Is Danielle Lawrie Babe Ruth Reincarnated?

How about them Huskies? A National Championship for the second time this school year. Following the lead of the Women’s’ Cross Country team, the Husky Softballers put together one of the great runs ever in the history of their sport, and they did it by collectively climbing on the back of their work horse pitcher, Danielle Lawrie.

Her dominating performance in the World Series was nothing less than spectacular.

Need long relief? Someone to hold a lead? How about close the door? Just call on Lawrie, because she ended up being the pitching staff all by herself. Plus she hits home runs and runs the bases, but an “ace” pitcher is what she really is and for this year there was no one better in college softball.

The Huskies won it all on Tuesday, and they did it with the best player ever to play for the purple and gold. Heck, Lawrie might be the most dominating athlete ever to represent the University of Washington in any team sport. She is a for certain a future Husky Hall of Famer

She was named the national Player of the Year, as well as the player of the tournament. She was unbelievable on the mound and threw every pitch in the tournament for her team. She recorded 41 shutouts and won 42 games on the year, including 29 in a row to end the season. She recorded over 500 strikeouts on the year and single-handedly willed her team to victory.

At the College World Series, all Danielle did was go 5-1 with 49 strikeouts, and also hit a grand slam to help her cause.

In the fifth inning of the championship game, she was faced with the bases loaded and only one out against a Florida team that was ranked number one in the nation. The Gators were 63-4 on the season, but half of their losses were to Danielle Lawrie. With her team leading by only 1 run, she simply took over the game and retired the side striking out both of the next two batters.

With the look in her eyes you knew she was going to finish the job, especially after powering her way out of that inning.

I don’t profess to be a knowledgeable softball fan, nor do I know much about the game, but it's clear you have to have a dominant pitcher to succeed, and the Huskies had the best.

Years ago, I had helped Teresa Wilson recruit the first softball team to Washington, and one of those pioneers of the program was Heather Tarr, now the Husky coach. Heather recruited Lawrie from British Columbia, and the rest is history.

An Olympian for her native Canada, Lawrie didn’t play last year for the Huskies so she could pitch for her country on the biggest stage of all. She came back this year with a confidence that she could take her team all the way. While she was at it, she carried a lot of Huskies - including myself - on a wonderful ride.

This was the third national championship for Husky teams in the past few years and they have all been in women's sports. I know I wasn’t the only Husky fan glued to my set throughout this championship series. I watched every game when they were on television and thoroughly enjoyed the class and tenacity of the whole team.

Then to see the President of the school and the Athletic Director, as well as Jake Locker in attendance, just shows the extent of their following. Of course, Jake had his personal reasons for being there, but this was just so good for the whole Husky nation.

What a great way to start the summer and end the school year! The Washington Huskies are the National Champions and it's safe to say that Danielle Lawrie is the Babe Ruth of her day.