Every college athlete has certain amount of pressure put on them. Whether it’s how they perform in their sport or in the classroom, the pressure is felt almost every day. But, there’s an added pressure when an athlete performs so well that the new expectation is to always be great. Marshall University softball senior infielder Elicia D’Orazio understands this pressure all too well, but she has excelled in spite of it.

In her freshman season, D’Orazio was named 2015 Conference USA Freshman of the Year. That sesason, she made the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Mideast All-Region Second Team, C-USA First Team All-Conference, C-USA All-Freshman team and was named C-USA Player of the Week on April 6.

Since then, the pressure was on, but D’Orazio did not wilt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Dkmumxt80&feature=youtu.be

Video by Courtney Andrews

In 2017, her junior season, she won the New Balance/ NFCA Golden Shoe Award. According to the NFCA website, the award is presented annually to the player determined to be the most outstanding base stealer from an NFCA member institution. That season, she also was named to the NFCA Mideast All-Region Team, C-USA All-Conference Second Team and Carolina Classic All-Tournament Team. D’Orazio stole 1.09 bases per game, totaling to 59 bases in the season. She led the NCAA and became the C-USA single-season record holder for stolen bases in a season.

D’Orazio credits a lot of her success to her dad, who introduced her to the sport.

“I definitely give a lot of credit to my dad,” D’Orazio said. “He is probably one of my biggest critics. He’s really hard on me, sometimes a little too hard, but I honestly don’t think I would be where I am if it wasn’t for him.”

“My dad used to play baseball, so he kind of treats me as his little son,” D’Orazio said. “I’m his only daughter, and I’m his first kid, so his thing was to try and get me into athletics, not knowing if he was going to have another kid. So, I started with baseball, and I just grew on it. I spent all year playing ball and at the field. It had me adapt to not know anything but softball.”

D’Orazio not only excels at Marshall, she is a member of the Puerto Rican national team, sparking the interest of its coach when she was just 13 years old; but had to wait a couple years due to her age to be eligible. D’Orazio said playing for her home country is bigger than just herself.

“It’s the greatest feeling ever,” D’Orazio said. “It is so cool. We actually got to play in Puerto Rico, and just seeing that. If there’s one thing that brings the island together it’s baseball and softball. Seeing how much support and how much love they have for the game, and just being able to travel the world and representing those people is so much bigger than anything you could ever imagine.”

Last summer, D’Orazio started every game for Puerto Rico, which won Pool D of the women’s division in the Canada Cup. She finished the tournament with a batting average of .444 (12-for-27), recorded a single against the number one team in the world (Japan), and played in the World Cup of Softball XII, where she had six hits and five stolen bases.

As she enters her senior season at Marshall, her mindset remains the same.

“Nothing but confidence,” D’Orazio said. “There’s a lot of talk about we don’t have pitching, we don’t have this, we don’t have that. But I think it really doesn’t matter, there’s nine of us on the field, not one of us, so if we all go out there and have the confidence that we have against each other at practice, there’s no team that we can’t hang with.”

Marshall softball was recently ranked 30th in the USA Today/NFCA Preseason poll, receiving 17 points in the poll, and D’Orazio was named Preseason All-Conference USA.

“Definitely looking forward to having a great senior year,” D’Orazio said. “It’s so hard to believe that I’m a senior, but I think just seeing our team come together. Obviously, we lost two All-Americans and in big positions, but I think we worked really hard this off-season, and it’s just going to be fun to see how the work we put in really pays off.”

In the upcoming season, Marshall has 13 games scheduled against teams that are ranked or received votes in the preseason poll. The Herd faces off against Tennessee (No. 12), Auburn (No. 13), James Madison (No. 21), South Carolina (receiving votes, 28th overall), Missouri (receiving votes, 31st overall), FIU (receiving votes, 33rd overall), St. Francis (Pa.) (receiving votes, 38th overall) and USC Upstate (receiving votes, 43rd overall).

Last season, Marshall softball had a win-loss record of 42-12 overall and 20-4 in Conference USA. Marshall’s first game is at the Plainsman Invitational Thursday at 7 p.m. against the host institution, Auburn.

Courtney Andrews can be contacted at [email protected].