Coro: Smiths double joy, impact

Shea and Sierra Smith are identical twins with similar freckles and aqua blue eyes but a closer look shows that Sierra is taller and Shea's hair has a widow's peak.

Shea and Sierra play alongside each other on the left side of the Grand Canyon infield with each batting left-handed and throwing right-handed but a closer look at their games shows Sierra flexing more power over her career and Shea making more contact.

As the Lopes seniors play in their final postseason with the WAC Tournament at GCU this week, it can be difficult to differentiate the look of Shea and Sierra and the feel of their impact on the Lopes softball program.

But senior Maddie Dowdle is best equipped after being their teammate for four seasons, living with them for the past three years and trying not to laugh when she officiates their occasional quarrels.

"They're so different in who they are as people," Dowdle said. "It's been fun to get to know both personalities. Shea is very comforting, calming and has a presence of a mother figure. Sierra is intense and has a fiery personality but is loving as well. Getting to know them, you see how unique they are.

"As teammates and leaders, they are consistent with how they perform on the field and in the classroom. That consistency is something they've brought to the program that is a great example for teammates."

The twins have alternated leading GCU in hitting for the past four years, with Shea ranking second in the WAC with a .401 batting average this season and being one of 81 players in the nation hitting better than .400. Among 18 sets of Division I softball twins, only one other (Liberty's Amber and Autumn Bishop) has more hits than Shea and Sierra this season. Having never missed a start in 215 games, they are six games from sharing the all-time GCU record.

If the Smiths look like they were born to play the sport, it is because it is not far from the truth. Their parents met in a church softball league. Their mother, Kris, is a twin and she and her sister, Kathy, played shortstop and third base just as Shea and Sierra do.

Their older sisters, Megan and Kacie, played college softball and their brother, Colton, played college baseball but Shea and Sierra were a surprise addition with an eight-year gap. As they began playing club softball for Jim Henry, who also coached their mom and aunt, their youngest sibling was entering college. 21263

That came after both played club soccer first. They nearly split there, with Sierra wanting to stay in soccer. But the family pull to the diamond was strong, just as when it was time to pick colleges and Sierra was open to attending different colleges until they both fell in love with GCU's tight-knit, Christian environment after growing up in nearby Waddell.

Their parents also were involved in rodeo, with their father calf-roping and their mother barrel-racing, but that was never more than a spectator sport for the Smith twins. They could not get enough of softball, using their 3-acre backyard to never have a reason to stop playing.

"We were crazy," Sierra said. "Literally after four-hour practices, we would go in the backyard and practice more. We would play all the time."

At the advice of Kacie knowing that college coaches value left-handed hitters, they switched to batting on that side in fifth grade. It paid off with Shea ranking fourth in hits and seventh in RBIs on the all-time GCU list and Sierra ranking seventh in hits and fourth in RBIs.

They go back and forth in softball, just as they do in conversation.

Sierra said, "People ask, ' Do you guys have twin telepathy?' Or 'Can your read each others' minds?' Or ..."

Shea said, "Can you feel your sister's pain? Which …"

Sierra said, "I guess sometimes we can sense each other. We sometimes finish each other's sentences or say something at the same time."

Shea and Sierra said, "It actually happens a lot."

Dowdle can attest to this.

"They'll turn to me and say the exact same thing but it's so out of the blue and random," Dowdle said. "Those instances happen a lot more than you'd think. They'll look at each other and bust out laughing. They'll both have the same exact opinion or the same exact comment or they'll both say something random like, 'I kind of feel like Taco Bell.' "

They are not mind-readers. They are best friends with a lifetime of sleepovers.

"Because they're identical twins, I feel like there is a special connection," their mother, Kris, said.

Except when there is a pop-up between shortstop and third base. If Sierra is under it, Shea still can call her off as the shortstop.

"I get so mad sometimes," Sierra said.

"We're the type of siblings who do fight and argue but get over it in five minutes or less," Shea said. "If one of us is snapping at the other, everybody thinks it's so funny. Nobody can take it serious."

Players do not get as good as the Smiths without being competitive, even with each other.

"We just push each other," Sierra said. "If she does really well in one game or one at bat, I'm like, 'I have to do this. I have to beat her.' We just bring out the competitiveness in each other to an extreme level."

Being twins also means sharing the spotlight because their lives, careers and commencements were shared experiences.

"Everything that we've done to this point has been because of each other," Shea said. "I honestly feel that's why we're at the level we are. We had each other to play catch with in the backyard. We always had each other to make each other better."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.

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