Dominic dominates from the outfield, infield and at bat

Freshman Sarah Dominic started her career with Penn softball in the outfield before switching to third. Sarah Dominic was partially right. She came to Penn hoping to help turn around the softball program with the outfield defensive skills she developed in high school. And she certainly has been responsible for a good deal of the Quakers' success, but not only in the outfield. Dominic, a freshman from Phillipsburg, N.J., has been one of the major contributors to Penn's offense, leading the team with two home runs, 19 RBIs and four doubles. Her success in the batter's box may surprise Dominic, but certainly not Penn coach Linda Carothers. "Sarah is really coachable, and she has tools that she is not aware of," Carothers said. "She has great wrists and she is really strong. She has perseverance, she gives 150 percent and you are not going to get her off of that field." On the spring trip to Florida, Dominic started in five of eight games. However, she has started in every game since. Because she started out on such a tear, Carothers has refused to take her out of the lineup. She hit her first college home run against Austin Peay in Florida, and gave the ball she hit to her grandmother. On March 19, Dominic hit her second home run, in much more dramatic fashion, in extra innings of the first game against Villanova. With the score tied 2-2 in the ninth, she hit the ball out of the ball park. "That was my first over-the-fence home run," Dominic said. "I had no idea what to do or how fast to run around the bases. When I touched home, the entire team went crazy, and it was an amazing feeling." Dominic's run-producing ability is not the only surprise she has unleashed this season. She was also asked to fill in at catcher for a few games earlier this season. Having never played the position before, she learned the position and eventually succeeded at it. "Catching was definitely tough because the catcher has to call the pitches and be involved with every part of the game," Dominic said. "My teammates reassured me that I would get the hang of it sooner or later -- and I did." After her stint at catcher, she was asked to play the hot corner, where she now holds the starting role. Dominic has excelled defensively since the move to third, committing almost no errors, snabbing well-hit ground balls and preventing extra-base hits. But it hasn't all been fun for Dominic, who has come back down after her hitting high. She is well aware of her slump and is working aggressively to regain her form of a few weeks back. "Lately, I've been thinking about hitting the ball too much," Dominic said. "When I came to bat, I wouldn't think about hitting the ball, but rather worried about missing it." The pitchers for the Red and Blue have been pitching well, but the team's recent slide can be attributed to a lack of run support for the pitchers. No one, including No. 21, is physically dominated by any of the pitchers she faces. In the last couple of weeks, as Dominic has struggled, the Red and Blue have struggled as well. "A coach sat me down, told me to keep it simple, to just play my game and things would work out," Dominic said. "I put more pressure on myself than probably need to be because I am afraid of making a mistake and letting the team down." Carothers is confident that her young slugger will find her groove again. "Sometimes she kicks herself in the butt, so I kind of refrain from doing that, because she does a better job than I do," Carothers said. "She's doing something she's never done before, and the mistakes she's making are on a level that most players don't ever get to." Dominic and the freshmen have brought a whole new attitude with them to the team, which is a reason why they are successful and getting better. Dominic has been heard singing at practice and tried pushing Carothers onto the wet tarp while her teammates watched hysterically. "Sarah makes playing softball fun," freshman Suzanne Arbogast said. "She also takes the game really seriously and helps motivate the rest of us."