Capping Her Career
Shortstop Ashley Hansen sets doubles record.
SOFTBALL
If you’re named the national softball
player of the year as a junior, what’s left to
achieve as a senior? For shortstop Ashley
Hansen, that question is like a grooved
pitch she can smack over the fence: “We go
to the World Series as a team.”
That may sound a shade pat, but it’s
deeply felt. Three seasons of standout
individual play by Hansen helped Stanford
rack up 127 wins against 47 losses and
extend its run of NCAA tournament
appearances to 14 straight years. What lin-
gers is Hansen’s frustration at having yet
to play in the Women’s College World
Series; last year’s squad would have made it
with just one more victory.
At press time the Cardinal record was
27-8 with Hansen hitting .360 and enhanc-
ing her place in Stanford history by taking
over the top spot for career doubles.
Unlike many players who worry about
the limited post-college opportunities
in softball, Hansen is prepared to move
on. “I’ll never walk away from the game
completely,” she notes, anticipating her
participation in camps and clinics. But her
focus will shift to a job at a Bay Area tech-
nology start-up that begins in August.
From that point on, she says, her ambi-
tions will revolve around becoming “a
rock-star businesswoman.”
Until then, there’s still business, of a
sort, at Stanford: the unfinished kind. The
bottom line depends on where she and her
teammates are on May 31, when the World
Series opens in Oklahoma City. ■
SPORTS BRIEFS
WRESTLERS EXCEL
Nick Amuchastegui, ’ 11,
MS ’ 11, suffered his only
defeat of the season in
the 174-pound finals of
the NCAA champion-
ships, losing a 13-2
major decision to Ed
Ruth of Penn State.
Amuchastegui is the first
wrestler in Stanford his-
tory to reach the NCAA
finals twice. He was a
three-time All-American
with a 118-19 record,
24-1 this season, and is
the Pac- 12 Wrestler of
the Year.
ZACH SANDERSON (TOP); RICK BALE (BOTTOM)
SWIM FINALE
Betsy Webb and Sam
Woodward finished
their Cardinal careers
as champions in the
400 relay, and sopho-
more Maya DiRado was
runner-up in the 200
back as the Stanford
women’s swimming team
finished fourth at the
NCAA title meet, behind
Cal, Georgia and USC.
Much has been made of Brian
Ragira—full name Brian Aosa
Mogaka Ragira—being of Kenyan
descent. It distinguishes him from
most young U.S. baseball players,
so it can make for an interesting
angle as his star rises at Stanford
in a season of big expectations.
But Ragira, born and raised
in Texas, also reflects a classic
American sensibility about the
national pastime. He talks, for
instance, about all his Saturdays
that included watching national
telecasts of the New York Yankees
and the admiration he developed
for team captain Derek Jeter.
“It’s the way he carries himself,
the way he hustles, the way he
runs every ball out,” says Ragira,
a sophomore who was the Pac- 10
freshman of the year after hitting
.329 with a team-leading 46 runs
batted in.
Ragira, who speaks Swahili
and Ekegusii (a western Kenyan
language), passed up a chance to
play professionally after the Texas
Rangers drafted him in 2010. But
he wants to be a major leaguer
and might not play four years
at Stanford if the right contract
comes around.
This season opened with
Stanford ranked No. 2 in the
nation; Ragira was playing first
base and hitting .347 with 18
RBIs through the first 23 games.
He’s also sampling as much as he
can of everything Stanford has
to o;er, but nothing so far has
changed the fact that “baseball is
the most enjoyable thing I do.” ■
A PENCHANT FOR
BASEBALL
