Griffiths overcomes adversity to lead Hoosiers

In August 2002, junior softball player Ashley Griffiths was driving with her family from California to IU, ready to start her sophomore year.\nIn a split second, that all changed. \nGriffiths recalls they were an hour outside of Barstow, Calif., when she lost control of the car and it began to roll. The car rolled a total of six times before coming to a stop. Her mother, Theresa, who was asleep in the front seat, was thrown from the car, as was her father, David. \nGriffiths, who was not thrown from the car, first ran to her father, whose scalp was torn back, his knee crushed and his left bicep torn out.\n"I thought he was going to die," Griffiths said, "I didn't think he was going to make it until the ambulance got there."\nShe then ran to her mother to find a badly mangled arm among other injuries. \nGriffiths came away with a concussion, facial lacerations, broken fingers, herniated discs in her back and glass lodged in her wrist. \nThe accident left her father in the hospital for almost five months and her mother two months. Griffiths' injuries only required a one-day hospital stay.\n"Once I was out of the hospital, I just felt complete guilt. I just wished that some of their pain could be put on me," Griffiths said.\nGriffiths spent the next several months at home in California caring for her parents while they were in the hospital. She claimed softball didn't even enter her mind until her father spoke to her for the first time since the accident.\n"The first thing he said was, 'Ashley, what are you doing here? You have to be at school on Monday.'I had to tell him that the Monday he was talking about was almost four months ago," Griffiths said. \nAmazingly, when Griffiths decided to come back to IU for the spring semester of her sophomore year, she worked her way into playing shape and started in the first game of the spring.\n"We were just excited to see her back at IU," said coach Sara Hayes Nottger. "Ashley is a tough athlete, and we expected nothing less from her when she returned to the starting lineup."\nGriffiths not only earned her spot in the lineup, but she contributed to the IU's success throughout the spring. \nAgainst Michigan State, Griffiths hit a walk-off home-run to give the Hoosiers the victory. This was their first Big Ten win since April 28, 2001, a streak of 33 consecutive Big Ten games. \nNottger said Griffiths' strong will, determination and solid play on the field earned her a leadership role on the team.\n"She's been a great communicator on the team. She is someone her teammates can go and talk to," Nottger said. "Ashley also helps us keep softball in perspective and gives our team a grasp of just how important softball is."\nThe Hoosiers are holding the IU Classic this weekend at Sembower Field. They face off against Wright State and Western Michigan Saturday and take on Loyola-Chicago Sunday. \n-- Contact staff reporter Mark Carlson at mecarlso@indiana.edu.