Abrego Makes a Pitch for Support : Softball: Saddleback is struggling, but senior continues to succeed on the mound despite her teammates’ lack of experience.

These are trying times for Desi Abrego.

Throughout her years in softball, all the way back to her Little Miss Softball league days, the right-handed pitcher has generally played with experienced teammates on highly successful teams. But that hasn’t been the case for the 5-foot-3 junior at Saddleback High School this season.

The Roadrunners, Sea View League champions and Southern Section Division III-A semifinalists in 1990, are struggling despite Abrego’s back-to-back perfect games. Saddleback takes a 7-6 record into Wednesday’s league opener against Corona del Mar.

Abrego’s first perfecto came March 7 in a 10-0 nonleague victory at Magnolia, where she struck out 14 of 15 batters in a game called after five innings because of the mercy rule. The second perfect game came two days later at Edison, where she struck out 12 in a 4-0 victory in the first game of a doubleheader. She also picked up a save in the second game by striking out nine in three innings of relief in a 13-4 victory.

On Friday, she struck out 13 more, lowered her earned-run average to 0.51 and improved her record to 6-3 with a one-hitter against Los Amigos.

In three seasons at Saddleback, Abrego is 47-10, has seven no-hitters and 508 strikeouts in 339 innings. But such glowing statistics haven’t brightened the outlook for Abrego, who has been disappointed by the play of a freshman-dominated team that returns only one other player--all-league senior catcher Kim Carstens.

“I get discouraged sometimes,” Abrego said recently as her teammates worked on situation drills during practice. “When there are a lot of mistakes, I try to bear down and keep on pitching, but it’s difficult. You expect support behind you. Hopefully, as the year goes by, we’ll improve.”

Saddleback Coach Yvonne Alonzo had a feeling things might not be so easy this season. After losing most of her team to graduation, including all-county first baseman Priscilla Sarmiento (.409 average, six home runs, 25 runs batted in), Alonzo had a few words of warning for Abrego.

“I already had talked to her at the beginning of the season and told her she would have to be one of the leaders,” said Alonzo, who has coached at Saddleback for 16 years, the past nine on the varsity level. “She knew she would have to pick up some of the slack. . . . She’s had a lot of pressure on her shoulders.”

However, Alonzo figures a little hardship might eventually work to Abrego’s advantage.

“Right now is when she has to learn to be a winner regardless,” Alonzo said. “It’s a character-building season. It’s been humbling for me, too. My teams have always been better than 7-6 going into league season.”

Abrego’s well-rounded repertoire of blazing riser, screwball, curve, drop and change-up, should keep the Roadrunners competitive. That is, of course, if she can avoid the type of injury that kept her out of the lineup for a week earlier in the season.

In a nonleague game against Trabuco Hills in March, Abrego stepped on a rock while delivering a pitch and bruised the instep of her left foot. She tried to keep playing, but was forced out by the pain.

Back at full strength, Abrego, the league’s most valuable player in 1990, might be good for another no-hitter, though she said she doesn’t look for them.

“I don’t really expect them to happen. They come as a surprise sometimes,” said Abrego, who has a .357 batting average with one homer and 16 RBIs this season. “I try to push myself to throw good games, but if I don’t, I just accept what happens.”

Abrego, 16, has been pushing herself since she started playing softball nine years ago. At 12, she played on a team with 18-year-olds, and has spent the past summers pitching for high-caliber traveling squads. All of which, Alonzo said, has helped Abrego become one of the top five pitchers in the county.

But Abrego doesn’t think of herself nearly as perfect as some of her performances.

“I think I’m good, but there’s still room for improvement in everything,” she said. “Like with my concentration. Most of the time I’m mentally there, but if a pitch doesn’t work like I wanted it to, I lose my concentration.”

What happens--or doesn’t happen--behind her defensively can also affect her, but Abrego said she’s trying to keep cool about the ups and downs of this year’s team.

“I don’t put pressure on myself,” she said. “I just try to go out there and do my best. That’s all I can do.”