It’s a busy afternoon at T Anthony’s Restaurant, the sweet-smelling pizza palace of 1016 Commonwealth Ave. known not only for its award-winning Italian cuisine, but also as a frequent hot spot for Boston’s college students and local professional athletes.
On this day, many patrons seem to be sobering up from their St. Patrick’s Day escapades, trying to piece together the “missing” events from the previous night.
Lost in the crowd is a young lady by the name of Abby Pauley. And at only 5-foot-3, 125 pounds, it’s easy to see why she may be hard to find.
It’s a different story on the Boston University softball team. She may be only a 19-year-old freshman, but like the famous bar “Cheers,” everybody on this team knows her name.
Pauley has been the defensive catalyst and an offensive sparkplug for the Terriers so far this season. Her flawless fielding and spectacular catches in right field, combined with her all-around hustle on the base paths, have turned plenty of heads during the past two tournaments. Not only has Pauley turned a few heads around, but this spring, the Spring, Texas native has also opened the eyes of a more important figure to her style of play.
“Abby brings a lot to this team,” says BU coach Amy Hayes. “She’s a gutsy young lady who plays with her heart on her sleeve. She’s really tough on herself, but she always comes through when she needs to. She’s the type of kid that won’t be denied.”
It’s no surprise that Pauley is already in a starting position for the club. She brings to BU an impressive resume from high school, which includes participating on the all-district team for four years, all-city team her junior and senior year and all-state team her junior year. Pauley prides herself on having the talent to make it this far in softball.
“I’m just glad I’ve been able to work hard enough to play this caliber of ball,” Pauley says.
Pauley gives thanks to a higher power for her abilities and talents in the game. A silver chain with a dangling heart adorns her neck, with a cross carved in the middle of the heart. Significance? Pauley is a devout Christian who goes to church as much as possible, and as part of a pre-game ritual, prays out on the field before every game.
“I haven’t been going as much [to church] since school started,” Pauley chuckles.
That’s because she, like many other varsity athletes, attempts to balance a heavy schedule of school, sports and social life. And when Pauley’s busy days are catching up with her and causing her to stress out, she turns to an outlet that keeps her sanity in check.
“If I’m having a bad day, I’ll just hit some balls in the cage. No matter what is going on around me. … Everything goes away after that.”
Pauley also gets support from her close teammates, especially junior third baseman Aryn Rangel and senior center fielder Kenya Palmer.
“We have similar attitudes in the way we approach the game,” Rangel says. “It’s this way of thinking on the field that helps form a friendship off the field.”
While Rangel may be just as serious as Pauley in their approach to the game, it is Palmer’s approach that helps ease the stress of her teammates.
“I love Kenya. She’s a cutie,” Pauley laughs. “She helps brighten up our day when we’re feeling down. She’ll just do something goofy that will put a smile on everyone’s face.”
But when the team has been struggling in games this season, Pauley has been the outspoken one, waking players up with her play and keeping people in the game with her chatter in the dugout.
“When we have our ups and downs, we need to pull it all together for the sake of each other,” Pauley says. “We all can be leaders. Everybody has a voice on this team.”
But it is Pauley’s voice that has been echoing through her teammates’ heads this season. Not only that, but she has also accomplished something that many freshman athletes try so hard for: earning a leadership role, as well as the respect of her teammates and coaches.
“She just has that ‘take charge’ kind of attitude,” Hayes says. “She keeps people in check, but in a good way.”
Pauley has earned her leadership role this season by leading by example. Her scrappy, unselfish play is far from unnoticed as she goes all out for fly balls and hustles down the baselines trying to beat out ground balls.
Case in point: during a recent tournament game down in Florida against Michigan State University, Pauley helped preserve a win for the Terriers by diving and laying her body out to make two unbelievable catches in one inning, thus waking the team up from its slumber and getting them focused again on the game at hand.
According to Pauley, it’s this type of hustle and style of play that seems to come so natural.
How?
Since she believes she has done it many times before during games and practices, Pauley has built her confidence to a level that is not surpassed by many other athletes.
“If you don’t have any confidence, you’re not helping anyone on the team,” Pauley says. “You’re not helping yourself.”
Pauley uses a great role model to help guide her through her softball career, emulating one of the best players in professional baseball today: New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams. They are both lefties, both outstanding defensive outfielders, and both lead by example with their game on the field.
But unlike Williams, who has recently gained pitchers’ respect as a home run threat, Pauley sees herself as more of a “slapper,” a player that simply tries to “slap” the ball in play, and to use speed to beat out ground balls in the infield. In Pauley’s case, she runs three steps from the back of the batter’s box before making contact with the ball in order to get a faster start out of the batter’s box.
Even though she may only have a .200 batting average this season, her on-base percentage at .286 is good enough for fifth on the team. She also has only struck out three times this season, the second-lowest on the team. Her most impressive stats, however, are her nine putouts in the outfield (best on team) and her error-less play in the field this season.
The flawless outfield performance has helped fulfill one of Pauley’s goals this season: consistent defense. She is still trying to do the same at the plate, still hitting the cages and working on making her game that much better. That effort surfaced during the Florida tournament against Pennsylvania State University, going 2-for-3 with two runs batted in.
But Pauley is not a numbers person. She’d much rather kick back and have a good time with her teammates, especially with what she considers her most enjoyable part of playing on the team: road trips. After traveling to North Carolina and Florida for the past two tournaments, it is these road trips that Pauley believes help strengthen the bond between an already tight-knitted team.
So Abbey, any good stories for those Daily Free Press readers out there?
“If I told you, I think you’d get in trouble for putting them in the paper,” Pauley laughs.
The readers will just have to live with seeing Pauley’s name in the paper consistently throughout this softball season.
And for the three years after this one.
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