Pirate Nation Stretches From Coast To Coast
February 29, 2012 | Softball
Feb. 29, 2012
by Sam Hickman
ECUPirates.com
After spending nearly every day together for the first 14 years of their lives, Alex Fieldhouse and Cicely Lopez were faced with the reality of attending different high schools.
At one point, it looked as if the pair of names would never again appear on the same softball roster despite living less than five miles apart.
Fieldhouse was raised in Garden Grove, Calif., a stone's throw from Anaheim, the hometown of Lopez. The inseparable duo played on the same t-ball team and the current Pirate student-athletes were classmates from kindergarten through eighth grade at Saint Columban Elementary School in Garden Grove.
Lopez said when school was not in session, you could find her at the Fieldhouse address.
"When we weren't at Saint Columban, we were together somewhere, mostly at her house" she said, motioning toward Fieldhouse. "We've been friends since before I can remember."
Although their phone conversations and tight-knit friendship never ceased, the trips though the same school hallways and cafeteria took a four-year hiatus.
Fieldhouse enrolled at Rosary - an all-girls, Catholic, college-prepatory high school just minutes from her house. At Rosary, she helped her team to back-to-back Trinity League championships while garnering all-league honors all four seasons in a Royals' uniform.
Lopez enjoyed her prep experience at Loara High School, which is approximately eight miles from Rosary. She became a two-time First-Team All-Empire League selection and earned the squad's most valuable player award as a senior.
According to Fieldhouse, their teams did face each other during preseason contests as Rosary "usually" got the better of Lopez and Loara. Perhaps selectively, Lopez couldn't recall exactly how the games turned out.
It wouldn't be long before the tandem had the opportunity to defeat common opponents rather than each other.
The state motto of California is "Eureka," a reference used as an exclamation of triumph at a discovery. Of course, East Carolina University Head Coach Tracey Kee was not part of the Gold Rush that prompted the official implementation of the slogan, yet she "struck gold" in her own right by recruiting an abundance of talent from the softball hotbed that is Orange County, further elevating the Pirate program into a national contender.
During a summer tournament in Colorado, Lopez - a standout utility player for the California Desperados - caught the eye of the ECU coaching staff.
Kee signed former Pirate greats Toni Paisley and Vanessa Moreno from the same travel team. Current East Carolina infielder Jill Jelnick, the team's leading hitter through 13 games, also played for the Desperados' program.
Following several months of correspondence from Anaheim to the staff in Greenville, Lopez inked a national letter-of-intent to take the diamond for the Pirates and departed from the Golden State to the coastal plains of North Carolina.
Fieldhouse - who is one year younger than Lopez - followed suit. Fieldhouse was a member of the SoCal Explosion Gold, which perennially ranks as one of California's top travel teams. SoCal Gold has produced over 50 Division-I softball players since the summer of 2007.
 |  Lopez and Fieldhouse played t-ball together for the Garden Grove Dragons. |
At last, five years and some 2,600 miles later, the Saint Columban Elementary classmates were reunited.
Kee noted that both athletes had certain skills that are seldom found in high school players.
"They are both game savvy and incredibly athletic," she said. "They're smart ballplayers and they understand the little things within the sport. When you do find that in a student-athlete, it's a huge positive. That's what we have with Alex and Cicely."
Lopez has served in various capacities during her time as a Pirate. She has started games at first, second and third base while also receiving the starting nod as an outfielder and designated player. She offers the club a versatile option off the bench when she's not found on Kee's initial lineup card.
Despite being sidelined for more than half of the 2010 campaign with an injury, Lopez bounced back and found success during last year's memorable championship run. She performed in critical situations, laying down five sacrifice bunts as a pinch-hitter. She also collected a pinch-hit single in the C-USA title-clinching victory over Tulsa.
Thus far in 2012, Lopez is tied for the team lead with a pair of doubles. She scored two runs and drove in another during the Pirates' most recent contest, a 9-8 setback in extra innings at the hands of North Dakota State.
Fieldhouse immediately impacted the East Carolina lineup in 2011 as she started 49 games, all at third base. She capped a successful freshman campaign with an unforgettable performance in the conference tournament. The Pirates squared off against regular-season champion Houston in the semifinals. The Cougars outscored ECU 14-3 in three wins just two weeks prior to the postseason tilt, but this time was different.
The slugging corner infielder delivered the decisive blow, a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the second frame that lifted the host team to a 1-0 triumph.
She wasn't quite finished.
ECU still needed a victory over Tulsa to capture the second of back-to-back C-USA titles. Fieldhouse again came through as she scored the game-winning run against the Golden Hurricane. She earned a place on the All-Tournament Team for her stellar performance.
The Garden Grove native is off to a blistering start in 2012. She is tied for the team lead with 12 hits and leads the club with 10 RBI while batting an impressive .316. The sophomore third baseman is also one of four Pirates to start all 13 contests, joining Jasmine Robbins, Rebecca Lee and Kristi Oshiro.
East Carolina travels to California this weekend for the DeMarini Invitational, a field that features two of the nation's top 10 collegiate teams - Cal and Stanford. The trip marks the beginning of an unprecedented stretch which has the Pirates playing 21 of their next 24 games away from Greenville.
Although the squad will not take the field inside the friendly confines of ECU Softball Stadium, it won't be competing in true road games.
With 11 players from California (seven) and Hawai'i (four) combined on its roster - nearly all of whose families will join the Pirates at some point during the road trip, according to Kee - East Carolina is poised to once again transform a west coast facility into a parade of purple and gold.
The relatives of several team members have put together quite the itinerary - which includes barbecues and even a trip to Disneyland - for the defending league champs.
Kee expressed the dynamic roster make-up and extensive familial bond within the program are highlighted in these midseason trips to venues across the country.
"I actually love playing on the road. We have parents from all over and it's easier for them to see their kids. The families feed us and it's festive day-in and day-out.
"At the same time, our players know the purpose is to win and compete and we'll enjoy the activities during the process. Our west coast families have done a wonderful job. They basically schedule everything and we just kind of go with it. It's really nice."
The upcoming tournament will be held in Fullerton, within an evening jog's distance of the Fieldhouse and Lopez homes.
"It's awesome when we go home to play and we have bigger crowds than we do at actual home games," Lopez laughed. "The atmosphere is just ridiculous out on the road sometimes. It's really cool."
Fieldhouse echoed those sentiments.
"The fan club is going to be great. It doesn't distract us. We're there to compete. If anything, it benefits us. We feed off the crowd's energy and its excitement gives us more adrenaline."
Kee said most of those same fans will follow the team from Fullerton to Tempe, Ariz., East Carolina's next stop on the road swing.
The situation can even be comical at times, Kee shared.
"It was a few years ago at UTEP. Their catcher turned to me and said, 'I feel like we're the away team.' We had twice as many fans as they did. It's funny, the further west of the Mississippi we go, the more fans we have at games."
As for Fieldhouse and Lopez, they are eager to showcase their abilities in front of friends and relatives in Fullerton. Only this time, they'll run onto the diamond together, as teammates.
