If you asked most softball fans, they would not consider George Mason to be one of the top softball programs. Usually mid-pack in the Atlantic 10 conference, the Patriots typically find themselves somewhere in the category of a team that is never irrelevant, but doesn’t really challenge on a larger stage.
Over the past two seasons, pitcher Marina Vitalich has done her best to change that pattern and position her team for a postseason run. She is a player that Mason head coach Joe Verbanic expects to “shatter records” and has firmly entrenched herself as one of the best hurlers along the Eastern seaboard.
A California native, Vitalich abandoned her original plans to stay close to home when she elected to attend George Mason. “We were playing at a showcase in Texas and coach Verbanic gave my coach his card,” Marina said. “I saw it and went ‘oh, nice, George Mason… never heard of them.”
Despite her initial unfamiliarity with the school and the program, after visiting the school, Marina fell in love and decided to spend her collegiate career far from home after all: “I loved that it was so close to Washington D.C. My folks had been encouraging me to look outside of California for school… so I moved 3,000 miles away.”
The transition from high school and travel ball to the college life, both academically and on the field, can be hard on many athletes, but if Vitalich missed a beat during that learning curve period, she hid it well. As a freshman, the right-handed hurler earned all-conference second-team and all-rookie honors, finishing the year with a 1.75 ERA and 174 strikeouts.
Even though a yellow ball with stitches was what helped her earn a college scholarship, college was the first time since age five that Marina played just one sport. A two-sport star during her younger years, she played both basketball and softball through high school, stopping once she knew that she was headed for college for softball alone.
“I started playing basketball when I was four, and softball when I was five,” said Vitalich. “Then all throughout elementary, middle school, and through my senior year of high school, I did both. I played varsity all four years. It was after high school that I decided to stop playing basketball and just pursue playing softball in college.”
In addition to her collegiate successes, Marina has also played on the international stage, suiting up for the Croatian national team for the past three summers. With Croatian heritage through the paternal side of her family, Marina calls playing on a worldwide stage “a crazy experience”, but after playing in Italy; Spain; and the Netherlands, playing international softball has very evidently made an indelible mark on the star right-hander.
Earlier this year, Vitalich set the new program record for career strikeouts, ensuring that her name will go down in the annals of the Patriots’ softball history.
“Players are going to come to this program twenty years down the road and hear her name and know immediately the high level to which she performed,” said one peer. “She’s that good.”
