No Doubt About It, This Girl Can Play Ball : Small schools: Borders, who opens the season as Whittier Christian’s No. 1 pitcher, was 5-1 with a 3.05 ERA last year.

When left-handed pitcher Ila Borders joined the Whittier Christian baseball team last season, becoming somewhat of a pioneer and novelty, she decided to answer the obvious question even before the coach asked it.

“I remember the first time she came in,” Whittier Christian Coach Steve Randall said. “She said she wasn’t a girl trying to make a point by playing with the boys. She said she loved the game and was here to play ball.

“The guys (teammates) understood right away that she’s out here for the same reason they are, to win a championship. Our philosophy is we’ll use anybody who can help us do that.”

Borders, 17, can live with that approach. As someone determined to buck the odds and continue playing college and even major league baseball after high school, she wishes more coaches were as open-minded as Randall. Or, in her case, as wise.

“I’ll do anything to get on a college team or the major leagues,” said Borders, the determination accentuating her words. “It really doesn’t matter who you are or what you are. I hope I can find some people who are willing to give me a chance. I don’t care about being the first woman to play in the major leagues. I just want to make it.”

Baseball has been the top priority in Borders’ life since she started playing Little League at age 10, after giving softball a try for about five years. Actually, the roots of her interest reach back to her toddler days, when her father was still playing in the minor leagues. Phil Borders, a right-handed pitcher, played several years in the Dodger organization and now shows his daughter the finer points of the trade.

“Little things would tell me she had a knack (for baseball),” said Borders, who now owns an automotive paint shop in Orange. “The main thing was that she was never afraid of the ball. She was really good at mimicking me, even though I’m right-handed and she’s left-handed.”

The father and daughter have used baseball as a bond to strengthen their relationship.

“We study films (of Ila). We study pictures,” Phil Borders said. “I show her what she’s doing right or wrong. I used to come home Friday nights and play with her all weekend. She’d call my shop at noon on Fridays to see when I’d be home so we could play.”

Those rap and practice sessions have been productive. Last season, Borders was 5-1 for the Heralds in the highly competitive Olympic League, and had a 3.05 earned-run average with 51 strikeouts. She opens the season as the team’s No. 1 pitcher.

Besides a fastball, her repertoire includes a curve, straight change and a newly developed sinker she calls her “out pitch.” And according to Randall, she throws in the low 80s.

“The velocity on my fastball is coming along and the ball is moving quite a bit,” Borders said. “I’ve got a cut fastball coming in on right-handers or I can throw a rising fastball. If I really want to throw a ball by a hitter, I throw a four-seam fastball, which tends to stay straighter and come in faster.”

Borders said she often works on her control by throwing against a brick wall, a routine she developed as a child when her parents weren’t around and she didn’t have anyone to play catch with. Other ball-playing siblings have come along since--Leah, 12; Phillip, 11 and Randall, 5--but Borders still goes at it against the wall.

“I mark the wall, outside knee-high and up-and-in, and play a little game,” Borders said. “I try to hit those spots. It’s taught me good control.”

Apparently, the hours of practice and shop talk with her father also instilled in Borders a generous dose of self-confidence. She won’t brag, but her words indirectly tell the listener that Borders knows she can play the game. And play it well.

“My dad said something that stuck with me,” Borders said. “He said, ‘If you let things bother you, you’re not made for this game.’ ”

So, is she cut out for the rigors of baseball and the heckling she might hear once in a while?

“I’ve heard everything under the sun, so I don’t let it bother me anymore,” Borders said. “If I was out here and I couldn’t do the job, no way I would do it. I’m not out here for show.”