Owen Drives Loara Lineup

With one swing of her bat, Alicia Owen of Anaheim Loara knocked top-seeded Santa Ana Foothill out of the Southern Section softball playoffs last season.

Owen did so by hitting a pitch over the head of the center fielder in the ninth inning for a two-run double and a 2-1 victory in the Division II quarterfinals.

Owen, now a senior, delivered a lot of knockout punches last season.

In all of Loara’s seven Empire League and three section playoff victories, Owen drove in the run that put the Saxons ahead for good. The master of the game-winning RBI, she is part of a 1-2 punch that makes Loara one of the more formidable Southland teams in 2002.

With Stanford-bound senior Lauren Lappin batting third and teams understandably cautious about pitching to her--she batted .440 as a freshman--Owen emerged last season as one of the finest clutch players in Southern California.

“What can you say,” said Scott Weber, the Loara coach whose team had never won a playoff game before last season. “Alicia came through every time she had a chance. Whenever we needed a hit, she got it.”

Batting behind Lappin for the first time in her career, Owen drove in 44 runs last season, batted .427, and hit eight home runs to help Loara finish 23-10. Owen has 93 runs batted in in three seasons.

“She saved our butts in so many games,” said Lappin, who batted .417 last season, hit four homers, drew 27 walks and scored 36 runs. “They have to pitch to one of us. If runners are on base, Alicia is likely hitting them in. She’s a great clutch hitter.”

Owen’s focus in crunch time may be due in part to personal adversity she faced and her team shared. Owen’s father, Skip, suffered a heart attack and died nine days before the beginning of her sophomore season.

“I’ve become a more calm person, I let things go easier, I try to have fun,” Owen said. “I don’t take things as personal and changed emotionally. A lot of people said I’ve matured faster. I became more serious, and maybe I’ve become more serious about the game.

“It definitely made me a better player. I was trying to get a college scholarship. I know that’s what my dad wanted. I had to knuckle down and get done what I had to do.”

Owen said the day she signed with Louisiana State was the proudest day of her life.

Owen, who will play second base in college, will be the backup pitcher to Katie Joosten this season. Lappin plays shortstop, but was recruited by Stanford as a catcher.

“Having faced them a lot over the last three years, I hold my breath every single time one of them is up,” Fullerton Rosary Coach Tom Tice says of the Owen-Lappin duo. “Trying to get them out is always the biggest challenge, not just for that game, but sometimes for the whole week or the whole season. They are two of the toughest outs, back-to-back, that we’ve faced. It’s a white-knuckle ride every time.”

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