Broad Run Softball Reloads

Betz Steps Into Delahaba's Role This Season

By Jeff Nelson

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

At first, Judy Betz isn't sure how to describe what she felt in her elbow last season. It wasn't necessarily a shooting pain, or a stabbing sensation, she says. But more like, well, a Charley horse.

She knows that might sound odd, but whenever the Broad Run senior batted, and the two times she pitched in 2008, she says it felt like she had a charley horse in the elbow of her dominant arm. The pain nagged at her for months, as doctors tried unsuccessfully to figure out what was wrong, and then it got worse.

One day over the summer, while playing for the Ashburn Shooting Stars Gold travel team, it became too much to bear.

"There was one pitch," she says, "where I knew I was done for the season."

Betz's injury was cause for concern at Broad Run, which planned to rely heavily on her right arm this season.

The Spartans graduated three All-Mets from last year's 28-0 team, including three-time All-Met pitcher and 2008 player of the year Caitlyn Delahaba. The two-time defending Virginia AA champions had considered Betz as the "heir apparent" to Delahaba since her freshman year, Coach Ed Steele said.

Luckily for Betz and the Spartans, doctors discovered her problem, and it wasn't major. Scar tissue was encasing one of her nerves, and an outpatient procedure in early December was all she required. By the time softball season started, she was ready to pitch.

"We were very apprehensive about what would happen" after the procedure, Betz said, "but everything is falling into place."

Even with the injury last season, Betz didn't play bad. She just felt she could have been better.

As an outfielder, she batted .345 with one home run and 12 runs batted in. In the circle, she made two appearances (one start) and gave up only one hit and no runs in eight innings, while striking out 11 and walking two.

This season, Betz has not been able to pitch more than five innings in a start - she is still building up her arm's endurance - but she helped the Spartans earn a big 3-0 win Friday over Briar Woods, one of the Dulles District teams trying to dethrone the three-time defending district champs.

"Judy has good variances with her speed," said Broad Run catcher Haley Johnson, one of the team's top hitters. "Whereas Caitlyn was really faster and would be more about the screwball and fastball, Judy tends to keep people off-balance."

Betz throws a drop, rise, curve, screwball, change-up and fastball, and as Johnson pointed out, all of those pitches can come in at different speeds.

With her arm now pain-free, she is hoping to do what Delahaba did the past two seasons: pitch a talented Spartans team to the top of Virginia.

"As a team, our goal is states," Betz said. "We want that third state championship."

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks