Softball: Rojas leads Golden Panthers with lively personality

By: Stephanie Gabriel / Asst Sports Director
When she walks up to the plate, you notice a difference.
She doesn’t have a serious face and there is no sign of nerves.
Instead, Brie Rojas usually cracks a smile or even lets out a giggle when approaching the box, as she bobs her head to her favorite jam.
She just might even throw up a few signals to her third base coach, saying that she’s going to move the runners up.
It’s just who she is.
“I’ve always been a weird kid and goofy. It’s just who I am,” the FIU softball player said. “I’m always the type of person to make people laugh and I’ll always be the first person to laugh at anything.”
Rojas’ infectious personality and energy is far from a distraction. In fact, she’ll tell you that it actually helps her game.
“I figure if I go out there and give it everything I have and go out there happy, then of course I’m going to do good,” Rojas said. “You set the tone and that’s just my mentality, to have a good time. It’s a game, I have to enjoy it and do as well as I can.”
The freshman has done more than well. Since her arrival to FIU, the five-foot-tall second baseman from Cooper City, Fla. has been swinging out of her shoes. Head coach Beth McClendon like to calls her “a little fireball” and “the team’s spark plug.”
“I’m the littlest person on the team but people know I swing the hardest,” Rojas said.
Through 21 games this season, she owns the top spot on the team in batting average (.433), hits (39), walks (17) and home runs (6).
Just last weekend, Rojas had the lone hit for FIU in game one of a three-game series at Stetson and scored the winning run for 1-0 victory over the Hatters.
That wasn’t enough.
After dropping game two, Rojas was determined to lead her team to a win the next day and she did.
With runners on first and third, the 3-2 pitch came. Rojas drilled it out of the park to give FIU a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Panthers went on to win 3-1.
Not only has Rojas been getting it done, she does it with runners on base. Five of her six home runs have been three-run shots.
You can call her clutch but the way she sees it, she’s just trying to help out her team.
“I try to get everyone motivated,” she said. “When we were losing 8-0 to Troy and I came up with a three-run homer I was rounding third and I told coach, ‘All I’m trying to do is get them fired up,’” she said. “That’s all I want is for this team to come together, be excited and ready.”
Although the success, Rojas is actually surprised by how well she has been hitting at the college level and says that it’s the part of her game that has improved the most since departing from Cooper City High School, where she won a 6A State Championship in 2009.
“I’ve always had a few home runs and I stayed pretty consistent [in high school]. I was always like a .300-.400 hitter,” Rojas said. “But I didn’t think I was going to hit this well in college. It’s actually kind of surprising.”
One of her former coaches, however, is not surprised by how well she is handling college ball. That coach would be her father.
“She was gifted all along; she was like a proven winner,” Nestor Rojas said. “Brie has always been at the top level.”
Nestor coached his daughter up until she was 14. The duo won seven state titles together in club ball leagues. He agrees that the way Rojas plays allows the team to feed off her.
“She’s very humble. She may come off cocky but really she’s just confident,” he said. “She plays very loose and the girls around her feed off that.”
Teammate and fellow classmate Kayla Burri is one that tries to feed off her friend’s energy, but apparently it’s not as easy as Rojas makes it look.
“I get frustrated when I don’t do well,” Burri said. “But someone like Brie laughs it off and she’ll move on to the next one.”
Burri said that Rojas could make anyone feel better.
“Sometimes she’ll pretend like she got something in her eye. Her signature is when she says, ‘ouch,’ and she’ll act like a little baby. We call her Baby Brie,” said Burri. “She’s the one that is always cheering people up.”
Aside from all of the goof, Rojas likes people to be aware that she is a leader.
“I just like to have fun wherever I am,” she said. “I’m a leader, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not the serious type so I lead by joking and making people laugh but when it comes down to the serious things, yea I get serious, but there’s always a smile on my face.”
Her style of leading is different, but it works.
“I know I’m a freshman but you can still learn from me,” said Rojas. “Just like anyone else.”