 "Photo: Glenn Connelly, Assistant Photo Editor")
About this time last year, Erin Floros' goals were fairly modest.
Hit .250. Read the pitch calls from her coach in the dugout. And by all means, don't mix up the signals in the process.
Maybe somewhere down the line, she'd think about becoming an All-American.
Floros far surpassed those expectations, but even that doesn't tell the whole story.
Floros, a sophomore catcher on the San Diego State softball team, started the season with a home run in her first at-bat against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. When all was said and done, she set school records in on-base percentage (.467) and slugging percentage (.558), and her .388 batting average was second all-time in school history.
By the time the Mountain West Conference Tournament rolled around, Floros was calling the pitches by herself - and practically calling her shots as well.
And well after the season was over, she became the program's first All-American by being named a Louisville Slugger/NFCA third-team All-American as well as being named to the first-team Easton-Bell Sports All-America team and the NFCA all-West Region first team.
Oh, yeah. Floros did it all as a freshman.
Now, coming off a milestone year, she will lead SDSU - picked to finish first by a large margin in the MWC preseason poll - in a season where, unlike last year, making the NCAA Tournament is an expectation, not just a prayer.
"It was definitely a surprise," said Floros, who was also named MWC Freshman of the Year. "My goal was to (be an All-American) maybe once in my four years and little did I know I'd get it my first.
"It's more pressure I feel sometimes because I want each year to be better than the year before so it does mean a little more pressure because I did get that award, but I'm trying not to think about it, clear slate and play as well as I can."
And if Floros takes the clear slate, avoids the sophomore slump and further improves in her young career, it could only mean new heights for her team as well.
Two years ago, the Aztecs had their first losing season in in the MWC and finished last in the league. Last year, SDSU responded. It ended 34-15, tied a school record with a 13-game winning streak midseason, won the regular-season conference crown and made the NCAA Tournament only to fall to perennial powerhouse UCLA in Westwood.
This year, it starts with Floros and her new role as a team leader.
"Erin is such a leader, she just so quietly goes about her business and yet when she's on the field she's not quiet," head coach Kathy Van Wyk said. "She speaks loudly with her glove and her arm and her bat and she can speak up when she needs to too, to direct traffic and things like that.
"We're fortunate that she's not only such a good ball player, but she's in a great position to be a leader being that she's in a catching spot and stuff like that, and she just does great job."
The added pressure doesn't seem to faze Floros. She did, after all, call the games from behind the plate in the Aztecs' MWC Tournament run.
"I'm definitely more comfortable just being out here especially with practices and what coach wants," Floros said. "Last year, it was kind of hard for me to get used to everything, to get used to how she plays and how she wants us to play.
"So I think my role's changed in teaching new people what she wants because behind the plate is such an important position, just taking control of the field and stuff. Having a year under my belt I know a lot more and can help out."
But if for some reason the pressure gets to Floros, she's got another former first-year sensation to help her: junior pitcher Christina Ross.
A transfer from Kansas last year, Ross went 17-10 with a league-low 1.82 ERA and won the MWC Pitcher of the Year award last season.
With a team based on spectacular young talent trusted into leadership roles, the continuity will only help Floros behind the plate.
Need proof? Just look at how they handled Floros' pitch-calling duties during last season's league tournament.
"They both got together, sat down and talked about things," Van Wyk said. "At the hotel before they went out to the field, they talked about how they wanted to deal with stuff, looked over charts, studied the hitters more.
"I think they were both really happy to have it, and I think it motivated them a little bit to kind of go with it, run with it and I thought that was a good time to do it because it would pick them up a little bit and motivate them for the tournament."
Be the first to comment on this article!