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Spotlight on Former Athlete: Brooke Mitchell Garrity – Softball 2002-05A Heart as big as Texas Brooke Garrity led Cajuns back to College World Series
By Bruce Brown
Special to Athletic Network
A dozen years ago, Brooke Garrity was among the best pitchers in college softball.
She was Brooke Mitchell back then, and she wasn’t the tallest or most imposing hurler in the game, but she perfected her craft with unmatched focus.
And she had a heart the size of her native Texas.
By the time she left UL with a finance degree, Garrity was an NFCA All-American, a two-time Academic All-America choice and a three-time Pitcher of the Year in the Sun Belt Conference.
She won 119 games, worked 908 2/3 innings and struck out 1,309 batters in four sterling years as the face of the program from 2002-2005.
“It was a great opportunity for me to go there,” Garrity said. “I hadn’t pitched too well in front of college coaches, and we knew the Lotiefs (coaches Michael and Stefni) before they became coaches at UL.
“That’s what God wanted for me, and it worked out that way.”
The Cajuns were 208-42 in that time, and in 2003 followed their star pitcher back to the Women’s College World Series after a 7-year absence.
“It was the old format,” Garrity said. “If you won the regional, you went to the World Series. We were playing in Fullerton (Calif.) and were in the winner’s bracket until the last game.
“That’s when the drama started. I hurt my arm warming up (against Oregon). We lost (9-2) then won (6-4) to reach the World Series.”
Currently, teams must win both regional and super regional competition to advance, with this year’s Cajuns facing Oklahoma for a WCWS bid.
UL’s 2003 squad reached the pinnacle, then lost 3-2 to Texas and 5-1 to UCLA to finish 47-11 – ironically, the lowest team win total in Garrity’s four years.
“Our mentality was always that the World Series was our goal,” Garrity said. “We wanted to win it all. We didn’t (just) want to beat the next team we played; we wanted to beat No. 1.
“Playing in the World Series met my expectations. It was a great experience, and I was thankful to be there, although our goal was to win it all and we didn’t do that. I had visited Hall of Fame Stadium as a kid, and it was a childhood dream to play there.”
Such lofty success doesn’t come easily. UL was 50-13 in 2002, but lost in regional play. The 2004 Cajuns were 60-8 behind a season for the ages by Garrity, yet fell to Oklahoma in a regional showdown. And the 2005 squad was eliminated by Oregon, finishing 50-11.
Garrity put up some staggering numbers in 2004 – a 45-5 record, 0.82 earned run average, 524 strikeouts in 315 2/3 innings of work, 5 no-hitters and 14 shutouts – to earn All-America status.
“Was I tired? Yes, and no,” Garrity said. “It was definitely worth it.”
With a chance to return to the WCWS, UL traveled to No. 1 Arizona for regional play. The Cajuns lost to Arizona 4-0, but fought back with wins over Temple (8-1) and Northwestern (3-0), then stunned Arizona 5-0.
They needed to beat Oklahoma twice, and defeated the Sooners 12-4, but ran out of gas as OU won 15-0 to advance.
“We were heartbroken,” said Garrity, who thrived with a season on the line.
“I remember games and situations at the end of a season,” she said. “I look back and think, ‘Did I really do all that?’ ”
No easy path
The journey began in Texas, where Dennis Mitchell taught the fundamentals of the game to his daughter Brooke, who also played basketball and volleyball until she reached high school.
“Pitching did not really come naturally to me, but from the time I was young I enjoyed it and wanted it,” Garrity said. “It did not come easy.
“When I came out of high school, I was not ready to pitch in college. There was a lot of fine tuning. I looked at a lot of videos, learned how to get smarter with pitch calls and I learned how to throw a good change-up. That was big.
“Between the lines, it’s a different game. You keep that poker face. Our mentality was, nobody could top us. I wanted three outs, and it didn’t matter if it was a strikeout, a pop-up or ground ball.”
Garrity’s closest ally in that process was catcher Joy Webre, her battery mate all four years at UL.
“Joy was great,” Garrity said. “She called all my pitches, and I can only recall two or three times when I shook her off in four years. She was a hitter, and she always tried to fake the hitter out. She’d figure out what they wanted and we’d give them something else.
“Four years playing with her. She made a huge difference for me.”
That bond was typical of the chemistry found on the UL squad.
“You do everything together – live in the dorm, eat together – and you don’t get that with (youth) tournament ball,” Garrity said.
Scary moment
The entire Cajun program was rocked when Garrity was struck in the head and felled by a wicked line drive off the bat of a Florida International hitter in a home series at Lamson Park.
“It wasn’t scary for me, because I didn’t know how bad it was,” said Garrity. “I remember asking, ‘Can I still pitch?’ and Coach Mike just smiling. It was my own fault. It was a pitch I missed. It was supposed to be a curve. It was a curve outside, but it wasn’t outside enough. I probably missed two weeks. It was swollen pretty bad.
“In that same game, Tiffany Hebert got sliced open (by a sliding FIU base runner). I remember it was Florida International.”
Obviously, most of Garrity’s memories of her college years are much more enjoyable. The 2010 UL Athletic Hall of Fame inductee even met husband Tim while they were students.
Now married 11 years, the couple has two daughters – Abby, 4, and Hailey, 9 months – and recently moved to Baton Rouge where Tim is a security consultant in the computer industry.
Brooke stays home with the girls, for now, and keeps up with former teammates as well as the current UL program.
“I’m sure I’ll eventually go back to work, but they are the future generation and it’s important to be with them now,” Garrity said. “Playing at UL, I learned that if you want something enough, you can do it.”
Brooke Garrity Highlights
Career
119-27 W-L; 1.09 ERA; 1,309 K; 81.5 Win Pct.; 908 2/3 IP; 10 No Hitters
Season
2004 – 45-5 W-L; 0.82 ERA; 524 K; 315 2/3 IP; 5 No Hitters; 14 Shutouts
Game
2004 vs. Nevada – 22 K in 9 innings.
Also
Degree in Finance; 2010 Inductee in UL Sports Hall of Fame
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To view more photos of Brooke’s Softball years, please click on Photo Gallery, Softball, the year you wish to view.
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Click here for Brooke’s Athletic Network profile.
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Click here for the chronological listings of the Spotlight on Former Athletes.
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