NCAA SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: CREPS PREPS FOR TITLE UCLA CATCHER MAKING THE BEST OF HER FINAL SEASON.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

Staff Writer

One year. That's it. That's really all Jaisa Creps got.

One year where her arm felt like it would stay attached to her shoulder without stitches or tape or glue. One year where she didn't have to look at the lineup card before the game to know if she would be playing that day.

One year. That's it.

There will be time to lament that later on. For now, you'll have to excuse her if she's too busy trying to squeeze every last drop out of what's left of the one year she got.

"Yeah, of course I wish I had another year," the former Valencia High standout said. "I love (coach Kelly Inouye-Perez). I love playing for her. I'd love to play another year for her, but I can't. So I'm just hoping we make it all the way to the end."

That journey begins at 5 this afternoon as 12th-seeded UCLA (36-16) opens NCAA tournament play against Loyola Maymount (45-16). The winner of this weekend's four-team Los Angeles Regional tournament will play the winner of the Tennessee Regional next weekend in a best-of-three series.

Creps will be behind the plate, running the show. When you see her now, directing the Bruins infield, managing the pitching staff and calming her young teams' nerves, it's hard to imagine her doing anything else.

But for the past three years, she's been little more than a cheerleader while she recovered from major surgery on her right (throwing) shoulder.

"I'd pinch run, which was fine. I was happy to do it. But it was just frustrating because even though I had speed, I knew I could give so much more if I hadn't been injured," she said.

"This is the game I love and I wasn't able to even compete for a spot."

It would have been easy to sulk under those conditions. It would've been even easier to let things slip.

Throw in the ignominity of having to become a pinch runner and you couldn't blame Creps if she'd quit the sport all together. Creps never thought of it that way.

"I think she really enjoyed the struggle of working up to where she is now," UCLA junior pitcher Anjelica Selden said. "That's what separates the good players from the great players.

"She has this one year, but the way she's playing now just shows that she's had this all bottled up inside her the whole time she's been here. This is what she's been waiting to do since she got here."

Creps' statistical output might not seem overly impressive. She's hitting .260 with sixhome runs and 34 RBIs from the No. 2 spot in the batting order, although she hovered around the .300 mark for most of the season.

"Her numbers might not show how valuable she is," Inouye-Perez said. "But she's that person you want up there when the game is on the line, or when we need that good at-bat. Jaisa is a gamer. She's come through with so many big hits or big plays for us this year that have nothing to do with stats.

"It's rewarding as a coach to see someone who has such a pasion for the game get a payback."

For one, Creps has stabilized the Bruins' pitching staff. Selden, UCLA's all-time strikeout leader, has had a bit of an off year so freshmen Megan Langenfeld and Whitney Baker have had to pick up a lot more innings than anyone expected.

Creps is each pitcher's favorite backstop. She's comfortable calling a game, has a great feel for the individual pitchers personalities and has committed just three errors in 42games for a .990 fielding percentage.

That's been invaluable in a year when the Bruins defense has been especially suspect. UCLA has committed 65 errors in just 52 games.

"There are a lot of people on this team who had a choice to make," Inouye-Perez said. "I told them, 'You could go the other way or you could keep on playing through it.'

"There were always those people, like Jaisa, who'd be like, 'What? it's not an option to go the other way. You keep on going. You scrap and fight. Don't you get it?'

"If I had a team full of Jaisas, the whole program would be at the next level."

Creps can't make that first part happen. Nor can she get any of the three years back that she lost to injury. But she's still got some say over how far the Bruins go in the postseason this year -- her one year.

"I don't know what I'm going to do after this year. I don't know that I'll be able to play anymore," she said. "But I love being in this situation now. I love having the game on my shoulders and being in control."

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Photo:

UCLA catcher Jaisa Creps, out of Valencia High, has hit .260 with six homers this year.

Courtesy of UCLA

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LOS ANGELES REGIONAL