Overview:
UCSB coach Jo Evans hopes Grace Luderer’s return from a rib injury will give her team a boost toward its first Big West Conference softball title
My favorite bedtime stories crackled through the transistor radio I smuggled under the covers whenever the Los Angeles Dodgers played a night game.
But UC Santa Barbara softball pitcher Grace Luderer needed no battery-charged Walkman to get the same childhood experience.
Her grandfather — the late, great announcer Vin Scully — delivered those stories to her in person.
“My grandpa was the greatest storyteller ever, and he’d tell us bedtime stories all the time,” Luderer told Noozhawk. “It was my favorite thing.”
The anecdotes that the Baseball Hall of Fame announcer sprinkled amid his play-by-play were often poignant back stories from the American pastime.
But the tales that Scully shared with Luderer — one of his 38 grandchildren — frequently dealt with his own life.
“Some of them would have to do with his relationship with my grandma, Sandi … How they met and some of the things they went through,” she said. “He would talk a little bit about their history.
“They felt like fairytales to me because their love story was, honestly, like a fairy tale.”
Scully, whose 67-year tenure with the Dodgers was the longest of any broadcaster with one professional sports team, retired in 2016 at the age of 88.
He was 94 when he died in August 2022, just a few months after Luderer had been voted Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year for Seattle University.
Scully had inspired his granddaughter that season by sending a video to the Redhawks before Opening Day.
The “good luck” he wished them was “especially for my favorite redhead.”
They were bonded by common locks.
“I have eight siblings and none of them have red hair,” Luderer said. “I have 36 cousins and none of them have red hair.
“My parents don’t have red hair and none of my uncles or aunts, do either.”
Her grandpa “always reminded me how beautiful and special it is” to be a redhead.
Battery Mates
Luderer’s long friendship with Gaucho catcher Daryn Siegel, her former travel-ball teammate with the Orange County Batbusters, convinced her to transfer to UCSB for her senior season this year.
“She had so many great things to say about this place,” Luderer said. “She knew the type of person I am and what I work best with, and she knew how our coaches work.”
Justin Siegel, Daryn’s father, coaches with Grace’s uncle, Brian Luderer, at Sherman Oaks’ Notre Dame High School. Coach Luderer’s twin daughters, Keira and Kelsey, are star freshmen on the team.
“Grace is very close to the Siegels, and I think it felt to her that this could be home,” UCSB coach Jo Evans said. “She’s surrounded by people who know her well — who know her family — and they are people that she’s comfortable with.
“When you’re looking to make a move, those things are really important. They’re even more important than, ‘Am I going to a championship team?’”
But the Gauchos, 22-17 overall, are indeed bidding for their first Big West Conference championship in school history.
They began the second half of league play this weekend by winning a three-game series at UC San Diego to put them atop the conference, a half-game ahead of Cal State Northridge, with an 11-4 record.
Luderer began the year as one of the Gauchos’ aces, beating UTEP while allowing just six hits and no earned runs in her first start.
The 5-foot-10 righthander also pitched victories over Utah and Saint Mary’s. She earned a save by closing out a 3-2 win over Oregon State at the prestigious Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Palm Springs.
Even her losses were impressive efforts: 1-0 defeats to both Colorado State and Creighton.
“She throws with velocity and she’s not afraid to go at hitters,” Evans said. “She’s not afraid to go inside, and some pitchers struggle with that.
“We don’t have the most experienced pitching staff and she brings us experience, having played at Seattle and being a senior.”
Luderer’s earned-run average this season sits at 3.40 over the 47⅓ innings she pitched during the first three weeks.
Painful Pause
A rib injury has kept her off the field since her last appearance five weeks ago.
“I pitched through some aches and pains and tightness, and I just ended up hurting myself a little too much,” Luderer said.
She’s not surprised, however, that UCSB has risen to the top of the Big West standings in her absence.
