Softball | 2/5/2016 9:09:00 AM
The third annual RMU Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner is set for Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport. The Voice of the Colonials and a 2012 inductee into the RMU Athletic Hall of Fame, Chris Shovlin, will serve as master of ceremonies to induct six individuals and one team that make up the 25th annual class. In a special series leading up to the RMU Athletic Hall of Fame dinner, veteran Pittsburgh sportswriter Joe Bendel takes a closer look at each of the inductees. Today's feature is the 1994 softball team. For more information on how you can take part in the RMU Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner, please visit this link. Moon Township, Pa. – In the fall of 1990,
Craig Coleman was coaching his first softball game, an exhibition, at
Robert Morris University. It did not take long for him to have one of those "Uh-oh" moments.
Coleman had brought in a group of five freshmen who were talented, yet feisty. Extremely feisty.
"He said we reminded him of a pack of rabid dogs," said
Heather Ferrari, a standout freshman shortstop on that first team. "We wanted to win badly, even if we were a little unruly."
Early in the opener, a batter from Cortland State trotted to first base after assuming a 3-1 curveball by freshman pitcher
Tera Prosser was ball four. The umpire called it a strike.
Coleman could not have predicted what freshman catcher Amy Gavran of Perry Traditional Academy would do next.
"She says, 'Yo, (expletive), we ain't done with you yet,'" Coleman said, laughing. "Then, the next pitch is strike three, and Amy says, 'Now, you're excused.'"
Coleman shook his head, flummoxed.
"Our (freshman) right fielder Monica Everett is rolling on the ground laughing," Coleman said. "Now, this is the first game, so I'm horrified. I'm thinking, 'If this is how they act when they're supposed to be nervous, how will they act when they're not?'"
Turns out, they would act like winners. Big-time winners. Historic, even.
And they did it their way, as Ferrari will attest.
"In our first practice, the existing seniors told us freshmen to go get their equipment," Ferrari said. "Well, I can't repeat what Amy Gavran told them, but needless to say, we didn't do it. We were fiery. We hated to lose. Craig said he hasn't seen anything like it since."
That core group of freshmen -- minus Gavran, who transferred to West Virginia Wesleyan after one season -- evolved into a one-of-a-kind group.
Led by Prosser, Ferrari, Everett and Alissa Noel, they helped RMU to four consecutive Northeast Conference Tournament titles and set the foundation for future success.
RMU had never achieved a winning season until the arrival of the Fab Four.
As seniors in 1994, they became the first team in school history, regardless of sport, to earn a national ranking. The Colonials peaked at No. 23 in the
USA Today / National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll en route to a 32-18 overall record (.640), including 6-0 in the Northeast Conference.
Robert Morris would advance to an NCAA Tournament Play-In Series, where it lost back-to-back 2-1 decisions to Maine.
Tonight at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport, the 1994 softball squad becomes the second team in school history to be inducted into the Robert Morris University Hall of Fame. The 1982-83 men's basketball team was the first.
Six individuals will also be inducted at Friday's ceremony.
"It's a great honor," said Ferrari, who is raising three-year-old daughter Meghan with husband George in Carroll Township, Pa. "We were with Craig since the beginning. Every year, the bar got higher and higher. One of the goals was to be nationally ranked and we did it. We accomplished every goal that Craig set for us."
Ferrari, of Belle Vernon, Pa., was inducted into the RMU Hall of Fame in 2000, a year after Prosser, who hails from Kent, Ohio.
The former owned eight career records by the time she was done, finishing with a .335 batting average, 179 hits, 118 runs, 22 doubles, 11 triples, 16 home runs, 102 RBI, 42 walks and 41 stolen bases. Ironically, she nearly abandoned the sport after playing slow pitch as a prep. She was set to go to Washington & Jefferson College before having a change of heart.
"I was kind of burned out," Ferrari said. "Craig contacted me late, and at first I said no. Then my dad said I should give it a go. He convinced me to keep playing."
Prosser won 24 games as a freshman and set the single-season school record for ERA (1.19) as a junior. She set school marks in wins (77), shutouts (35) and ERA (1.59). She was named NEC Tournament MVP in 1991 and 1992.
Ferrari and Prosser were the stars, but players like Everett, Noel, Amanda Weimer, Sandy Dobran, Dawn Bauer, Allyson Dubinsky, Sherri Lanning, Carol Ewan, Amy McKenzie, Missy Nelson, Missy Vensel and Leissa Sabatini, among others, played various roles.
Coleman said the team physician labeled the power-hitting Everett, who ranks seventh all-time in games played, the finest physical specimen -- male or female -- ever examined at the university.
He added that Noel, third all-time with 10 triples, was a fearless infielder.
"I'd hit balls at her hard from 30 feet away and she'd say, 'Hit them harder,'" Coleman said.
Coleman took over as RMU athletic director 11 years ago, yet continues to oversee the softball program. He will begin his 26th season in the spring, having won more than 600 games, eight regular-season NEC titles and six NEC Tournament championships.
Years have passed, but the stories from the early 1990s remain prominent.
Coleman told of the time when one of his players (all names will be withheld to protect the innocent) insisted she was a psychic. She saw a professional. The professional told her she didn't meet the criteria.
There was also the Case of the Forgotten Uniform. One naive team member left her gear at school for the NEC Tournament. She was told that it would be OK, as long as she got someone to fax it to her.
She believed it.
"It was 1991, she didn't know enough about the fax machine," Coleman said. "So many laughs. So much fun."
More stories will surely fly at Friday's ceremony. There is much to tell about that trailblazing 1994 team.
"We had some great times," Ferrari said. "I feel fortunate that I was a part of it all."
