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SOU leadoff hitter Haley Varley keeps puting up big numbers for the Raiders. By Tim Trower For The Tidings ASHLAND - Haley Varley covers her ears, shakes her head and pleads, "No, no, no," in mock horror. This was going to be an interesting interview. The very thing that Varley, a star softball player for Southern Oregon University, shields herself against - the sound of crunching numbers - is the very reason she commands lots of attention. "I'm kind of superstitious," admits the sophomore second baseman out of North Medford High School. "Whenever someone wants to tell me a stat, I say, 'No, I can't hear it!'" She smiles at the notion but clearly is serious. Varley doesn't monitor her stats, including her batting average, which is plump enough (.442 heading into SOU's weekend doubleheaders) to suggest opposing pitchers are little more than buffet items. She occasionally has someone read newspaper accounts of Raider games to her, insisting they skip over her accomplishments. She has no interest in doting on the many awards she's reaped. If baseball is a statistician's utopia, softball is a suburb and Varley a reluctant resident. "I don't want to think about things like that because then I'll worry about my stats," she says. "If they're there, great. If not, who cares?" They definitely are there. Heading into the weekend, Varley led the Cascade Conference with her batting average, but even she's outdone herself of late, hitting a whopping .762 in a recent six-game stretch. She recently was named the conference's player of the week. In addition, as of Friday Varley led the league with 46 hits and 29 runs scored. She needs two hits to break the single-season school record of 51 she set last year and needs two runs to break the SOU standard of 30 established two years ago by Angie Chaplin. The 19th-ranked Raiders (26-9 overall, 10-4 Cascade Conference) are playing softball for the 11th season overall and the third since the program was resurrected in 2001 after a nearly two-decade hiatus. They lead archrival Oregon Tech by one game in the conference standings heading into Saturday's regular season-capping doubleheader vs. the Owls at University Field. Varley prefers not to talk about herself and her achievements, but coach James Gravelle doesn't balk. The Raiders' leadoff hitter, Varley combines patience, bat control, power, savvy and speed to present opposing pitchers with a grudging out. Batting from the right side of the plate, she's fanned only four times in her first 104 at-bats. "The main thing Haley brings to the plate," says Gravelle, who has crafted a 78-41 record in nearly three years, "is patience. She doesn't chase a lot of bad pitches. She's selective, and she makes contact a majority of the time." She has learned to go with pitches, taking outside offerings to right field rather than trying to pull them. She's also capable of drag bunting for hits, slap hitting and possesses some pop, as evidenced by her two home runs. "That's the thing with Haley," says Gravelle. "She's a very versatile hitter." Had it not been for the rebirth of softball at SOU, Varley likely would not have continued playing as a collegian. An all-state player at North Medford as a senior, she was content to attend Southern Oregon, where she majors in business, and remain close to home. That Varley was not aggressively pursued by larger programs surprises Gravelle. "She might have fallen through the cracks," he says. "Somebody missed on her, and we were lucky enough to capitalize on it." In fact, Varley recruited SOU. She sent Gravelle a tape of herself in action, and it wasn't long before he had her on the phone. She was a Raider in about a week's time. Varley's unassuming nature led her to believe she'd initially play a bit role behind established first baseman Lisa Aitchison. "I was just hoping I'd get to be on the team and hope to play eventually," she says. Instead, Gravelle moved her to second base, which she played earlier in her prep career. "It's so different," says Varley. "At the corners, it's pure reaction (to batted balls). It's such a different perspective at second base. You have time to think, and I don't like to think. I like to react." For the most part, says Gravelle, the transition was smooth because of Varley's athleticism. In her first year, Varley juggled the position switch nicely with her duties at the plate. She began the season with a school-record 11-game hitting streak, and wound up the season with a .383 average, a five-hit game and a team-high 12 stolen bases. Defensively, she made only one error the final 23 games. Varley made the all-conference team and was one of two freshmen to gain Region I honors. As her banner sophomore season winds down, she seems a shoo-in to repeat. "She's had quite a career in just two years," says Gravelle. Just don't mention it to her. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -