She will never walk aloneFree Access

INSPIRATIONAL—Vanessa Jacquez, a Moorpark High senior softball standout who patrols third base, signed a scholarship with Cal State Monterey Bay. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

Vanessa Jacquez stands alone at the plate.

She blocks out all distractions.

Players cheer and chant in the dugouts. Fans chatter from the cheap seats. Birds twirl from branch to branch, singing songs of a slow century. An Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train whistles along the foothills of the Topatopa Mountains.

None of it matters. Not right now.

“It’s just me and that pitcher,” Vanessa said.

The Moorpark High senior, who starts at third base for the softball team, allows the first throw to pass for a ball. She obliterates the next pitch to the center field fence for a double. On the first pitch of her second at bat, Vanessa hammers a single in the third inning.

There is no such thing as perfection in softball, but the Musketeer finishes her prep career on senior day with a flourish. Yes, it’s satisfying, but like any competitor, she wants more.

“OK, I got a double. Next, I’m going to shoot for a triple, but I just want to hit the ball hard,” she said. “That was my goal today—just keep getting better. I think I’m going to live with that for a while.”

THE FIFTH ELEMENT—Moorpark’s Vanessa Jacquez hits the ball against Oak Park on April 26 at home.

She pauses to clarify.

“Actually, forever,” she said.

• • •

Vanessa, one of the best players in Ventura County, learned the game from her father.

“He’s someone I want to grow up to be like,” the 17-year-old said.

Rudy Jacquez coached his only child in softball, soccer and volleyball.

A Thousand Oaks High graduate who wrestled and played football and baseball, Rudy spent 11 years coaching Vanessa’s softball squads.

Dad and daughter did almost everything together.

“It was kind of like they were best friends,” said Monica Jacquez, Vanessa’s mother.

They attended Los Angeles Dodgers games at Chavez Ravine. They watched Pittsburgh Steelers football clashes on TV. They traveled to softball tournaments around the country, sharing adventures in New Jersey, Florida, Nevada and Colorado. Rudy loved Colorado; he told his daughter that one day he’d like to move there.

INSEPERABLE—Vanessa Jacquez hugs her father Rudy during a Moorpark Girls Softball U-10 All-Star tournament in July 2010. Courtesy of Monica Jacquez

Rudy surprised Vanessa by taking the family out to a Kiss concert when the youngster was in middle school.

“Dad, why is everyone wearing makeup from Kiss?” Vanessa asked, peering out the car window from the backseat.

“Oh, this is L.A. People just do that,” Rudy said.

They were incredibly close.

But Rudy couldn’t walk alongside Vanessa on her senior day.

Rudy Jacquez died on Aug. 13, 2015, three days after suffering a brain aneurysm.

He was 49. Vanessa was 15, about to start her sophomore year at a new school. She attended La Reina as a freshman.

“I didn’t go to school for a month. I wanted to quit softball. I did for a while, for two or three months. I stopped going to church. I just wanted to keep to myself,” Vanessa said. “My mom and people kept telling me, this is what your dad would want. He would want you to continue to play, work hard and play at the next level.

INSIDE STUFF—Moorpark High softball players Jules Hansen, left, and Vanessa Jacquez gather with teammates before the Musketeers’ game against Oak Park on April 26 at home. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers

“So I went back out there, and I played.”

• • •

Rudy is close to Vanessa’s heart.

She wears a necklace with his thumbprint in the charm. She dons No. 5, his jersey number.

Vanessa signed her scholarship to play softball at Cal State Monterey Bay at Rudy’s gravesite in Westlake. In a tweet from Nov. 9, 2017, she wrote: “Dad! I’m officially going to college! You have been with me every step of the way love and miss you more than you can imagine.”

For her career, she sported a .360 batting average with 72 hits in 67 games, racking up 42 RBI, 47 runs scored, 17 doubles, five triples and five home runs.

She was named La Reina’s rookie of the year in 2015. In her first season at Moorpark, she won the Most Inspirational award and earned a spot on the All-Coastal Canyon League second team. She notched an All-Coastal Canyon first team last spring while being tabbed the team’s best offensive player.

Her dad would be proud.

The Musketeer’s resilience has amazed her friends, teammates and coaches.

