Galicinao seeks one last elusive goal for softball

What kind of player would you get if, say, you spliced the power of a Barry Bonds with the hitting instinct of a Tony Gwynn and then added to that spectacular mix the command, control, and speed of a pitcher like Pedro Martinez?

The results seem inconceivable, though Princeton's softball team might have such a player, someone who can hit a home run one inning then take the mound the next, only to strikeout the side on ten — maybe even nine — pitches. This player is senior Brie Galicinao.

Galicinao, a history major from Stockton, California, combined the distinction of being Ivy League Player of the Year last season with the honor of being its Pitcher of the Year, too. She reigns as the only player in the league's 22-year history to earn both honors in the same season.

The 5'5'' senior, who has more power then her size admits, plays like a big-leaguer in more ways than one.

"If playing like a big leaguer means getting things done on the field," Galicinao said, "Then I do try to play like a big leaguer."

Galicinao was being unmistakably humble here. For her, the 2001 season was of the kind that people only dream of. The then-junior finished the season with a batting average of .364, second only to Harvard's Tiffany Whitton. At one point in the season, she was leading the league with an astonishing .410 batting average.

The lefty led the team in a slew of offensive categories: in doubles (12), in home runs (6), in RBIs (29), in slugging percentage (.655) and in on-base percentage (.426).

As if her ability to find holes in the infield and drive balls far past the outfield fence wasn't enough, she was pretty good at making sure opponents didn't do the same thing.

Her 0.64 ERA ranked No. 1 in the league, and placed her among the top-ten pitchers in the nation. In 142 innings, the southpaw allowed only 13 earned runs and struck out more than ten times that, 141 batters in all.

Galicinao has done some things on the softball field at Princeton that mere mortals generally can't do. Take, for instance, the perfect game she threw as a sophomore. The hitless, runner-less, error-less game commanded by Galicinao on April 14, 2000 was just the third ever in the history of Princeton softball.

Then we jump a year, to the last weekend in April of 2001 when Galicinao faced Penn, pitching once again. A Quaker's softball fan watching this game after seeing last year's embarrassment probably thought they were reliving a bad dream. For Galicinao, who had already proved to Penn that she was all that, did it again. In the 5-0 victory at home, Brie pitched another perfect game.

With that said, who knows what this season — Galicinao's last as a player here at Princeton — might hold.

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One might say that Galicinao has done just about everything she can do as a player on the softball field at Princeton. She has lead the league in pitching and was just points from leading it in hitting and last season she garnered two honors which make her seem almost greedy. Shouldn't she give other players a chance?

But Galicinao is far from greedy or selfish. Through it all, she still plays for her team.

As a child, in fact, it was the thrill of being on a team, of working collectively for a single end — the win — which fired her passion for softball.

"I've always loved softball because it was more of a team sport," Galicinao said. "Half the fun was traveling and hanging out with the team."

And she lives for this season not to be named Ivy League player and pitcher of the year — though that would be nice — but for a simpler goal: to win an Ivy League Championship. In all her years at Princeton, that seems to be the one thing she doesn't have under her belt.

"The coolest thing that I could do on the softball field would be jumping on top of the team after clinching the Ivy League title," Galicinao said. "I hate being squished."