lisa Longaker, who helped lead UCLA to
seven national championships in the 11 years preceding Burns’
arrival. How could she possibly compete?

Burns wasn’t too worried.

"UCLA has a great pitching tradition, but I knew I couldn’t
really go in trying to fill their shoes," she said.

Although it seemed nearly impossible to fill the shoes of such
pitching giants, Burns has come pretty close.

After defeating top-ranked Washington for the second time this
season on Sunday, the preseason All-American stands at 26-5
entering the postseason. Building on two consecutive 20-plus win
seasons in each of her first two years as a Bruin, her 70 career
wins put her on pace to break Fernandez’s all-time Bruin record of
93.

With still one year of eligibility remaining, she has already
placed herself fifth on the all-time UCLA victory list, third in
appearances, and in the top 10 in career strikeouts. In addition,
with a strong run in the playoffs, it is possible for Burns to
break the Bruin single-season record for victories, set by
Fernandez with 33 in 1993.

Burns has also thrown five complete game no-hitters as a Bruin
and helped in relief on two others. Her outing on opening day this
year against Loyola Marymount was especially impressive.

In the first game of the doubleheader, with the exception of two
UCLA fielding errors, no opposing hitter was able to reach base off
of Burns. But Burns’ no-hitter was just the beginning to an
outstanding afternoon on the mound.

She came on in relief in the second inning of the nightcap, with
the Bruins trailing 4-0, and proceeded to retire all 16 ensuing
batters, enabling UCLA to complete a 5-4 comeback victory. All
told, during the course of the afternoon, the Lions approached the
plate 33 times against Burns. And 33 times, they returned to the
dugout unsuccessful.

"When she is on, she is one of the best pitchers in the
country," UCLA co-head coach Sue Enquist said.

Lately, she has been on. After losing three of four games to
Arizona and Washington a month ago, Burns has battled back to win
her last eight decisions. But you cannot realize her success merely
by watching her during the course of a game.

Throwing a no-hitter or getting blown out, Burns remains
expressionless ­ almost as if the game is meaningless. But to
those that know her, or simply look at her stats, they know this is
not the case at all. She just doesn’t want the fire within to be
exposed to the opposing team.

"If the other team knows you’re down, they’re going to jump on
you," explained Burns of her behavior. "I know that if I have no
emotion, I’ll be able to keep the opponents guessing."

"She has an excellent presence on the mound," Enquist said.
"Burns has learned her craft in a very methodical, non-emotional
way. She just doesn’t get real emotionally high or low."

The ability to control emotion helped immensely a year ago when
UCLA travelled to Tucson for a St. Patrick’s Day matchup with the
top-ranked Wildcats. Surrendering 13 hits and allowing more runs
than a Bruin team had done since 1978, Burns and UCLA lost the
opener, 11-4.

However, cool and calm, Burns came back in the nightcap to
four-hit the Wildcats en route to a 2-0 UCLA victory that would
propel the Bruins to a 19-game winning streak entering the final
stretch of the season.

Perhaps more important than her ability to control her emotions
is her ability to control her pitches. Standing at 6-foot-1, you
would expect Burns to have the ability to throw with high velocity,
overpowering batters. But, that isn’t her style.

She throws about 60-65 miles per hour, average speed for a
Division I pitcher. Instead she relies on her ability to outsmart
her opponents and to pinpoint where she will throw the ball.

"Whenever you’re young you want to throw the ball as hard as
possible, but now you can’t do that because the batters will be
able to hit you," Burns said. "To be successful one must be able to
place pitches and mix up the speeds."

Thus far in her career, her strategy has succeeded. She has
thrown 436 strikeouts compared to only 89 walks. This season Burns
threw less than one walk per seven innings pitched, good for third
in the Pac-10.

"She’s very good because she has excellent movement on the
ball," Enquist said. "The softball community knows that to hit her,
you have to be able to hit the low ball and the off-speed pitch.
She hits the spots very well."

Perhaps the only thing she enjoys more than striking out a
batter is pitching in a big game.

"When it comes to the big games I want to be in there to help us
win," Burns said. "I enjoy the pressure situations much more."

However, the arrival of Australian pitcher Tanya Harding during
the last half of the season knocked Burns out of the starting
rotation in last year’s College World Series. After finishing the
season 23-5, she did not see one minute of action during the
series.

"Having Harding come in a year ago was really tough for Burns,
it was tough for her to make that transition," Enquist said. "But,
she has worked really hard to get to the point where she knows that
she’s good enough to carry the team ­ now she’s got to go out
and do it.

"I know she is somebody that doesn’t show a lot of emotions on
the outside, but this program means a lot to her. She wants to
prove to everybody that she can go out in the postseason and be a
rock. She’s very capable of it."

She will get the chance to lead the Bruins to a second
consecutive national championship starting Friday when they take on
host and 15th-ranked Fullerton State in the first round of the NCAA
regionals.

ANDREW SCHOLER/Daily Bruin

Despite an imposing stature, pitcher B’Ann Burns doesn’t
overpower opposing batters. She outsmarts them with pinpoint
control and movement on her pitches.