Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the success of UMHB’s baserunning in baseball and softball this spring. The series originated from our conversations with head baseball coach Mike Stawski and head softball coach Melissa Mojica, as UMHB is currently one of three D-III institutions whose baseball and softball teams each rank in the Top 15 nationally in stolen bases per game. Part 2 featuring Cru Baseball and Mike Stawski will be published on April 8.
BELTON — Vic Shimabukuro never hesitated.
In the second inning of last Saturday’s ASC home opener, UMHB Softball’s fleet-footed left fielder stood on second base, neither side having scored. But then Taylor Henken drew a bases-loaded walk, bringing Ava Jolley home for an early lead.
Shimabukuro advanced to third, then saw LETU pitcher Laney Taylor walking to the back of the circle, ball in hand, back turned to home plate. Shimabukuro saw an opportunity to spring a surprise, and made a break for it.
She never broke stride as she rounded third, rapidly increasing her pace as LETU catcher Kylie Grisham hurriedly called for the ball to no avail. Shimabukuro stole home with a headfirst slide, seemingly setting the tone right then and there. The Cru never trailed in the doubleheader from that point on, sweeping LETU at Dee Dillon FIeld.
“We’re always looking for the next base,” UMHB head softball coach Melissa Mojica said, reflecting on Shimabukuro’s heads-up baserunning. “We always tell them, ‘Look for the next base and stay in tune with the game.’ There’s a lot of times where the pitcher gets the ball, goes in the circle and everybody shuts down. That’s 98% of the time. Every once in a while, she steps out. And as soon as she moves out of that circle, you can run. The same is true when the catcher turns her back or takes off her glove.
“We’ve talked about the base on balls situation before. You don’t have a lot of opportunities to execute that. It’s the first time in my coaching career of 20 years that we’ve done that, because you just don’t have that situation happen often, where there’s a walk that walks a runner in. That was a huge run for us, and it was just Vic running heads-up and being aggressive.”
It was a highlight-reel kind of play that gave UMHB immediate momentum. But even more so, it was a testament to what has been one of UMHB’s more underrated strengths: exceptional baserunning IQ. Doing the little things at a high level is rewarded in the win-loss column, and The Cru’s 17-7 record is evidence of that.
While far from the only contributor to their success, which includes a four-game win streak, 80 stolen bases in 24 games is a feat worthy of mention. UMHB’s 3.45 stolen bases per contest (vs D3 opponents) ranks No. 13 in Division III.
“We have several kids that can run, including Lindsey Polleschultz, who hasn’t been thrown out this season,” Mojica added. “But it’s also been implemented that we’re going to be more aggressive. We’re going to take advantage when somebody isn’t covering a bag. Or if we can pick up a changeup that’s coming based on how the pitcher grips the ball. Or even late in the count, some kids lose focus, and that delay can allow us to steal.
“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about running the bases and putting ourselves in position to score runs. We’ve taken a lot of chances. We do get thrown out, but I think overall it’s paid off big for us this year.”
The stats back up Mojica’s perspective. Sure, there are occasional instances of a Crusader being thrown out. But UMHB has become so in-tune with attempting a stolen base at the right times—taking advantage of situations Mojica referenced above—that it doesn’t happen often. Only twice this season have multiple runners been caught stealing in the same game. And just four other games have seen one runner thrown out.
“We preach being a student of the game,” Mojica said, noting that film study plays into her team’s ability to capitalize on stolen base opportunities. “The film is available for all players through Hudl. We’re playing Hardin-Simmons this weekend, so their games are all on Hudl available for our kids. So they can watch film and be like, ‘Hey, they’re staying back at first’, or ‘Who’s covering second?’, or ‘What are the pitcher’s tendencies?’. The girls do a great job of being students of the game, learning, and figuring out how to score and move to the next base.”
Mojica’s lineup has a noteworthy balance to it. Polleschultz’s 22 stolen bases against D3 opponents are tied for 10th nationally, and headline UMHB’s base-stealing success. But there are five others — Taylor Henken, Tori Skinner, Madeline Stephenson, Shorey Nguyen, and Shimabukuro — with eight or more.
Within that, speed is an obvious component of the stolen base production. But as Mojica commented, there is far more to base-stealing that meets the eye. To say it is entirely derived from speed alone would be inaccurate, not to mention a significant oversimplification.
“I tell all of them, ‘You can steal,’ and they’ll say, ‘I don’t run that fast,’” Mojica said. “It’s not about running fast. It’s about reading the pitch, reading the ball, and knowing where the defense is at. We work really hard on trying to figure out the pitch pattern so we can run bases more effectively. Usually a team has a catcher that can throw you out, but it’s a matter of the shortstop getting there and making a play.
