McTavish adapts at Lake Region

It didn’t take long for Tristin McTavish to realize she wasn’t in Hamiota anymore.

The 19-year-old pitcher recently completed her freshman season at Lake Region State College in Devils Lake, N.D., and had to come to terms with a gruelling schedule as she juggled softball and academics.

“In the off-season, we wake up at 5:30 and go to the gym,” McTavish said. “I didn’t have class until 9 so I would hang out in my room for a bit then go back to class. After classes, you would have a bit of downtime to do some homework and assignments and then we would have practice and go eat supper as a team and then a bit more time after that to do more work if we had it.

“During the season, we would have lots of games on the road where we would wake up early, travel, stay in a hotel, play in games and then come back and go back to school on the Monday.”

It was quite a load, but one the right-handed pitcher had been dreaming of for a while.

She began playing at age seven and was throwing as soon as she was allowed to in U11.

The daughter of Shauna and Jason played in Hamiota in a regional league, and joined the AA Westman Fury for one season and then the Westman Heat for another when they were short of players.

As her career progressed, so did her hope that it would include time at the university level.

“It’s always kind of been on my mind but two years ago when I was in Grade 12, I really starting reaching out to coaches and emailing around and thinking about where I wanted to play,” McTavish said. She spoke to four coaches, but Lake Region quickly stood out, in part because of a local connection to the school.

“I had a family friend (Whitney Rozdeba) who went there and she really liked it,” McTavish said. “She got me in contact with the coach (Kory Boehmer) and I took a tour there and it was definitely what I wanted because it was a small school. I liked the people there. It was a nice place to go.”

Lake Region is a two-year school that plays in the Mon-Dak Conference of the National Junior College Athletic Association. The college, which had an enrolment of just over 1,900 students last September, is a 342-kilometre drive southwest from Hamiota.

“It was a pretty big transition but it was only a three-and-a-half hour drive so it wasn’t too bad,” McTavish said. “I definitely made some good friends down there that made it a lot easier. My team was good and my family came out lots to watch me play.”

The softball team had a nice Manitoba contingent, including Mya Dueck of Boissevain, McTavish’s roommate Ella Harkness of Portage la Prairie, Stephanie Rosset of Portage, Payton Durand of Winnipeg and Faith Spence of West St. Paul.

There also four Saskatchewan players and one Albertan on the 17-player roster, with six Americans.

It was a lot of new faces, and other than her experience with the AA squads, McTavish had essentially played with the same girls in Hamiota growing up. This was certainly a unique experience.

“It was interesting to know, coming from a different country, how different teams do things,” McTavish said. “In school, we had different opportunities and different ways of growing in the States and Canada, but I found some good friends out there. I will definitely be in contact with them for the rest of my life.”

It’s important to remember all this is taking place as she’s also going to school. That was another reason the school in Devils Lake proved to be a good fit.

“It’s definitely hard with practices and games, especially in season when we’re always travelling around,” McTavish said. “The teachers at Lake Region are pretty good about letting us know when things were due and making sure that we could take things on the road and do our tests on the road or make up labs. They definitely made it a lot easier but it’s definitely hard with workouts and practices and games trying to find time but I made it work.”

Another transition came with the much larger load than her body was accustomed to, and she admits there was an adjustment period to all the time she spent on the field and in the gym.

“It took a little bit,” McTavish said. “I was definitely tired and would take a couple of naps throughout the week. It got easier as I got used to within a couple of months. It’s also different in the off-season. When you’re in season, it’s definitely more draining than in the off-season.”

After an exhibition games in September, the regular season stretched from Feb. 7 to May 1. It was a tough year overall for the club, which went 7-37 overall and 2-17 in conference.

McTavish had a record of 4-18 and pitched 104 innings, just three fewer than the team leader, fellow freshman Ireland Schmidt of Regina. The other three chuckers combined for less than two dozen innings, with a staff earned run average of 9.69.

“The first couple of games, I thought maybe I wasn’t ready for this or maybe not even good enough to play,” McTavish said. “My team really helped me out and turned me around and I got better with my coaches and practising all the time and I definitely got used to it and more confident as the season went on, but it took maybe the first month to get used to it.

“There are definitely a lot better hitters in college.”

She said they are entirely different breed, so she had to alter her approach to batters.

“In single A, you can just move the ball around and it’s a lot easier to strike people out,” McTavish said. “Those hitters can hit any pitch wherever you throw it so you definitely have to switch up speed, location and everything. It’s more about getting a ball in play that’s an easy out than more striking people out in college.”

She ended up pitching 11 complete games, winning twice in her last five appearances.

One of the ways Boehmer developed her was by sharpening her arsenal of pitches. She throws a fastball, curveball, rise ball and change, and said her coach was a big help.

“He really helped me with my rise ball,” McTavish said. “I didn’t really throw it very much before coming to Lake Region. My changeup, he definitely helped with that. I’m just learning more ways to throw it and better mechanics.”

She is returning back to school in the fall with high hopes. The team had just five second-year players last season, with 12 rookies, so it should be an older group that’s ready to step up when next season begins.

“We definitely have a lot more sophomores this year than we did last year,” McTavish said. “Hopefully we’ll be a more solid team next year. We have a lot of solid freshmen coming in. I’m hoping for a more competitive year next year.”

Until then, she is spending one last season with her friends on the U19 Hamiota Red Sox. After a long and arduous college season, she said it’s been a nice change.

“It’s fun and less competitive,” McTavish said. “Playing softball for fun is always good in the summer with the people I grew up playing with.”

» In Wednesday’s Sun, McTavish’s teammate Mya Dueck discusses her time as a two-sport athlete at Lake Region, and what she has coming up next.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com