Stangel: So much more than a pitcher

Casey Stangel has been to the Women’s College World Series before ... at least, in her mind.

Growing up in California, Casey and her dad, Chris, would often conclude a training session with a trip to the batting cages.

Toward the end of the hitting session, Chris would often crank up the pitching machine as fast as it would go, and put a little something on the line for a successful line drive.

“‘If you hit this one, you can get Starbucks,’” Casey recalled her dad saying. “Or ice cream. Or ... ”

“We’d train under pressure, so when you’re in pressure situations, there’s not a lot of pressure,” she said.

One time, the motive to finish with a line drive was, “this is to go to the College World Series.”

Whack!

“I’d be like, ‘oh, we made it,’ but then I was like ‘oh, but I’m 8 years old, so I didn’t really make it,’” Stangel recalled.

Some 14 years later, she got to experiece the feeling for real. Stationed in left field, the University of Washington left fielder and former Lake City High standout was not far away Sunday night when the Huskies’ shortstop roamed over to the left field line and snagged a popup for the final out as U-Dub defeated Utah 2 games to 1 in the Super Regionals to advance to the Women’s College World Series.

For real.

“The feeling was a thousand, bajillion times better,” Stangel said of the real thing. “It was awesome. Obviously losing on Saturday was a bummer because we were so close, but I think it re-centered our team and reminded us to go pitch to pitch and not be so outcome-oriented with our thought process. ... It was an awesome moment. It was definitely a huge goal, and super exciting to get here, something that’s always been a dream, so really exciting to do it.”

STANGEL AND the Huskies (48-12) open Women’s College World Series today in Oklahoma City, facing Oregon at 4 p.m. on ESPN2. Double-elimination play continues through Sunday, with the two remaining teams squaring off in a best-of-3 championship series Monday through Wednesday.

The lefty-hitting Stangel has started all 60 games for Washington, is fifth on the club in batting (.351), third in homers (11) and second in RBIs (52).

Between last season and this season, Stangel made the decision to give up pitching, a position she mostly played growing up, especially while helping Lake City win a couple of state titles during her time there.

“I love being an outfielder,” she said, “and obviously I have a really clear understanding of how tough it is to be a pitcher so I have so much respect for them. It’s been nice to just focus on hitting, hitting’s always been my favorite thing.”

Still ...

“It was really tough,” Stangel said of giving up pitching. “In high school I always said I was a hitter who pitched, but ... it was a really hard decision, because pitching has been such a part of me, as a player, for so long. But I knew it was best for my team for me to not be out there anymore, because I wasn’t super confident in what I was doing. ... I wasn’t feeling that way as a pitcher but I felt that way as a hitter and I felt that way as an outfielder. It personally was a tough choice to make, but I knew it was going to benefit me, I knew it was going to benefit the team. And knowing that made it a lot easier.”

Same with the decision to leave Missouri after her freshman year and transfer to Washington.

“It was just wasn’t the right fit,” Stangel said of Missouri, a school she verbally committed to early in her sophomore year of high school. “And maybe going through the recruiting process so young, you don’t necessarily know what’s the right questions to ask, and how do you know that a program is the right fit at 13 or 14 years old. And I think the answer is, you don’t.”

She said she has no hard feeling toward Missouri.

“It just wasn’t the fit for me, it wasn’t the right culture for me, I wasn’t getting everything I thought I would get out of my college softball career,” Stangel said of her time in Columbia. “At the end of the season I explained that to the coaches and they gave me my release, and Washington was the place that stuck out that I thought would be the best fit, after a year of college softball, knowing what I wanted. It ended up being way better than I thought it was going to be.”

How so?

“I think the leadership from coach (Heather) Tarr, the culture, the core values of the team,” she said. “They have high standards, athletically and academically ... the way our coaches coach was the way I was taught the game. It aligned pretty well with the way I was brought up as a player. It just fit really well.”

Stangel remembers taking an unofficial visit to Washington the summer after she finished the eighth grade, seeing the campus and meeting the coaches. But it was a different feeling then.

“I was being highly recruited by Missouri and other places moreso than Washington,” Stangel said of the time. “Talking to coach Tarr now, maybe I was not on the same page with where they were at. With me, being so young, it just didn’t really match up, the timing of it, but a couple years later, it ended up matching up perfectly.”

ONE ADVANTAGE to playing at Washington — her being back in the Northwest means her parents (Chris and Debi) have been able to come to all her home games her senior year, as well as many of her road games.

Another advantage — with Washington on the quarter system, Stangel took some heavy classloads during her time there, as well as summer classes, and was able to graduate in March. Meanwhile, her teammates are taking finals this week from Oklahoma City.

“It’s been nice to not be in school right now,” she said.

Of course, her team’s appearance in the Women’s College World Series has given her an excused absence from the next step in her career — a summer internship with Major League Baseball, at the Office of the Commissioner in New York City.

She was supposed to report to New York ... “umm, today,” she said Wednesday. “The person I’ll work directly under sent me an email saying congratulations. My first day will probably be June 10, regardless of how the tournament goes. I’m excited (for the internship), and that’ll be cool, but I’m just really enjoying this week, and my last week of softball, which is crazy to think about. But it’s exciting.”

That will be followed up by enrollment in graduate school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she’ll be a graduate assistant for the Commodores’ baseball team.

Stangel said she had an offer to play in the National Pro Fastpitch league this summer, but thought the internship and the grad program was a better decision.

Another advantage to making it to the Women’s College World Series — she’s been able to spend time with her best friend, Vanessa Shippy, another former Lake City standout, who just completed her junior season at Oklahoma State, where the Cowgirls made it to the NCAA regionals before losing to top-ranked Florida.

“It’s amazing,” Stangel said of having her friend nearby. “I texted her before our game on Sunday and I was like, ‘I’m not ending my softball career unless you’re here with me. We’re going to Oklahoma City.’ I wish we were playing on the same team, or against each other, but I’m really happy that she’s here. It’s fantastic.”

Shippy, literally sitting nearby, agreed.

“It’s amazing,” she said, after traveling roughly an hour from Stillwater to OKC. “Casey introduced me to the sport of softball. I played before I met her, but I became a whole different player once we started training together. She’s changed my life on the field and off the field, more importantly. Being here to watch her dreams coming true ... I can’t wait to watch her. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

STANGEL PLAYED a little bit of outfield last year, before making the decision to move there full time this year.

In a Super Regionals game at Alabama last year, the Crimson Tide had a runner on third and the batter hit a fly ball to left field. The runner tagged up, ’Bama coach Patrick Murphy sent her ... and Stangel gunned her down at the plate.

“After the game he said, ‘No disrespect, but, you’re a pitcher, so I just sent her,’” Stangel recalled.

No disrespect, coach. Casey Stangel has proven she’s so much more than a pitcher.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.