Corey Clark: How pure passion for softball and FSU's culture elevates Isa Torres to greatness

I’m not a softball historian. But I know enough about the sport to say with full confidence that Florida State’s Isa Torres just had the best regular season any college shortstop has ever had.

I don’t think it’s debatable.

The FSU junior, who is hoping to lead the Seminoles back to the College World Series in Oklahoma City, hit .547 for an entire regular season. Look at that number. Focus in on it. That’s preposterous in high-level college softball. Especially for someone that has power, too. And Torres led the Seminoles in home runs (16), doubles (17) and triples (6) to go along with leading in runs scored, hits, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and everything else.

But on top of the offense, which is already otherworldly, Torres accomplished something else that almost defies belief: She committed zero errors. At shortstop.

Zero errors. Through an entire regular season. That seems impossible. But she did it.

And it’s why the Georgetown, Texas, native was just named the ACC Player of the Year AND the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. She’s still got a postseason and one more full year of college eligibility remaining, but Torres has already established herself as one of the all-time greats at this school. Or any school for that matter.

Last week, I had the opportunity to interview Torres for the, “Wake Up Warchant” podcast (the full video, albeit a bit choppy because of some audio issues, should be available on our YouTube channel here shortly), and the first question I asked her about was legacy.

How much, if at all, does she think about the one she’s leaving at Florida State?

“I think it often,” Torres said. “I’m glad I’m having so much success, but honestly just rooting for Florida State, rooting for the game of college softball. I’m so happy that our program is on a great foundation and I just could continue that and bring a lot of eyes to our program. It’s just a blessing. …

“And wearing the Florida State name across my chest means more to me than my own legacy.”

When you talk with Torres for more than a few seconds, you can’t help but notice how much she loves the Florida State program. It radiates off of her. When you watch her play, even in the midst of a pivotal moment in a close game, she almost always has a smile on her face.

When her teammates do something positive, she is almost always the first to go and congratulate them. She revels in their successes. Which we all know isn’t always the case for elite athletes. Sometimes they’re focused mostly (or solely) on themselves.

“I have to pour into others,” Torres said. “Me pouring into other people because they’re pouring into me, it’s just evening it out. I think playing this game with a smile on my face goes such a long way. So many people have told me the impact it has on them. I just think this game is so hard already as it is, why not spread joy, positivity and optimism throughout it all? Not only for myself, but for my teammates.”

I also asked Torres about her childhood and how early she knew she was special.

She comes across as humble, so that wasn’t maybe the easiest thing for her to talk about — to admit that she was awesome at such a young age. But obviously she was. She committed to Texas A&M when she was in the seventh grade! So, I mean, that’s not normal.

Torres admitted she was obsessed with softball from about the time she could fit a glove on her hand. And that it essentially became a job to her growing up in Georgetown, playing alongside her older sister, with their dad as the coach.

So, yes, she smiles a lot. Yes, she has fun. And she cares about being a great teammate.

But she also wants to win. A lot. She is a fierce, fierce competitor.

I thought maybe Torres’ most telling answer came when I asked her about hitting.

How, in Power Four softball, is she able to barrel the ball up so consistently? How does she routinely make such hard contact? Because hitting is hard. And the pitchers at this level are really good.

“It’s the goggles,” Torres said with a laugh. “No, I’m kidding. I have worked so hard, and I have been in those cages and been on that field, from dusk to dawn literally, since I was a young girl. And I think just trusting in my preparation. … Talking with our hitting coaches. Knowing everything I’ve been bad at, working on that and getting better at it.

“I used to not like the inside pitch. I used to not like the change-up. Where I was like, ‘Well, these pitchers are going to find a weakness on me, and they’re going to throw that over and over again. And I’ve got to get over it and I’ve got to learn how to hit it.'”

Well, safe to say she has.

Torres hits just about everything. To the point that there was a game this past weekend at Boston College where she went 2-for-4 … and her batting average went down! What a life that must be.

The Florida State junior says a lot of her success isn’t just about the work on the field, though. It’s a mindset. Maybe she was born with it. Or maybe it was built by all of those dusk-to-dawn days in the Texas heat.

But it’s there.

“I think if you believe you can do it, you can do anything,” Torres said. “I truly believe that if you have confidence in yourself, if you’re telling yourself in the box, ‘This pitcher is not going to beat me,’ then she’s just not going to beat you. And that’s just the mindset I’ve had and will continue to have.

“In my mind, I’m going toe-to-toe with the pitcher. And is she going to win or am I going to win? I hate losing. So, I don’t want to lose. So, yeah, I’m going to find a barrel or I’m going to find a way to get on. Because that’s just the competitive girl in me. That’s just the mindset I’ve had.”

It has worked out pretty well so far.

In the end, whether she and the Florida State Seminoles win the ACC Championship this week, whether they get out to Oklahoma City for the WCWS, whether they get to take part in one or multiple dogpiles in the postseason, Torres knows this is where she was supposed to be.

She was committed to Texas A&M for multiple years because she planned on playing with her older sister, but then decommitted when Mariana Torres transferred from College Station to McNeese State. That decision came relatively late in Isa’s high school career, she said.

At that point, she wasn’t sure where she’d be playing college ball. Soon thereafter, though, she saw something that forever changed the course of her life.

“I saw FSU play UCLA in Clearwater,” she said. “And you could feel their energy and just their culture through a TV. And I was like, ‘I want to play for a program like that. I want to lead a program like that. I want to be a part of a program like that.’

“So, from then on, I had my goals and my aspiration was to become a Seminole.”

She now is one of the best of all time.

Contact Warchant senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com.

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