It is reading week for students at the University of California, their last opportunity before final exams to do what was put off over the preceding months. But for at least one senior, a tired mind may be a welcome change. The brain is about all that isn't sore after a week in which pitcher Nisa Ontiveros made five appearances for the Golden Bears.
"Pretty sore, pretty tired," Ontiveros said Monday. "But nothing a little bit of ice bath and my trainer can't fix for me."
Not that she minds the work in the circle. Nor can Cal be blamed for wanting her there. Pitching in the Pac-12 was never easy, but it has become downright perilous in recent years. The conference that once gave us pitching aces like Lisa Fernandez and Danielle Lawrie is hitting a collective .314 this season. Its teams average nearly six runs per game.
Ontiveros is the only Pac-12 pitcher who has an ERA under 2.00. And Cal, delicately positioned at No. 39 in last week's RPI, couldn't afford any slips in a midweek doubleheader against UC Davis or a weekend three-game series against archrival Stanford.
So coaches handed the ball to Ontiveros to start four of those games. They asked to her to finish the fifth.
She went 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA, 0.76 WHIP and 48 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings, which is why the Pac-12's most effective pitcher this season is espnW's player of the week.
Her most commanding performance was Saturday's one-hit shutout against the Cardinal in which she struck out 16 batters. That came a day after she went the distance in the series opener, no element of surprise on her side the second time around.
"I just stuck with the pitches that were working for me," Ontiveros said. "I threw a few more changeups to kind of keep them off guard and then just went with my rise ball, which was working for me and just kept pounding the strike zone."
That Ontiveros is the pitcher who may be most directly responsible for a Pac-12 team's place in the postseason is something of a surprise. Even before her work this past week she had already thrown more innings this season than in any of her first three seasons. She struck out a total of 103 batters in her first three seasons. She has 164 this season and ranks in the top 20 nationally in strikeout rate.
The rise ball is why. She threw one before, but not one that jumped away from hitters the way it did when she showed up for preseason.
"I guess it kind of came out of nowhere after Christmas break," Ontiveros said. "My dad and I spent pretty much the whole break working on my pitches, making sure they were really explosive. So this year I have my rise ball, along with my drop ball and change. That's really a pitch that has improved since last year."
Honing it, which she attributed in part to letting her wrist do the work instead of thinking about guiding it, is one thing. To still feel the tug of a passion for pitching that turned her holiday break into its own cram session is another.
"I definitely have to say it's addictive," Ontiveros said. "It's a challenge. It really doesn't matter who you play, who steps in the box, it's always a challenge. Just stepping on the mound, knowing each pitch I have throw to the best of my ability and beat one batter at a time.
"Even on my toughest days, I would never trade it for anything in the world."
If the last name sounds familiar, there is a reason. When Cal went to Michigan a year ago for an NCAA regional, Ontiveros said fans teased her about not following in her uncle's footsteps in Ann Arbor. They meant Steve Ontiveros, the former pitcher for several MLB teams and a Michigan alum. One problem. That isn't the right Steve Ontiveros. Her uncle played in the infield for the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs through the 1970s. He is the reason she wears No. 16, as he did, and he was among the people who helped her keep her confidence intact and passion stoked through three difficult seasons.
So now that she's a pitcher Cal can't do without and the Pac-12 can't hit, how would she throw to her uncle in his prime?
"I'd probably say a rise ball," Ontiveros said. "Just because baseball doesn't have rise balls. I'd give it my best, and hopefully I could beat him. But who knows."
There isn't much reason to bet against her.