Former UA Wildcats Taylor McQuillin and Kati Mauga were on two different sides of the Athletes Unlimited experience during the opening weekend.
Mauga won big and found herself among the leaders in points while McQuillin lost all three of her games.
Within three games, however, both were in a groove, as the first Mauga-bomb home run was recorded and McQuillin had better command in the circle.
They stayed in that rhythm the last three days as both scored more points and they were integral pieces to their teams’ winning. Mauga currently ranks 10th in the league with 590 points, while McQuillin is 55th with 106.
While Athletes Unlimited is breaking ground in so many areas — a player-run league, with athletes receiving individual points for how they perform, with all games on television and even the first softball league to have Topps trading cards — one thing that hasn’t changed is the game.
It’s still softball — a team sport.
“That’s the cool thing about the league is that the game does matter, and the team does matter,” McQuillin said. “And so that yes, they are individualizing it in certain ways. But the game is still played the same in the team sense. And I think that’s important because taking away that team sense, in my opinion, defeats the purpose of the game. Because it is a team sport.
“It’s nice to just get out here and experience it and help grow the game in the ways that we can — being on the field is it’s like a breath of fresh air after the year that a lot of people have had.”
This week there was a little more familiarity as former Wildcats McQuillin and Danielle O’Toole played on Team Hayward while Mauga and Mandie Perez were on Team Ocasio.
The Star talked to Mauga and McQuillin before they hit the field and learned what it’s like adjusting to new teammates every week, playing with wood chips in the infield, and finding their softball rhythm.
What was the biggest adjustment?
Mauga: “We’re used to gelling with one team for a very long time. As that team grows, that’s where we start to understand everyone. …Like if I was on Taylor’s team, I would go up to her and literally tell her (to get it together), if something’s going on, or like, ‘great job.’ And (here) sometimes there are teammates where you don’t know if they’ll do that for you or if they like it.
“It’s hard to find what they like or don’t like within three days. I think just making sure that we all come together as a team and have the same mindset of each inning counts, every run counts, every pitch counts. It’s always making sure that we look at every inning, take each inning personal so we can win each inning and win the game.”
McQuillin: “I think as we keep going through it, it gets a little bit easier in the sense of you know what’s going on, and you know how it’s going to work. I think the biggest thing is if your team is not gelling right, and that team camaraderie is not there. (The first week) our team found out really quickly. We had a hard time just putting the pieces together, all the way around. For us, until the last game it was a struggle to figure each other out.”
What was it like playing on an infield made of wood chips?
McQuillin: “I think it’s set up a little bit more for slapper short game. We saw a lot of slappers have the upper hand advantage — the ball rolls a little bit slower or dies a little bit quicker in the infield. I’m not 100% sure if that’s the wood chips per se, it might just be because they laid the new field out, so it’s not as worn in yet.”
Mauga: “(Last Tuesday) it was raining, and the wood chips got wet. We had a lot of people slip, because it wasn’t dry enough. As a fielder, I don’t think it really changed anything. It’s more true to if you play on the dirt — not really bad hops or anything.”
Kati, when we last talked, you mentioned that you were still trying to find your hitting rhythm. After hitting that home run do you think it’s back?
Mauga: “I haven’t hit a home run in probably over a year. I wasn’t really feeling good in my at-bats so when I hit it I felt really, really good about it, especially because it was a change-up. It felt like the normal me. Hopefully, there will be more. The first two weeks I kind of just took it as like ‘OK I’m going to just get back into rhythm and just get back into swinging.’ (Tuesday) when I hit BP, I felt really great. I felt like always — on time. I felt like I was back into it.”
Taylor, you mentioned that you didn’t pitch as well as you’d like. What do you need to work on for your next outing?
McQuillin: “I think just trying to over overkill, trying to try to do too much. I entered the weekend thinking “Oh, I know a lot of these girls and I just have to be too perfect.’ And the game doesn’t work like that. I just have to go back to who I am on the mound, doing my job and that’s remembering that
“I have eight other people on the field with me. I didn’t have a good weekend and obviously leaving too many pitches over the plate. You can’t do that in this league. Finding that happy medium of balance is going to be the key for me — balance out my talent with the hitters’ talents and the other team’s talents and working with what I got, getting outs, trusting my defense and playing the game I know how to play.
“That’s what I’ve got to get back to — that Wiffle ball game that we talk about playing all the time when you were little.”
Wiffle ball might sound familiar to Arizona softball fans. Are you relying on any other words of wisdom from (Arizona) Coach Candrea?
McQuillin: “The biggest thing we talk about all the time is: Be where your feet are. I’ve heard it from multiple coaches growing up, but you know, Coach always has that way of saying something that you’ve heard a million times and then all of a sudden you have an epiphany and it clicks.
“I think that I kind of let myself step out of myself a little bit and didn’t feel my presence was a sharp one. In these games, it’s so, so, so imperative that you are in those moments. Regardless of whether I’m on the field or whether I’m in the dugout — just being present in every single moment, every single pitch, every single at-bat.”
