11

Thursday, August 9, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS

All good for Rodriguez

JORGE CAZARES
Daily Sports Writer

In the muggy fields of central 
Florida, Roberto Rodriguez takes 
his three kids to their impromptu 
training ground.
Up the hill. Next.
Up the hill. Next.
Up the hill.
The 
three 
future 
collegiate 
ballplayers sprint up the hill adjacent 
to their Monteverde home in a test 
of endurance. Next come the agility 
and speed drills as Roberto times and 
tracks the progress of his athletes. 
Eventually the drills transition to 
the diamond behind their local 
church, where the focus switches 
from building endurance and speed 
to improving fielding, hitting and IQ.
Roberto would create a scenario: 
runners on first and third, one out. 
The ball is hit to you. What do you 
do?
It was this intensity and attention 
to detail on the familiar diamond 
that prepared his players for the 
bigger and unpredictable stages that 
were ahead.
Natalia Rodriguez is the youngest 
and the smallest of the three, but 
from as early as the age of five, 
she was matching her two older 
brothers, stride for stride, drill 
for drill. Through this gauntlet of 
exercises, her competitive nature 
was born.
Rodriguez comes from a baseball 
family. Her father played baseball 
growing up and coached all three 
of his children. Her mother, Iris, 
played softball at Yale, and her 
two brothers, Roberto and Sergio, 
played at Georgetown and Amherst, 
respectively.
As the youngest of three, she 
credits having her two older brothers 
as role models and motivators for the 
level of competitiveness that she now 
exhibits.
“It built up my competitiveness,” 
Rodriguez said. “Just going out there 
trying to be better than the boys.”
Whether 
it 
was 
organized 
drills with her father or a friendly 
exhibition game, she refused to give 
her brothers the edge despite any 
disadvantage she had physically. It is 
the mentality she had as a child and 
one that she carries with her to this 
day.
***
It is easy to mistake physical 
appearance for ability. Picture the 
selection process that takes place 
before a pickup game:
The 
most 
physically 
gifted 
athletes are selected first. Who gets 

picked last? Well, the least imposing 
players, of course.
If 
you 
were 
to 
categorize 
Rodriguez amongst other softball 
players, she would likely fall in the 
latter.
Listed at five-foot four, Rodriguez 
is notably one of the smallest players 
on the field for the Wolverines. But 
petite stature is no new foe for her.
In the seventh grade, Rodriguez 
was playing for her high school team 
at Montverde Academy. She was told 
that she wasn’t big enough or strong 
enough to be a shortstop, so she 
acquiescently made the move to the 
outfield.
“She didn’t want to settle for 
being the littlest one the team,” 
Roberto said. “She wanted to prove 
she could be just as good as anyone 
else. She was always driven, always 
motivated.
“ … I told her to just keep being the 
best player you can be wherever they 
put you.”
And that is exactly what she did.
During her time at Montverde 
Academy, Rodriguez went on to set 
every offensive school record and 
earn numerous awards. She batted 
.506 as a junior and led her team to 
the state championship game. She 
was the defensive MVP at shortstop 
during her sophomore season and 
the team MVP in her junior and 
senior seasons. In her senior season, 
she was also named the Montverde 
Academy 2017 Female Scholar of the 
Year.
“I just went out there and working 
with the team, it was just about 
getting better,” Rodriguez said. “It 
was a … program that pushed us 
and we weren’t –– we grew a lot, 
definitely, since I started playing 
there in middle school.”
Despite initially being moved 
to the outfield in high school, she 
remained in the middle infield for 
her travel team, where Roberto 
coached her from the time she was 
nine until she was 16.
When she was 10, her team 
finished in second at the USSSA/
ESPN 
10U 
World 
Series, 
and 
Rodriguez earned defensive MVP 
honors at shortstop. Three years 
later, her team would win the 2012 
USSSA/ESPN High School World 
Series 16U A Championship –– a 
moment Rodriguez considers the 
biggest of her playing career.
“I was playing with a couple girls 
that I had played with for over four 
or five years,” Rodriguez said, “So 
it was with really close friends of 
mine, and it was in Florida –– Wide 
World of Sports. It was just a great 

