Everyone is being forced to make sacrifices during this time of a pandemic, however, for senior student athletes, it feels like more than others. Graduation, senior day, a last run at a championship and so many other things make up the list of the memories that will no longer be made for a lot of spring athletes.
For AnnMarie Torres, the senior first baseman for the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) softball program, she found out her potential last year with the team was cut short after a team workout session.
“After weights our coach texted us and told us,” Torres said. “That’s when they told us and literally, it was such a mess with us. All of us were crying and it was just not fun.”
The three-time All American was prepping with the rest of the Colorado Mesa University softball team for a trip to Utah to compete in a set of games against Dixie State and Adams State, but then the news broke that all NCAA spring sports were suspended indefinitely.
The Mavericks were on a hot streak, winning 10 out of their last 12 games, and were poised to face off against conference rival, Dixie State, on March 14. Their last series against Colorado School of Mines saw CMU win the last two games of the four-game set with back-to-back shutout wins.
This team was ready to blow up in all the right ways.
“It [was] definitely scary seeing everything that was getting cancelled and postponed,” Torres said. “[Erik] Kozel, our coach, really made it seem not that bad for us. He wanted us to keep working because we were gonna be ready when we have to play. So we practiced like we usually would, we went to weights like we usually would and we tried as much as we could not to focus on it until we were absolutely sure it wasn’t gonna happen.”
AnnMarie is one of the many seniors in the NCAA and one of four seniors on the CMU softball team that have to make a decision if they want to come back for another season after having this year end halfway through. The NCAA is allowing seniors in spring sports to come back for another year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the choice isn’t as easy as one might think.
“My thing is that I just want to have all of the information ready and I wanna know everything I can possibly know in this situation and be able to explain to [the players] what’s happening,” CMU Softball Head Coach, Erik Kozel, said. “So when they ask questions, I can answer them and I don’t feel like I can right now. I feel like at this point, this is a transition. This is a tough situation we’re in where things are moving and transitioning and we as coaches, it sucks to say it, but we are stuck in the same position as our student athletes.”
For Torres, it may take some time to make an official decision if she wants to hang out the cleats or give it one more run.
“I have, personally, yet to make that decision. Of course I would love to come back and get a redo on my senior season but I was planning on graduating in May,” Torres said. “So there is a lot to think about and figure out with like if I was to pick up a minor and keep doing that or how coursework would go.”
Torres is an accounting major and she said she was already looking into places for work back in Denver, where she is from. Therefore, it would be hard to put all of those plans on hold just to come back in order to have a “redo” of a senior year that got cut short.
If anyone was to come back to CMU, the program would want it to be Torres. The Wheat Ridge native has been the best hitter in the entire Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) for the last three seasons. Last year she was named the RMAC Player of the Year and led the entire conference in batting average, RBIs, on base percentage and walks.
Torres has been named to the NFCA All-American roster three times (twice Third Team and once First Team) and has made the same number of times to the D2CCA All-South Central Region First Team.
In her senior year, this year, she was a part of an offense that was the third best hitting lineup in the RMAC with seven of the consistent starters hitting over .310 at the plate. For the Mavericks, they were on route to redeeming themselves after losing in the RMAC Championship and Regionals. For AnnMarie Torres, this was her shot to go out her senior year on top.
“Going into these next couple of months I know it’s going to be hard because I know that I have a lot of photo memories and snapchat memories of us being in Texas or somewhere else,” Torres said. “Even prior Senior Days that I have taken pictures with, knowing that should’ve been us and that should’ve been me out there, it’s gonna be hard.”
Torres’ last at bat this season was an RBI single out to left center that gave CMU their last recorded run of the year in their 8-0 win over Colorado School of Mines. She ended the year with a .358 batting average and led the team with 27 RBIs and seven home runs.
Moving forward it will be a waiting game for both the athletes and coaches to see what the NCAA does in terms of legislation to what the next year will look like. Patience is what it will take to get through the next couple of months.
“It’s a tough situation and everybody is trying to make the best of it,” Erik Kozel said. “We’re gathering our information and we’re transparent with our information…I feel like as competitors, as softball players and as a former baseball player [myself] as well, you deal with that on the regular. You deal with things that don’t go your way.”
