Florida State’s World Series Quest Is a Shot in the Arm for Gutierrez

Her arm throbbing, her psyche frazzled but her emotions on surprisingly solid ground, Toni Gutierrez said she is ready to pitch Florida State’s softball team to a possible fourth consecutive College World Series berth this weekend.

She says she’s ready to lead fifth-ranked Florida State into a three-team NCAA regional tournament in Tallahassee, Fla., today, despite knowing she needs reconstructive surgery and might not pitch again.

A senior who was recruited out of Canyon High in 1989 by only one West Coast college (Cal State Bakersfield), Gutierrez accepted a scholarship from the Seminoles, who saw some potential. Since then, Gutierrez has literally left her heart, soul and injured right arm on the Florida State pitching rubber.

Gutierrez will pitch for only the second time since departing early from an April 11 game against East Carolina with a sore arm. The Seminoles (49-6), making their fourth consecutive appearance in the regional, will open against Kansas (29-13) at 2 p.m. Florida State Coach JoAnne Graf wants Gutierrez to start despite the fact she has two other pitchers with a combined record of 34-2.

Gutierrez said she won’t take the opportunity for granted, while admitting she has in the past.

Gutierrez said she approached postseason play last season with a numbness, a mental burnout that became the byproduct of a 72-game season.

“I don’t want to say I didn’t care, because I did,” Gutierrez said. “I got discouraged because we were (at the World Series) and I wasn’t in my peak shape. I didn’t pitch well. I beat myself.”

If a numbness returns this year, Gutierrez hopes it’s only in her aching right arm.

Doctors have told her it has three problems: a torn rotator cuff, a stretched glenohumeral ligament and a cyst that is developing into a bone spur.

“And they told me I’ve had this for a long time,” she said. “I thought I just had tendinitis. They tell me this stuff and then they give me a cortisone shot.

“It doesn’t help. So three weeks later, they give me another one.”

Injured or not, Gutierrez has been outstanding with a 15-4 record, 103 strikeouts and a 0.39 earned-run average, second best in her career.

“Now they’ve got me seeing a sports therapist and they’re teaching me techniques to ‘beat the pain for these last games,’ ” she said. “I don’t think anybody around here even knows about this.”

If there’s a motto for Florida State this year, it’s “One more time with feeling.”

The Seminoles set a school record for victories in 1992, finishing 63-9. But when they got to the World Series, they lost to California, 3-0, in the opener and Massachusetts, 4-2, in the second game and were out.

Gutierrez feels personally responsible for the loss to Massachusetts, a team Florida State beat, 3-1, three weeks earlier. But after 44 pitching appearances (35-9 record), 285 1/3 innings and 295 strikeouts, she had nothing left.

“When I got (to the World Series), my arm was tired and my brain was tired, and I thought, ‘More games,’ ” she said. “I know that sounds bad, but it was hard to stay focused.

“I didn’t think about it where we were until after the game and then I realized . . . we’re done. And I looked at all the seniors and I started crying. I felt bad. I felt guilty.”

She shouldn’t have.

Gutierrez, who was offered a tryout at Cal State Northridge out of high school, was the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year and a second-team All-American last season.

She ranks second on Florida State’s all-time list with an 0.45 ERA and 51 shutouts, and is third with 637 2/3 innings and 646 strikeouts.

Gutierrez also has a lifetime batting average of .265, six home runs and 56 runs batted in. In the championship game of the ACC tournament April 17, her pitching and two-run homer gave Florida State a 4-2 victory over Virginia.

She’s not satisfied. “I’ll never have a year like I had last year,” she said. “This whole year has not been that good for me. But I’m excited about this weekend.”

But after three uneventful trips to Oklahoma City, the site of the softball World Series, Gutierrez also is haunted by thoughts of not making it back for a fourth try.

“I’ve had this feeling that we’re not going this year because we’ve been there the last three--and it can’t happen again,” she said. “In three years, I think we possibly have won two games. Possibly.”

West Coast teams have a reputation for playing at a higher caliber than teams from the East, a notion that gains support each postseason. In 11 World Series, UCLA has won eight titles, Texas A&M; two and Arizona one. Gutierrez, however, said Florida State can beat anybody if her teammates quit thinking they’re inferior.

“It’s just rankings, and coaches talking about UCLA, UNLV, Fresno State and we start thinking, ‘Oh God, we’re going have to play these teams,’ ” she said. “Last year we beat UNLV and kept them out of the World Series.”

Gutierrez will take the mound today with a renewed conviction and images in her mind of the seniors she “let down” in 1992--a hurt that might be greater than the pain in her right arm.

“I’m trusting the doctors and what they’re telling me,” she said. “And they’re telling me to go in there and go all-out.

“Then they’ll fix it.”