Bailey Stenson knows there is life after fastpitch. In fact, she’s looking forward to it.

“I want to try as many things as humanly possible,” said the recently graduated former University of Washington softball player.

For the past four years, Stenson, a 2006 Auburn High School graduate, has played for the heralded Huskies.

“My career here was just amazing,” said Stenson, who helped the Huskies win the NCAA national championship last season. “I feel like we’ve touched some people’s lives with the team. People just loved us.”

After four standout years playing for Auburn, as well as club ball for the Washington Lady Hawks, Stenson began her journey in purple and gold in 2007.

After missing the first month of her freshman season due to a torn ACL, Stenson got her first taste of collegiate ball against Texas Tech, where she was 1-for-3 with a run scored.

That season the Huskies made it to the NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS), where the team was bounced by Arizona in the semifinals. Stenson appeared in 16 games, hitting .333 with an RBI and three runs scored on the season.

In 2008, Stenson had a breakout year, started most of the season in right field and hit .332 at the leadoff spot. Stenson lead the Huskies in hits with 63, seventh best in the Pac-10. Stenson also compiled 29 runs, 18 RBIs, eight stolen bases and seven doubles.

Despite Stenson’s success, the Huskies failed to advance past regionals that season. “We had a bit of a bump in the road when I was a sophomore” she said. “We needed that season. The fact that we went through that made us so much better in 2009.”

In 2009, the Huskies did put it all together beating No. 1 seed Florida to capture the national championship, the program’s first NCAA title.

“It was everything, it was amazing,” Stenson said. “We worked so hard. Even starting in 2007 and 2008, we always talked about winning the championship. It was never we want to get to the championship tournament. We wanted to win it. We wanted to be the first and get it done for the program.”

This season, Stenson’s senior year, the Huskies spent the majority of the season at the top of the NCAA rankings.

The team came into the postseason with a 50-7 regular season record, but was eliminated in two games at the WCWS, losing to Arizona and Georgia.

“Most of us were really, really disappointed at the time,” Stenson said. “But to step outside what happened a couple of weeks ago and think about what has happened during my four years here, we just had a tough weekend. It just didn’t happen for us this year.

“But we were 50-7 going into the post-season,” she added. “That’s unheard of. To be ranked No. 1 and have people gunning for us all year. That gets kind of old. But we proved why we are the best team. We played hard every game.”

Now, with a degree in sales, marketing and communications in hand, it’s time for Stenson to move on, and put her competitive career behind her.

“It doesn’t really bother me too much,” she said. “I wish I wasn’t done. I wish I could keep playing. I envy the baseball players who make a ton of money just hitting a little ball around.”

Perhaps that something might involve a little TV time, said Stenson, who has run a popular video blog “Breaking it Down with Bailey” at www.gohuskies.com.

“I may want to get a hold of Oprah and ask if I can have a show,” she said.

Stenson said she is in the process of putting together a video to enter in the TV mogul’s “Your Own Show” contest, which awards the winner with their own talk show.

“I put together a video but it’s not as good as I want it to be,” she said.

Wherever her path lies, Stenson said she’s ready for life after fastpitch.

“It’ll be nice to get out in the world and do something else,” she said.