with a mean side.”I have an incredibly bad competitive streak,” said Farago, the freshman center-fielder of the Emerson College softball team. “I hate to lose.”The first-year Lion began playing in Oneonta, N.Y., where she grew up.,Bridget Farago is a competitor

with a mean side.

“I have an incredibly bad competitive streak,” said Farago, the freshman center-fielder of the Emerson College softball team. “I hate to lose.”

The first-year Lion began playing in Oneonta, N.Y., where she grew up. It’s where her father signed her up for the local baseball league at age 4.

Softball was not offered to Farago until junior high, so she played baseball until then. It was during those early years that Farago discovered her love for competition.

“Once I started playing, I couldn’t stop,” Farago explained. “I liked being the one winning and making the plays.”

When she finally reached junior high and began playing softball, she excelled. By eighth grade, she was playing shortstop

for the town’s high-school varsity team.

As a sophomore, she joined the Tri-City Tremors travel team of the American

Softball Association. The team is made up of athletes from Syracuse, Binghamton and Buffalo.

With the Tremors, Farago traveled all over the country; she played in tournaments in such places as Colorado, California and Florida.

It was in Colorado that she met Phil McElroy, the coach of Emerson’s

softball team.

“I’d never heard of Emerson until I met coach McElroy,” says Farago. “He sent me a letter explaining to me the school and what they offered. Once I heard about Emerson’s reputation, it became my number-one choice.”

McElroy says that upon meeting Farago, he could tell she would thrive at Emerson.

“I recruited Bridget. I saw her as a junior in high school,” McElroy said. “I had a pretty good idea she could come in and be an impact player right away.”

Ten games into the season, Farago is proving her coach right.

She has started every game for Emerson and is batting a solid .393 at the plate, tops on the team. She has also driven in four runs and scored four herself.

Farago credits her experience to her quick adaptation to college-level competition.

“It’s still the same things [in college] … throw, catch, hit,” Farago said. “It’s just how well I do it, and how refined it is. It’s a natural instinct at this point, so I think it’s just more focus.”

With Farago’s hot start to the season, McElroy sees bright things in her future on the diamond.

“I think she can be one of the best outfielders in the conference with continued hard work,” McElroy said. “We hope to continue to make her a better offensive threat and a more all-around player.”

Outside of softball, Farago lives the generally chaotic life of a college freshman. She is a WLP major who aspires to write for a magazine.

Farago also participates in Undergraduate

Students for Publishing and works at Josten, Charles and Co. as an editorial intern.

Although she is constantly busy, Farago maintains that a hectic schedule keeps her on her toes.

“The busier I am, the better I do,” she said. “It forces me to have better time-management skills and better focus, because I know I’m running from one activity to the next.”

With the softball team coming off a 2-8 showing on a spring break trip to Florida, Farago has had to learn to accept a bit of losing.

However, being the competitor that she is, Farago expects things to turn around heading into conference play in the Great Northeast Athletic

Conference.

“Our record hasn’t been so good, but our record doesn’t show how good we are,” Farago said. “We’re a solid team at every position. A conference championship could definitely be in our future. I plan on it if I have anything to say about it.”