Pitcher Anna Cahn walked into the softball locker room before her final game as a Mustang on Saturday morning. She looked in her locker to find a note from head coach Jenny Condon congratulating her for completing four years at Cal Poly and expressing gratitude for her service.
That was the first of many tears shed that day as Cahn walked over to thank her coach.
“Then (Condon) looked at me and she said, ‘Do you want to pitch today?’” Cahn said. “I said, ‘Of course I do.’”
That day marked the end of Cahn’s career, maybe one of the most prolific in Cal Poly softball history.
On Tuesday, she received All-Big West first-team honors — becoming the first player in program history to be selected to an All-Big West team in each of her four seasons. She’s come a long way since the beginning of her first season with the Mustangs. But her career, star studded with awards and accolades, started off a bit slow.
Batter up
Cahn’s first appearance as a Mustang was in 2008 as a freshman designated player against No. 2 Texas A&M. On TV a year earlier, she watched the very same opposing pitcher strike out batters, and now she had her chance to play on the same field.
Cahn went 0-for-2 and left two runners on base, but the Mustangs defeated the Aggies in a 5-1 upset.
By the end of the season, Cahn emerged as one of Cal Poly’s most potent hitters, with the second highest batting average on a team full of upperclassmen, in addition to having the second lowest ERA with 21 starts.
“(Cahn) came in and swung the bat, which was a bonus,” Condon said. “We didn’t really know what we were going to get from her freshman year. We thought she might be a project, but she settled in well her freshman year. Then her sophomore year she was lights out.”
In her second season, Cahn led the team to a 41-win season and a NCAA Regional bid by posting 28 wins and belting six home runs.
One of her favorite memories at Cal Poly was during this time. It was the trip to Palo Alto, Calif., for the Regionals where the Mustangs picked up their first ever Division I postseason victories against Portland State and Nevada.
Condon’s initial skepticism about Cahn’s ability to hit seems almost comical now. When runners are on base and Cahn steps up to the plate, the bright yellow ball usually stays far away from the strike zone. This year alone, Cahn was subjected to 38 bases on balls, almost a third of the team’s total.
End of the road
All four years came to a head Saturday afternoon against Pacific, where the lone seniors, Cahn and catcher Stephanie Correia were honored before the game.
“I think (Cahn) and I have had a bond over the last couple years, her being a pitcher, me being a catcher,” Correia said. “I think we stuck it out together, and it’s nice having that other person on the other side of your battery saying, ‘We can get through this. We can get through anything if we have each other.’”
And that is what they did.
Cahn walked out to the circle for the seventh inning with the Mustangs leading by one and fought back tears as she focused on the next batters. Unfortunately, she surrendered a run, and Cal Poly could not score in its half of the inning.
For the third straight game, the Mustangs were headed for extras, but a resilient Cahn, nursing an injury to her leg, returned to pitch a scoreless eighth inning.
“Then (in the bottom of the eighth) Steph went up to bat, I was on deck.” Cahn said. “She got that (RBI) hit, and the tears just started streaming down my face. I was crying my eyes out.”
Cahn finally helped her coach win her 200th game on the final out of her final game.
“It was just really emotional going from being a freshman and not knowing what to expect and saying, ‘Hey I got four more years’ then going into my last game, my last inning and winning our last game,” Cahn said. “It was really, really a great way to end.”
She still has a quarter or two to wrap up her schoolwork, but Cahn looks forward to spending more time with her friends and relaxing.
The fact that she will not don a Cal Poly jersey again has not quite sunk in; four years of habit is hard to break. Not having practice might do the trick, she said.
After college, Cahn hopes to go into nutritional education, and possibly work toward her master’s at Cal Poly.
But for now, she is happy to have given her coach, someone who helped her transition through a tough freshman year, a big win to start a new era in Cal Poly softball.