OCC Pitcher Heizer Deserves a Hand for Overcoming Injury

Once Kristin Heizer finally overcame one injury, she just barely avoided another.

When the softball season started in mid-February, Heizer, an Orange Coast College sophomore, hurt her pitching hand while working on her hitting at home.

She took a swing and her bat broke through some protective padding and into her parents’ garage wall, causing her to jam her right hand. She caused some slight nerve damage and couldn’t grip the ball properly.

Because OCC had only nine players on its active roster at the time, Heizer left the mound for right field.

“I was really scared,” she said about the possible end to her pitching career. “The doctors told me that there was no time frame for even the swelling to go down. That bothered me a lot. . . . I seriously feel like I live to stand in that circle (around the pitching rubber).”

Heizer didn’t pitch the first month of the season. She was replaced by freshman Alisha Nelson, who is 12-6 with a 0.95 earned-run average.

Heizer rested her hand and made her return to the mound in the Golden West Tournament in mid-March.

She pitched twice on March 16, beating Golden West, 4-1, and losing to Cypress, 2-0.

Against Cypress, Heizer suffered what could easily have been another season-ending injury. Priscilla Sarmiento hit a liner up the middle that struck her pitching hand.

“I never saw the ball,” Heizer said. “I hated the world on the way home from that game. I thought my season was over.”

It turned out that she had a lot of swelling and a bruise, nothing worse.

Heizer came back last week to defeat Rancho Santiago, 4-2, saying that she is again ready to pitch full-time. Heizer, who will be 20 on May 1, is 5-3 with a 0.59 ERA. Orange Coast is 18-10, 5-2 in conference.

Heizer was an all-Orange Empire Conference pitcher last year, going 27-9 and pitching 258 innings. OCC was 33-13.

“She been trying to be a leader for us even when she isn’t pitching,” OCC Coach Nick Trani said. “We will go with two pitchers the rest of the way. Both deserve to pitch. Kristin is about back to where she was last season. She’s good to have because of her experience.”

Baseball teams get a break from Orange Empire Conference competition this week but four of the six will play either in tournaments or nonconference games.

Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon can get career victory No. 300 if the Dons win four games in the Channel Island Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Moorpark.

Sneddon has a record of 296-103-1 in his 10th season at Rancho Santiago.

Cypress will participate in the Allan Hancock Tournament and Orange Coast is in the College of the Sequoias Tournament, both beginning Wednesday.

Saddleback plays host to three teams in nonconference games this week. The Gauchos play Imperial Valley at 2 p.m. today, take on Cal Poly Pomona JV at 2:30 Thursday and MiraCosta at noon Friday.

Fullerton and Golden West are just practicing.

Standing tall and undecided. Cypress basketball standout Eric Pauley is on what he figures to be his last recruiting trip. Pauley, who is 6 feet 10, left Monday for Kansas, where he will be shown around by a former local community college standout--Alonzo Jamison. Jamison was the Southern California player of the year in 1987-88 for Rancho Santiago.

Pauley visited Colorado State in the fall, and has gone to Washington and Kentucky over the past two weekends. He averaged 21 points, nine rebounds and three blocks this season.

Pauley isn’t expected to announce his decision until after the April 1 NCAA championship game. He is expected to have in-home visits from Kansas Coach Roy Williams and Kentucky’s Rick Pitino.

Community College Notes

Laird Hayes, the Orange Coast men’s soccer coach, and his wife, Maggie, had a baby last weekend. Andrew Laird Hayes (9 pounds, 1 ounce) was born at 12:36 a.m. March 23 in Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. . . . Shelly Sirott of Cypress set a school record in the 100-yard breaststroke in the Cuesta Invitational last week. She finished in 1 minute 13.64 seconds, which bettered the 1:13.94 mark set by Sue Boltz in 1977.