“She’s been very strong,” said Lauren Paredes, who played three years of softball at Thousand Oaks. “It’s a day-by-day thing. Some days, she has good days—we’ll talk about it and laugh. Some days, we’ll sit in her room and cry. . . . She never gives up, no matter what.”

Vanessa and Lauren started playing softball together at 5 with the Pink Panthers of Moorpark Girls Softball.

“She’s just a great person,” said Leana Venegas, a Moorpark sophomore who roams second base. “She’s a strong person with all she’s been through.”

Senior day was special for Vanessa, but it’s also bittersweet.

“I kept thinking about Rudy and how we were supposed to walk with her on the field together,” Monica said. “But I knew that spiritually he’s still with us. I was just so proud of her to get back on the field and continue playing a game she loves.”

• • •

The coach and player came home from a softball practice in August 2015. Vanessa took a nap downstairs while Rudy retired to his upstairs bedroom.

When Monica came home, she found her husband unresponsive and asked Vanessa to call 911.

The family spent three nights at the hospital. Former players, coaches, friends and family—literally everyone Vanessa knew— hurried to Simi Valley Hospital.

“I went home, but I didn’t want to go home on the second night,” Vanessa said. “In the morning, I got a call that I needed to go to the hospital. Me and my aunt drove to the hospital to say goodbye because his heart was failing.”

Vanessa said goodbye.

“I promised him that I would continue to play no matter what and that I would get a scholarship for him,” she said. “I was the only one in the room at the time.”

Rudy’s memorial service was held at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Moorpark.

Vanessa looked back. The church was packed.

“I started crying because I didn’t realize how many people he had touched,” she said. “He’s been my coach since I was 5, until the day he passed away. He was there for the girls. He didn’t care about winning, losing. He just wanted us to grow as players and grow as people.”

• • •

Rudy spent his life helping others.

Vanessa has followed the same path.

“He’s my inspiration,” she said. “He’s someone I want to grow up to be like.”

She already is like him.

“She’s the spitting image of her dad,” Lauren said.

Rudy, who worked as an electrician, coached many softball players in the area, including Moorpark seniors Bri Simmons and Jules Hansen.

Five years ago, Rudy and Vanessa coached an AYSO boys’ soccer team in Thousand Oaks together.

Vanessa gives private lessons to young softball players. She volunteers at Los Robles Hospital. She plans to study biology at Monterey Bay and eventually become a nurse. Monica said her daughter will be the first person on either side of the family to attend a university.

The Musketeer is thankful for her mom, a Westlake grad who competed on cross country and track and field teams with the Warriors. Monica, who works for Big Brothers Big Sisters, has attended every one of her daughter’s high school games.

On the eve of her last game in a Moorpark uniform, Vanessa wrote a letter for her mom. She picked up her cellphone and started reading:

“Mom. First of all, it’s hard to believe that today’s the day—my last high school game. Thank you for everything you’ve done. And thanks to you, it will not be my last. Throughout the years you were there for me, waking up at 5 a.m. to drive me to Orange County and taking time off of work to come watch me play. You were there no matter what. There hasn’t been a game where I looked into the stands and you weren’t there. Every time I’m up to bat, I hear you say, ‘I believe, Ness. Yes you can.’ I truly know you believe in me, no matter what, even when I’m in a slump. For the times that I have thought of quitting, knowing that both you and Dad have sacrificed so much for me helps me strive to continue working hard so I can make you both proud. Thank you so much. I love you.”

• • •

Vanessa is alone at the plate, one last time.

She’s facing Camarillo pitcher Chloe Nightingale, who’s bound for Utah State, in the bottom of the seventh inning. The two seniors started their prep careers together, two wildly talented freshmen at La Reina.

Vanessa blasts a laser to center field, but it’s snagged for the second out of the frame. It’s 5:28 p.m. The Musketeer jogs back to the dugout, her white uniform coated in a thin layer of dust.

The game has been over for an hour, and she’s the only player left at the field. It’s dusk.

Her heart aches, but her dreams are coming true. She’s going to college on a softball scholarship, and her dad will be there.

“We did it together,” Vanessa said.

Email sports editor Eliav Appelbaum at eliav@theacorn.com.