The Cal 100: No. 86 -- Jocelyn Forest

Forest's dominating postseason pitching led Cal to its only national softball championship. And she was a topflight weightlifter

We count down the top 100 individuals associated with Cal athletics, based on their impact in sports or in the world at large – a wide-open category. See if you agree.

No. 86: Jocelyn Forest

Cal Sports Connection: She was a two-time second-team All-America softball pitcher while at Cal

Claim to Fame: Most Outstanding Player in 2002 Women’s College World Series, when Cal won its first and only NCAA softball title, and later became a topflight weightlifter.

.

You can make a persuasive argument that Diane Ninemire, Valerie Arioto and Jolene Henderson had more impressive Cal softball careers than Jocelyn Forest, but Forest’s one week of remarkable postseason work in 2002 amid family tragedy is the reason she is on our list and the other three aren’t. (We’ll address Michele Granger later in The  Cal 100.)

The fact that Forest became a topflight weightlifter is the cherry on top when assessing her athletic impact.

However, the focus is a five-day stretch in late May 2002 in Oklahoma City. That’s when Cal captured its first and only NCAA softball championship, and Forest is almost solely responsible for the Bears claiming that title.

The story really begins on April 14, 2002. That’s when Forest’s older sister, Erika, was killed, her throat slashed, allegedly at the hands of her husband.

"My two opposite daughters," says Vicki, Forest’s mother, told Sports Illustrated in 2002. "One, so athletic. The other, so feminine. Yet they were so close."

Three days after the funeral, Forest pitched Cal to a 2-1 victory over No. 1-ranked Arizona,. Her pitching then carried the Bears, who had finished fourth in the Pac-10, through the postseason, leading Cal to victory in the NCAA regionals and qualifying Cal for the eight-team Women’s College World Series.

She began that event with a 14-strikeout, one-walk, 4-2 victory over Oklahoma, but that was mere child’s play compared with what was to come. On May 24, Forest threw a two-hit, no-walk shutout in a 1-0 win over Florida State. Two days later, she hurled a one-hit, no-walk shutout of Arizona State in a 3-0 victory.

Then, in the May 27 national championship game, Forest outdueled Arizona pitcher Jennie Finch, that year's Honda Sports Award winner as the nation's top softball player and once described by “Time” magazine as the most famous softball player in history. That day, Forest was better, hurling a one-hit shutout in a 6-0 victory over the powerful Wildcats to give Cal the national championship. It was the first national championship for any Cal women's sports team.

To recap, in a four-day span, Forest threw 21 consecutive scoreless innings, yielding just four hits, against the best college softball teams in the country. All not long after experiencing the devastation of having her sister killed in grotesque fashion.

The Jocelyn Forest story continued after graduation, when, after a few stints as a college assistant softball coach, she fell in love with weightlifting.

She became an American Open weightlifting silver medalist and a national championship clean and jerk silver medalist. She also set a Pacific Weightlifting Association record for her weight class (145 pounds) in the clean and jerk.

The Cal 100: No. 87 -- Adam Duritz

.

Cover photo of Jocelyn Forest courtesy of Cal Athletics

.

Follow Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

Find Cal Sports Report on Facebook by going to https://www.facebook.com/si.calsportsreport