If softball is an art, then consider Megan Langenfeld one of the most gifted practitioners of the craft.
With the ball in her hand, her repertoire of pitches becomes her palette, the strike zone her canvas.
With the bat wielded in hitting position, her every swing becomes a masterful stroke, explosive yet graceful.
As a matter of fact, Langenfeld’s extensive body of work is so mind-boggling that it reads like a Paul Bunyan ballad.
Try a game against Washington on April 11, 2009, in which Langenfeld threw the 100th no-hitter in UCLA history en route to a 10-0 Bruin victory.
Then there was the epic pitcher-batter duel on May 8 last year between the then-junior pitcher and Stanford’s Melisa Koutz. The two engaged in a fierce, 31-pitch tango before Langenfeld struck the Cardinal batter out swinging on the 32nd pitch of the at-bat.
Just as remarkable was an unforgettable Saturday in August of 2006, a month prior to Langenfeld’s arrival in Westwood. With her Amateur Softball Association of America team, the Worth Firecrackers, faced with the daunting task of playing four games in one day, the Bruin-to-be gave new meaning to the term “gutsy,” pitching in all but one of the four games. By day’s end, she had thrown a total of 29 innings.
“What happened was, I couldn’t pitch on Sunday because of all of the stress that I had put on my hand,” Langenfeld said. “I had some blisters on my hand, and I literally could not grip a thing. It felt like it was permanently stuck. But in the end, it was all worth it.”
Given such legendary accounts, it’s hardly a surprise that coach Kelly Inouye-Perez holds the utmost admiration for her star athlete.
“I am so proud of her competitive excellence,” she said. “Megan has something special inside that allows her to kick it up a notch when the pressure gets high, and she just builds on that experience. I think a big part of that is the way that Megan plays the game; she plays every game like it’s her last game.”
But for a big-time player like Langenfeld, the origins of such greatness can be rather meek.
Humble Roots
There isn’t much that is touristic about Bakersfield, the town in which Langenfeld was born and raised. Lying on the southern tip of the San Joaquin Valley and located north of Los Angeles, it is a city known mostly for its agriculture, oil and manufacturing industries.
But for Langenfeld, the town is actually quite endearing.
There is the Bakersfield Baseball Academy, where Megan spent most of her time as a teenager.
“I spent nearly every day there, from eighth grade all through high school,” she said. “For a couple of hours, my dad and I would hit and pitch down there and also socialize with all the other softball players that would come in.”
In terms of eateries, there is Joseph’s Italian Restaurant, a mom-and-pop joint whose servings are as big as the restaurant is small.
“They serve huge portions that you could eat for three days,” said Langenfeld of her hometown-favorite Italian diner. “Tiny, tiny place. Really good, though.”
And then there’s home.
Home is where it all started for Megan, where that drive to see things through to the very end was first instilled in her.
Besides Megan, there is her younger brother Matthew, who used to play baseball for the University of Nevada, and her parents, Tracy and Steve Langenfeld, both microbiologists. The family may be small, but the bond is undeniable.
“There are phone calls, from Nevada, to Bakersfield, to UCLA almost every night,” Steve said. “Megan’s biggest supporter, I would say, is Matthew, and vice versa. They are tremendously close to each other.”
But that’s to say nothing of how much of an influential figure Steve has been to his daughter.
“He has taught me to do your best, and if that is your best, then that’s all you can ask for,” Megan said of her father. “He has been a huge influence on me.”
Steve Langenfeld may be a microbiologist, but his other job title is, and always has been, an around-the-clock dedicated father.
For Megan, playing on various youth teams meant traveling quite often. For her dad, that meant hours and hours of driving from Bakersfield to places such as Huntington Beach and Corona, and back again. Such were the tasks bestowed upon Steve, but for his daughter, he was willing and committed to do anything.
“No regrets whatsoever,” he said. “We actually consider travel-ball, with all the tournaments, to be our big family vacation, but we definitely put the “˜travel’ in “˜travel-ball.'”
But through it all ““ her road trips and her ensuing climb up the ladder of softball prominence ““ Megan has maintained a sturdy, even-keeled frame of mind, with the understanding that there is always room for improvement. This isn’t just an individual mindset, but one enmeshed in the Langenfeld household values.
“My brother and I were taught to work hard and always complete something,” Megan said. “Regarding softball, my parents really instilled in me a sense of work ethic and putting in the proper amount of time and work to see the paybacks on the field, and for me, that just happened to be working out and hitting and pitching with my dad, almost every day.”
Legacy
It is March 21, and the Bruins are in Bakersfield to take on CSU Bakersfield in a doubleheader. The fans have flocked to the Roadrunner Softball Complex in waves, hoping to catch a glimpse of their hometown hero.
A typical game at the Complex usually draws a crowd of about 200. For this occasion, there are 955 fans in attendance.
“It was amazing,” Steve said. “Bakersfield seats about 220 people, and they never pre-sell tickets. (On that day) they pre-sold about 850 tickets. They put in temporary stands, they let people bring in their lawn chairs, and it was absolutely amazing.”
Megan Langenfeld does not disappoint, going two-for-three with a run scored and a walk in the first game.
Such is how far Megan has come. Her talents and accomplishments have become so tremendous that hundreds of Bakersfield citizens gather to embrace her.
In her fourth and final season as a Bruin, Langenfeld has continued her dominance, sustaining a 1.29 earned run average rivaled only by a blistering .510 batting average.
Ask Inouye-Perez and there is no doubt in her mind that Langenfeld will go down in the books as one of the greatest softball players ever to don the blue and gold uniform.
“I’ve been able to be a part of this program for 22 years, and there have been some phenomenal hitters that have come through this school, and (Langenfeld) is definitely one of them,” Inouye-Perez said.
Not only does the senior pitcher and first baseman come through with the results, her competitive nature is second to none.
“You put up mini challenges to her in the (batting) cage, and no matter what the scenario, she can really flip it into a game-like scenario and live it as if she truly were in that situation,” Inouye-Perez added. “It’s not easy to dial it up in practice. A lot of people say, “˜You practice like you play,’ and she is a true testament to that.”
Asked what she hopes to leave behind when all is said and done, Langenfeld, ever so modest, dug back to her roots:
“If I could be remembered as someone who worked hard and was super competitive and did everything possible to get the job done, that would mean a lot to me.”
Somewhere in that response, a glimmer of Bakersfield resonated.