“That’s what we focus on. Is that shortstop late getting to the bag? Is she deep in the 5-6 hole? Is the second baseman covering the bag? ETBU knows what we do, so they keep their second baseman right on top of the bag, which makes [stealing] a little more difficult. Whereas other teams are moving their defenses according to where they think the ball is going to be hit [which allows us to take advantage of that infield setup].”
And yet within all of it, there’s a simple, yet crucial intangible involved in taking such an approach to stealing bases: trust. Because of the film watched, the fundamentals developed, and the awareness to identify minor areas of advantage, the Crusaders put themselves in prime position to swipe an extra base, even when the opponent is fully expecting it.
But it is in those situations where trust on the part of the third base coach—a role Mojica serves for her team—proves immensely important. When the green light is given to steal, the responsibility then falls on the baserunner to get the proper lead, jump, and correctly read the play to reach the next base ahead of the coming tag.
“I don’t always give the steal sign,” Mojica said. “Sometimes, I’ll give a sign that means, ‘You’re on your own. If you want to steal, get there. You got this. Let’s go.’ They’ll have the green light on stolen bases, and that helps a lot too. I can’t always pay attention to everything and the hitter.
“Like, Vic [Shimabukuro] always has the green light to run. That’s why she steals home. That wasn’t me waving her on. That was her on her own. I’ve found, through coaching for many years, that that’s helped a lot. It builds those kids’ confidence that anybody, at any speed, can steal a base if you know how to slide correctly, read the defense, and read the pitch.”
It doesn’t hurt when you have the program’s all-time stolen base leader in your lineup, either, something both the baseball and softball teams have put to good use through their respective 2025 campaigns.
Polleschultz became the softball program’s leading all-time base-stealer in a doubleheader sweep over Carnegie Mellon on March 6, surpassing a 22-year old record set by Megan Foster in 2003. Polleschultz has eight stolen bases over The Cru’s last five games, with a .461 on-base percentage complementing her relentless ability to swipe extra bases once she reaches first. Even 24 games into the season, it seems opponents still haven’t figured out a good way to keep Polleschultz from stealing.
“At the beginning of the season, I was overthinking Lindsey running, because I was thinking, ‘They know she’s going to run, but what pitch?,’” Mojica recalled. “So I was trying to get deep into the count and mix it up. But now, most of the time I’m like, ‘We’re stealing first pitch.’
“Lindsey does have an advantage because I always put a left-handed batter behind her, so that blocks the catcher’s view, and it’s probably a half-second before the runner catches the catcher’s eyes, where if there was a righty, she would have a better view on that lead-off.
“And then Lindsey just does a great job of leading on-time. She’s going to leave [the base] on time and be consistent, every single time, and she’s worked at that. And she knows when to slide. If it’s a bang-bang situation, we want to go straight to the bag. If the throw has beaten her, she’s doing a hook slide to get around the tag. Those are things Lindsey understands and just executes really well.”
Five seasons ago, in Mojica’s first year at the helm of the program, UMHB stole 67 bases, with no Crusader swiping more than 13. This season, The Cru reached that mark a week ago, with 16 regular season games left on the slate. Similarly, last year’s team became the first in program history to steal over 100 bases in a season (108). But at The Cru’s current rate, in the same number of games as last year (39), they would have 132. They continue to make strides in their baserunning, doing so with little hesitation and buying into the aggressive approach the coaching staff has developed in recent years.
“The girls trust me when I’m saying, ‘Let’s be aggressive,’ and I always tell them, ‘Be as aggressive as you want, and then I’ll pull you back,'” Mojica noted. “It’s hard to get a kid to be motivated to do those things when they’ve never done that before. That just have to come in, trust, and go with it.”
UMHB is aiming to continue doing just that as The Cru continues its ASC schedule in Abilene on Sunday afternoon, facing Hardin-Simmons in a pair of doubleheaders on Sunday and Monday. The Cowgirls are 16-3 overall, but have faced just nine Division III opponents—fewer than 50% of its regular season schedule so far. HSU comes in allowing 2.21 stolen bases per game.
The Crusaders enter their first four-game ASC series of 2025 with a 2-2 mark in conference play. With an eight-game homestand set to follow, the weekend will be critical for The Cru, considering UMHB is 11-0 at home and building momentum as they go.
“We have the pitching to get it done,” Mojica noted. “We’re excited, and it should be a great weekend.”