Third baseman Bella Fuentes, another one of her former travel-ball teammates, has hit nine home runs and driven in 46 runs to come within striking distance of the school record in both categories.
Siegel is one of five other Gauchos hitting around .300 or higher in a lineup that includes Giselle Mejia (.376), Delaina Ma’ae (.345), Jazzy Santos (.305) and Ainsley Waddell (.297).
“The second I got here I noticed that the culture is a little bit different than what I was used to,” Luderer said. “Everybody puts in the work. Everyone wants to be part of a winning program.
“I saw the talent right away. Malaya (Johnson) has really stepped up and taken charge of the pitching staff, and Ava (Bradford), Sam (Stoll) and Ainsley are doing their parts, too.”
Johnson leads the Big West in pitching victories with a win-loss record of 13-6. Her 2.81 ERA and 65 strikeouts also rank among the league leaders.
“I’m just so proud of my team right now, going on this winning streak even without my help,” Luderer said.
“Of course, I’m itching to play, but it’s also really exciting to watch them do their thing.”
She was one of the first to greet both Siegel and Fuentes at home plate after they had each banged a home run off the UCSB scoreboard during last week’s series finale against Cal Poly.
“Grace is a really good teammate … Upbeat, positive,” Evans said. “This injury is challenging for her but she’s still engaged and helps wherever she can.”
Her hope is that Luderer will be ready to pitch during the stretch run of the Big West Conference race and at the league’s postseason tournament. The inaugural event is set for May 7-10 at Cal State Fullerton’s Anderson Family Field.
“I look forward to her being back out there, but we need her to be 100%,” Evans said. “I don’t want to have her throw a couple of innings and then get re-injured and not be able to help us at all.
“We’ll wait as long as we need to wait.”
Family Ties
Strong family support has helped Luderer endure the frustration of her injury. Her mother, Cat Scully, is Vin Scully’s daughter. Her father, Matt Luderer, is the athletic director at La Cañada’s St. Francis High School.
“My dad’s been my biggest supporter from when I was 4 until now,” she said. “He’s been my lifelong catcher.
“He doesn’t let me live it down whenever I hit him in the shins.”
Her uncle, Brian, who played nine seasons as a catcher in the minor-league systems of the then-Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians, also has caught many of her pitching workouts.
“I have a boyfriend who is a baseball pitcher and my uncle will sometimes catch him for fun, too,” Luderer said. “It’s kind of cool to see how he works back there.”
She’s pitched thousands of innings during a softball career that began before her 4th birthday.
It paid off in 2019 when she earned Cal-Hi All-State honors while pitching Louisville High School of Woodland Hills to a CIF-Southern Section Division 5 championship.
The semifinal victory over Simi Valley’s Grace School came with a measure of vengeance.
She hit a home run to win a 1-0 pitcher’s duel against Arizona-bound Jessie Fontes — the pitcher who had defeated her team at the 10-and-under national championships many years earlier.
Luderer psyched herself up for their high school rematch by looking into the mirror for three straight days and declaring, “You can do it! You’re going to beat her this time!”
“It wasn’t actually a walk-off home run,” she pointed out. “I did have to go back out there and get three more outs.”
Baby Blue-Blood
Her first Dodger game remains another indelible memory.
“I was probably around 2 or 3, maybe even younger,” Luderer said. “I definitely bleed Dodger blue.
“I got to go to Opening Day this year with some of my family.”
The Dodgers’ famed broadcaster went to a few of her games, as well.
“My grandpa tried his best to come whenever he could while I was growing up,” Luderer said. “He would miss some of the game whenever he was there because of all the people coming up after they’d recognized him.”
Scully did come up with a creative way to be present at all of her travel-ball games one season.
“He made a recording, broadcasting our whole lineup so we could play it when we got to state and nationals,” Luderer said. “We turned that on every time the game started so it could announce us going to our positions.”
It makes for a nice Vin Scully story that they can tell their own grandkids some day.
