Softball Athlete of the Year: Loving the game

Softball is 24/7 for her.

Victor Valley's B.B. Bates practices softball with her father from 8 to 11 every morning during the summer before heading Down the Hill for practice with her travel team, the Corona Angels.

“I have to do softball 24/7 every day,” Bates said. “I have to practice or have some kind of conditioning for softball. So it’s 24/7 softball in my head.”

Bates has been that way ever since she went to watch her first live college softball action at 11 years old as UCLA beat Arizona.

“When we were leaving the game, we got in the car and B.B. goes, ‘I’m gonna get a scholarship from (UCLA) and I’m gonna play for this school,’” B.B.’s mother Solette Bates said. “That was her inspiration. That was her turning point. From then on, she was just focused. She focused on practice, practice, practice, just getting better.”

Last August, Bates accomplished her dream when she verbally committed to playing softball at UCLA, one of the premiere softball programs in the country.

This past season, Bates had the second highest batting average in the state at .765 and led California in on-base percentage at .826, according to maxpreps.com. She also led the Jackrabbits to the Desert Sky league title as a third baseman. She had a 1.353 slugging percentage and stole 14 bases.

Bates is on the Under Armour All-America team, which consists of the top 30 high school players in the nation.

“There’s nobody better,” Victor Valley coach Joe Campbell said. “It’s like a college player going up against high school.”

Although Bates didn’t receive the league MVP, which went to Silverado pitcher Marisa Anchondo, what she did for her team this year is enough to make her the 2008 Daily Press Softball Athlete of the Year.

But Bates couldn’t care less about receiving accolades.

“(The league MVP) didn’t really matter to me, because I didn’t expect people to really notice me,” she said. “I just love the game and I just play the game. I was happy for Marisa. She deserved it. She worked really hard and she’s a senior and she’s leaving.”

Because of her passion and strong work ethic, Bates has always been quick to make adjustments in her game.

Although she is a leadoff hitter on the Angels, she didn’t hesitate taking on a role as a power hitter for the Jackrabbits this past season. Bates was trying to pull the ball for power instead of slap hitting or bunting like she does on the travel team. She slugged five home runs on the season.

It’s usually not easy for a junior to show leadership when there are seniors on the team, but it all came naturally to Bates.

“She knew when to step up to take leadership and step down to let others take care of it,” Campbell said. “She’s mature.”

Starting on one of the nation’s top 18 Gold travel teams, Bates has already experienced top level competitions that have given her confidence to play at the next level.

Last August, the Angels placed fifth in the Amateur Softball Association’s 18-and-under Gold national tournament at ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, the home of Women’s College World Series.

Bates has faced against current college pitchers such as UCLA’s Donna Kerr and had hits off them. When she saw former travel ball teammate Lesley Rogers play on the national champion Arizona State squad as a freshman at this year’s WCWS, Bates said succeeding at the next level became more realistic for her.

“After I’m done with college ball, I wanted to go off on the Olympics, but I’m not sure if it will still be around when I graduate,” Bates said.

The International Olympics Committee announced that softball and baseball will be dropped from the Olympic Games after the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

“It’s frustrating at times,” Bates said. “A lot of boys make comments that softball’s a girls sport and there’s no intensity in it. It makes me frustrated because not a lot of people support the Olympic team or softball period. It would be great if they make it big like baseball.”

But no matter where the sport leads her in life, there’s one thing that’s probably not going to change for Bates — her love for the game.

“Softball is her world right now,” Solette Bates said. “She’ll come home, do her homework and she’ll practice, then go to bed and get up to practice.”

Tomoya Shimura can be reached at 951-6281 or tshimura@vvdailypress.com.