Stelter a Cornerstone for 1992 : Softball: After successful junior season, third baseman will be counted on to lead Cal State Dominguez Hills next year.

Nicole Stelter turned 20 last week, so she got to pick the music for softball practice. The Cal State Dominguez Hills third baseman chose country-Western and requested that her teammates show up in cowboy boots and pigtails.

The gesture helped lift the morale of a team in desperate need of a good laugh. Despite a great start, Dominguez Hills finished last in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. after losing eight of its last 10 conference games.

“This helps our spirit and it helps lighten things up,” said Stelter, clad in purple shorts, a black softball jacket, brown cowboy boots and a black visor. “We haven’t been real successful in the CCAA, but we’re still having a real good year.”

So is Stelter, on and off the field. She is the team’s best hitter and was the Toros’ only All-CCAA first-team selection. The 5-foot-8 junior is fourth in the CCAA with a .379 batting average and her 18 runs batted in rank among the league’s top seven.

Stelter, who bats third in the lineup, also has the team’s highest grade-point average (3.6). Last week the psychology major was named a GTE Western Region Academic All-American for the second consecutive year.

Janis Ruetz, Dominguez Hills’ third-year coach, says Stelter is a solid athlete who always makes intelligent plays and seldom commits errors.

“She made a tremendous jump from last year,” Ruetz said. “She’s been our top hitter this year from the beginning and she’s stayed there the entire season. She’s very consistent and that’s rare.”

As a freshman, Stelter was named to the All-CCAA second team after batting .242, with two home runs and 21 RBIs. She had no problem making the transition from first base, where she spent her high school career, to third, where she replaced Dominguez Hills standout Lisa Marslow.

“She’s done a fantastic job,” Ruetz said. “She has a strong enough arm to play third and she’s very steady.”

Last season Stelter batted .220. She says playing summer ball helped her offensively. She was a second-team All-American playing for the Burbank Mavericks, who won the Amateur Softball Assn. Class B nationals in Texas.

“I did some major reconstruction on my swing,” Stelter said. “In recent years I was No. 6 or No. 7 in the lineup. This year I started off at No. 5 and moved up.”

Stelter’s versatility is not surprising. At La Mirada High she was a three-sport standout. She was a two-time All-Suburban League selection as a forward on the Matadores’ basketball team and an All-Suburban League selection as a senior first baseman on La Mirada’s league champion softball team. The Matadores lost to Kennedy High, 1-0, in the final of the CIF Southern Section 3-A Division softball playoffs that year.

Stelter also played two years of varsity tennis at La Mirada. As a senior she played No. 1 singles and doubles and she won the Suburban League doubles title.

“Originally I didn’t plan to play anything in college,” Stelter said. “I was going to focus on academics. But my high school coach’s husband knew (Dominguez Hills Athletic Director) Dan Guerrero and he suggested I try out for softball.”

Ruetz is glad she did. Stelter is the veteran on a team that consists mainly of community college transfers. Ruetz recruited the players with hopes of improving last year’s 4-16 CCAA record.

Dominguez Hills started the season 12-1-1 and until last week was ranked No. 12 in the NCAA Division II national poll. They dropped out of the top 20 after losing doubleheaders to Chapman and Bakersfield.

Dominguez Hills will end its season on Tuesday at Loyola Marymount. Despite not making the playoffs, the Toros improved from last year’s 29-26-1 finish. Dominguez Hills is 31-17-1 overall and finished 5-11 in CCAA play after sweeping a nonconference doubleheader from Cal State San Bernardino, 4-2 and 5-1, on Thursday.

“It’s really frustrating because we started off so well,” said Stelter, who is looking forward to her senior season. “I think maybe we peaked too soon. After Hayward (a tournament on March 28-30) we started making six, seven errors per game. I don’t know what happened. I guess the error bug hit us.”

So did the injury bug. The Toros are down to one pitcher (Anne Ibarra) and one catcher (Leticia Carranza). On April 12, pitcher Julie Borquez injured her rotator cuff after pitching four innings in a CCAA game against Cal State Bakersfield. Catcher Melissa Punch sustained the same injury at the Hayward tournament in late March after diving into third base.

Stelter’s intensity and experience have helped the Toros through the bad times, according to her teammates.

“Talk about confidence. . . . When there’s a play that has to be made you know she’ll do it,” said Ibarra, a transfer from Mendocino College who has led the Toro pitching staff. “And when it comes to being an intense player, she leads the pack in that.

“She’s the veteran and she made people feel comfortable from the start. She made us all feel welcomed and good.”

Ruetz says Stelter has made a big difference during the team’s slump.

“She’s a spark plug,” Ruetz said. “She really gets involved and gets other players motivated. And she’s a perfectionist.”

Maybe Stelter can help the Toros earn a postseason berth next season. She realizes, however, that it will take more than a good laugh at practice.