The Observer, March 9, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 20
Sagartz sisters to share softball diamond one last time next week
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Pitching seven games in the span of three days would be enough to give anyone a very sore shoulder. Pitching seven games in the span of three days, with a chronic shoulder injury, would seem unimaginable to most people. Then again, Ruthe Sagartz, a pitcher on the varsity softball team, is not like most people.
Sagartz started playing softball at a young age. She played every position except second base and shortstop, and he excelled as a pitcher. Sagartz, from Albuquerque, N.M., played on four different travel teams and for her high school, Albuquerque Academy.
"Scouts don't come to New Mexico," said Sagartz. "We get overlooked a lot. You have to play on travel teams."
Growing up, Sagartz was the second oldest in a family with six children. "My family is like the Brady bunch," she explained. "Last year my family even played as a team in a recreational volleyball league."
Everything Sagartz did was with her family, especially involving athletics. "One summer we all played baseball or softball," she said. "We were all on a different team, and in a different age bracket. We lived at the softball field." Little did she know that she would be "living" on a softball field for many years to come.
Sagartz was often the only pitcher on her travel teams. She was even the pitcher for some teams that she didn't play for. "One of my old coaches called me up one day before a tournament," said Sagartz. "He said that his team was playing in a league above them, and would probably lose the first game, so I pitched for him. We ended up playing seven games and winning the tournament."
This type of unselfish attitude is what defines her as a player. Sagartz continued to pitch on little to no rest for all of her teams, playing in tournaments with her travel team on weekends, then turning around and pitching for her high school team during the week.
Then, in her freshman year of high school, she suffered an injury while playing for her school's basketball team. "I was going for a ball on the ground when two girls sandwiched me," said Sagartz. "My collarbone rolled out of place, and I sprained my rotator cuff and stretched out the muscles in my neck. By the time I got to the hospital, the bone had rolled back into place and the doctors said I'd be fine."
But she wasn't. Her shoulder and neck continued to hurt. She eventually went to an orthopedic doctor who prescribed eight weeks of physical therapy, but couldn't really diagnose her problem. To this day, Sagartz still feels pain in her shoulder and neck, but it has never kept her from pitching.
She found relief, though, pitching in her first two years of high school. She split time with a close friend, her big sister. Laurel Sagartz is two years older than Ruthe and now pitches for Washington University. "Yeah, my sister is kind of a big deal," said Sagartz. "She got recruited by a ton of schools." This never stopped Laurel, the reigning UAA player of the year, from supporting her little sister, though. When they were younger, the two did everything together and still share a close bond today. "Laurel's catcher was even the big sister of my catcher when we played during high school," said Sagartz.
Laurel said that she is looking forward to facing Ruthe next week.
"It is a lot of fun to play in Florida because we had never played each other before," Laurel said. "It was a lot of fun last year. My teammates would notice a lot of similarities between us. We even struck each other out."
After her sister left for college, Sagartz really came into her own. She took over full pitching duties once again and flourished. Keeping batters guessing is what she does best. Her arsenal of pitches includes a fastball, drop ball, outside curveball, screwball, rise ball, knuckle change-up, backhand change-up, and a pitch nicknamed "sparky" that she learned from an umpire. In her senior year Sagartz led her team to the state semi-finals.
When asked if she taught her younger sister a thing or two, Laurel said that Ruthe learned well without her help and actually challenged her to be a better pitcher.
"She picks up on stuff faster than I do," Laurel said. "She actually pushed me, because if she learned something new, I wanted to do it at least as well."
Now Ruthe looks to lead the Lady Spartans next week in the UAA tournament in Altamont Springs, Fla. against their UAA rivals, including Laurel and the Bears of Washington University. This will be the last time the two play each other since Laurel will be graduating in the spring. Sagartz assures that there is no bitterness or big competition between them when they play. "When we're playing each other," she said, "I pretend it's just another person. It does make it difficult for my mom to cheer though."
"My mom decided to make T-shirts last year," added Laurel. "It had a picture of me and Ruthe pitching on each side of the shirt."
This year, the entire Sagartz family will make the trip down to Florida to watch the tournament. Seems fitting that the "Brady Bunch" will all be together, one last time, at the softball fields.
