Wednesday, April 02, 2008
''AJA AND THE FRESNO BULLDOGS''
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BY MARK RIVERA Staff reporter For Aja Scheuber, showing her spirit in college has not been too difficult of a task. The former Turlock High School softball player made sure to hold on to many of her Bulldog items from high school, and once she transferred to Fresno State, the Bulldog attire came out of the box. "I still have most of my bulldog stuff," Scheuber said. "It really is cool to go to another bulldog school. Not quite the same colors, but it still works." Scheuber has made a name for herself this softball season, trading in her blue and gold Turlock High Bulldog-look to wear the red, navy and white of the Fresno State Bulldogs. The senior designated hitter has been batting in the cleanup spot all season long and has led the Bulldogs to a 34-5 record and a No. 10 USA Softball national ranking, all this in the team's 10th anniversary of its 1998 national championship. With a 34-5 overall record and a 2-0 Western Athletic Conference record, the Bulldogs are off to their best start since the 1991 season, a team that finished third in the country at the Women's College World series after a 46-6 start. "She has just been so consistent and she has come through so many times," said 23-year veteran Fresno State head coach Margie Wright. "She's just been a lot of stability for us offensively; a lot of times starting rallies and the players just pick up on her." Scheuber has filled her role as designated hitter quite nicely, entering this week batting .384 with a .606 slugging percentage and a .508 on-base percentage heading into Tuesday's non-conference doubleheader against UC Davis, which the Bulldogs swept. She leads the team in walks with 25, is second on the team in RBIs with 32 and third on the team in homeruns with five. The numbers would point to a breakout season of sorts for Scheuber, who played in 24 games in 2007, starting just 14. She batted a respectable .319 with one homerun and 10 RBIs. This season she has started all 37 games for the Bulldogs, but Scheuber says she hasn't changed a thing since last season. "I just go out there like I did last year and do what I know how to do," Scheuber said. "I don't really worry about my stats. I go up there and ultimately am thinking, 'Put the ball in play.'" "She's always been a good player, she just didn't get a chance to play a lot last year because there were a lot of seniors," Aja's dad Bill Scheuber said. "It was probably the first time she wasn't one of the team leaders. Going to Fresno she knew she wasn't going to pitch because they recruited her for her bat so she was okay with that." So this season, what Aja has been doing since her days at Turlock High, is working. Not that it didn't work before. A successful junior college career at Merced College almost certainly launched her into the eyes of coach Wright. "She's very athletic and has a very natural swing," Wright said. "She was very consistent at the junior college level. The good part about Aja is that she has a lot of weapons. She can hit for power (and) she can run." Scheuber was named the Central Valley Conference Most Valuable Player in 2006 and was selected to the all-state first team. In 2005, just a year out of high school, she led the Blue Devils with a .418 batting average, the second-highest in school history and 11 homeruns, as well as topping the team in RBIs, runs scored and walks. "It's a little different because we haven't had a left-handed player that hits for power like that," Wright said. "She can hold her own against any of the power hitters that we've had in the last 23 years." Scheuber isn't alone in the Bulldog transformation. 2003 Turlock High graduate Tom Brandstater, along with Will Harding, another Turlock High graduate, mix it up for the Fresno State football team. Blake Amador and Tommy Mendonca play baseball for the Bulldogs, making it a regular reunion. "There's a lot of friends here that I went to school with," Scheuber said. "There's Tom (Brandstater), and Tom Mendonca and Blake Amador, and we've all been friends all through high school. We hang out in Fresno even though we're far away from home." The Bulldogs are flying through this season and with a 6-3 record against top 25 teams this season, including a 6-5 win over No. 6 Michigan two weeks ago, the team looks primed to celebrate the 10-year anniversary in style. "I know that if we can make all the adjustments we need to then we can succeed," Wright said. "I couldn't possibly ask for any other group of girls. It's awesome playing with all these girls. I'm sure we've all made the decision that we want to go far," Scheuber said. Fresno State's next home games will be a three game WAC series against Nevada on Friday and Saturday. A single game on Friday begins at 6 p.m. at Bulldog Diamond. A doubleheader Saturday will close the series, with the first game scheduled for 1 p.m. | ||||
