Time for Val!"

Pitcher Marissa Drewrey's father yelled from the right field bleachers of Levine-Fricke Field.

It was late in Saturday's game against No. 6 Arizona State and at the time I couldn't have agreed more-get the fresh arm in to close it out.

The No. 13 Cal softball team was being carried by Drewrey, but the workhorse was slowing a bit.

Her walks were starting to add up, she was falling behind in counts against the No. 2 offense in the nation, and coach Diane Ninemire believes that against a good team "free passes" can decide the outcome of a game.

Which is why when Drewrey stayed on the mound batter after batter, jam after jam and inning after inning, the decision not to call on Valerie Arioto could have been a fatal mistake.

Contrary to all the warning signs and her father's better judgment, the junior pitcher held off the Sun Devils' seventh-inning push for the 4-2 win. It wasn't pretty, but as the adopted motto of all intramural games goes, "A win is a win."

Ninemire said that leaving Drewrey in the game was a strategic necessity: She didn't want the dangerous Arizona State batters to get back-to-back looks at Arioto in the circle.

And for six innings on Sunday, the difference in pitching seemed to be enough to keep the Sun Devils off balance. Arioto did not have her best stuff working by any stretch of the imagination, but she clawed her way through the game after giving up a single run in the first.

It was in the sixth when things started to fall apart, as Arioto couldn't get the final out of the inning before giving up her team's 2-1 lead. Then Drewrey came in to dam the scoring, but gave up a grand slam instead.

"We were fortunate to get as many innings as we did out of Valerie," Ninemire said. "I thought we were going to pull it out there, but she just couldn't do it anymore. And when Marissa came in she couldn't shut them down either."

It is no secret that this game was decided by pitching, as most of the Bears' losses have been this season. But to place the blame on Drewrey and Arioto for Cal's shortcomings is wrong.

The Bears are victims of circumstance.

Drewrey has battled knee and wrist injuries all season, which have limited her use and taken away from her repertoire of pitches. Arioto is still developing into a complete game pitcher after being Drewrey's reliever last season.

The sophomore is a great pitcher for four or an occasional five innings, but after that she is all heart, putting everything that she has into every pitch.

But to ask Cal's resident do-it-all-who leads the team in RBI, home runs, batting average and fielding percentage-for more might be too much.

The Bears don't even have an in-between pitcher when the other two are spent, which has been the case a few times this season. Brittany LaRosa, who played the role last season, has yet to throw a pitch all year due to injury.

So, with only two pitchers available, the Cal coaching staff is faced with this decision of when to pull the starter, every game. And more often than not, there isn't a right answer, as Sunday's sixth inning proved.

This depth issue has no quick fix, and with the postseason a little more than a week away, it may spell an early hibernation for the Bears.

Tags: CAL SOFTBALL, DIANE NINEMIRE, JAMIA REID, ELIA REID