atmosphere and I think it was just 
my first big win, so that was pretty 
big for me.”
In 
the 
summer 
before 
her 
freshman campaign, along with 
two of her teammates from the 16U 
World Series squad, she represented 
the Puerto Rican Junior National 
Team, helping her grandparents’ 
native country to a bronze-medal 
finish in the 2017 Junior Women’s 
Softball World Championship.
“It’s always great to represent 
your nationality,” Rodriguez said. 
“It was a lot of fun. You meet a lot 
of girls from the island… And it also 
allowed me to work on my bilingual 
skills.”
The three of them — who were 
the youngest players on that world 
series squad — teamed up one more 
time to compete against countries 
from around the world for the 
international tournament in their 
home state of Florida.
When it came time to be recruited, 
Rodriguez received offers from 
several schools around the country, 
ranging from east coast Ivies to PAC-
12 schools. But it wasn’t until her 
junior year that she received an offer 
from the school she felt was the best 
fit.
“After I got the offer from 
Michigan, I didn’t let anyone else 
get a chance to be quite honest,” 
Rodriguez said.
As the Wolverines said goodbye 
to their switch-hitting shortstop 
and four-year starter Abby Ramirez 
at the end of the 2017 season, they 
welcomed in another switch-hitting 
shortstop in Rodriguez.
In spite of being small and 

frequently overlooked, Rodriguez 
has remained confident in her 
abilities. Or, as her father likes to 
put it, like “a little silent assassin.” 
But make no mistake, this quiet 
confidence is often infused with an 
energizing swagger.
In the clubhouse, she has the 
reputation as the player with 
the most “swag” as some of her 
teammates have put it.
“I think it’s really just me having 
fun –– it’s being me. I like to dance a 
little bit. I think they’re referring to a 
little juju, shoulder lean…its nothing 
crazy… just make people laugh and 
get everyone involved.”
The 
dancing 
simultaneously 
keeps her teammates grounded and 
her swagger-level sky high.
From a young age, she showed 
her dedication to the game and the 
desire to constantly improve. It takes 
this sort of approach to the game 
to remain passionate and hungry. 
Some athletes eventually fall out of 
love with the game, burnt out from 
the years of dedication. But not 
Rodriguez.
“Can’t say (quitting softball) 
crossed my mind,” Rodriguez said.
From the diamonds of Montverde, 
Fla. to Ann Arbor, Mich., Rodriguez 
has found her way to always enjoy 
the game.
***
Last 
season, 
fans 
became 
accustomed to seeing the slick-
fielding 
freshman 
ranging 
the shortstop position for the 
Wolverines. She has become a 
staple of the Michigan defense 
— which ranked first in the Big 
Ten and second in the nation in 

fielding percentage through the 
end of the regular season. But she 
wasn’t supposed to be the starting 
shortstop. Sophomore third baseman 
Madison Uden was slated as the 
likely candidate be the everyday 
shortstop by coach Carol Hutchins. 
In the fall, the coaching staff noted 
how talented the freshman could be, 
but it was junior second baseman 
Faith Canfield who saw Rodriguez’s 
potential and vouched for her to get 
the nod next to her in the infield to 
begin the season.
“I think (Canfield)’s the one kid 
in our program that thought Natalia 
was the one to go to shortstop,” 
Hutchins said. “She, from the get-go, 
recognized what a talent Natalia is.”
Canfield took on a mentor role 
last season with Natalia as they 
partnered in the middle infield.
“That’s one thing with Natalia is 
just that she believes in herself and 
knows that she knows how to play 
the game,” Canfield said.
Rodriguez forced Hutchins’ hand, 
expediting what was supposed to be 
a year more for development and 
less for playing time. But it was the 
work ethic and passion for the game 
that her coach and teammates saw in 
her which gave her the opportunity 
to be the starting shortstop –– a 
work ethic and passion that can be 
accredited to her family.
On and off the field, her demeanor 
doesn’t change much: calm, cool and 
collected with a hint of swagger and 
a wide-eyed grin crossing her face.
“I just tell her to smile and have 
fun while you’re out there,” Roberto 
said. “... Nothing but good will come 
out of it.”

ALEC COHEN / DAILY
Freshman shortstop Natalia Rodriguez comes from a baseball and softball family, which has given her to drive to succeed.

