Pitcher takes team to top level

At the beginning of the season, assistant softball coach Gina Vecchione saw her ace, Anjelica Selden, sitting by herself in left field. The other players had noticed Selden’s solitude and wondered what she was doing.

So Vecchione investigated, as a good coach should.

When asked, Selden told Vecchione, “I want to get this done. I want to be the one to bring this program back.”

Vecchione paused before responding.

“Jelly, you can already check that off the list.”

A return to form

Something was wrong with Selden last year, and she’ll be the first to admit it.

“Last year I’d like to erase from my head,” the senior pitcher said. “I didn’t look like me at all. Looking at myself mechanically from my junior year compared to my freshman and sophomore year ““ it was two different people. I’m a different pitcher, mechanically, physically and mentally.”

The statistics tell the story. In 2007, Selden struck out 213 batters, won 17 games and pitched 171 innings. This year, Selden has already struck out 249 batters and won 22 games in 170.2 innings.

Her freshman campaign trumps even her stellar 2008 season thus far. In her first year in the program, Selden pitched 325 innings, appearing in 50 of the Bruins’ 60 games.

Yet, Selden’s freshman success came at a price. After the season, she was diagnosed with a torn labrum and loose rotator cuff in her right shoulder. She decided against surgery and skipped summer softball to rehabilitate the injury.

Selden’s choice didn’t impact her game much her sophomore year. She occasionally struggled throwing overhand, and teams bunted more often. But she won more games in fewer appearances and appeared to be completely dominant. The injury healed fine.

Selden’s pitching motion had never caused her pain, even with injury. Her shoulder wasn’t an issue in 2007. She recently learned that her labrum might not have torn.

So why the drop off last year? Was it the resignation of legendary coach Sue Enquist and first-year jitters under new and current coach Kelly Inouye-Perez?

“People handled the transition … differently,” Selden said diplomatically. “It should have been a smoother transition. Before (Inouye-Perez) was “˜coach I,’ she was “˜Kelly I.'”

“Kelly I” had been the Bruins pitching coach under Enquist, and Selden said the coaching change wasn’t the issue.

Finding perspective

Both Vecchione and Inouye-Perez had their own ideas about what changed: The player they call Jelly grew up.

“She matured,” Inouye-Perez said. “She matured completely.”

“There’s nothing that fazes her,” Vecchione added. “She’s grown up; she’s a different person.”

Selden was reserved about what exactly caused her to realize her maturity and didn’t feel she could adequately describe it.

“It wasn’t an experience,” she said. “It couldn’t be called an experience. I don’t feel the pressure as much. … (Softball) doesn’t seem so big anymore.”

However nebulous the change was, the results were evident. Selden doesn’t admit to being intimidated by any batters ““ she said only that there are some who make it “more difficult to pitch” ““ but her confidence pays dividends against those skilled batters.

“The environment and atmosphere of the game makes it seem more pressured, but it’s not,” Selden said. “For me, (it’s because) I’m able to see it in a different perspective.”

A big moment this year for Selden came in February against then-No. 2 Northwestern. Although she gave up two early runs, Selden struck out 17 Wildcats en route to a 6-2 victory.

Getting past Northwestern was a big deal. The Wildcats beat Selden in the 2006 College World Series. She’s beaten them twice since.

A leader carrying her team

In UCLA’s storied softball history, Selden is unique. And not just because she holds the record for most strikeouts in a career.

“Never before in the history of this program had we asked a freshman to come in and carry (us) in the circle,” Vecchione said. “We were one pitch away from winning another national championship with her, her freshman year.

“She’s been carrying this program the last four years, as far as (being) our go-to pitcher.”

It’s like Selden told her coach at the beginning of the year: She wants to win a national championship. All the other accolades are wonderful, but Jelly said she wants to win.

According to her, the tradition at UCLA is that every class leaves with a ring.

“That’s obviously the goal for every team (to win a national championship), but it can put pressure on a lot of the girls, especially the younger ones, (who don’t know) how to get there,” Selden said.

Selden knows how it feels to fall short under pressure and to fall short as a part of a team.

Her freshman year she watched Michigan celebrate its first-ever national championship after she gave up the series-deciding home run.

Selden wants to get back this year.

Desperately.

She wants to win UCLA’s 12th national championship. But if she doesn’t?

“What if I don’t win a national championship? That hasn’t crossed my mind,” Selden said. “If I don’t win one, that means that there’s something bigger for me to accomplish.”