Griffin Reaches Breaking Point : After Sitting Out, She Can’t Wait to Get Back on Her Feet

If only Sara Griffin hadn’t left her feet to make the play.

Had she remained upright, she probably would have finished the college softball season with her third Big Ten Conference player of the year award.

But Griffin, Michigan’s top pitcher and hitter, is an all-out competitor.

She was playing third base in a game against Iowa on April 5 when Brandi Macias, who played at Palmdale High, popped a bunt in front of the plate. Griffin and first baseman Traci Conrad charged in to make the play.

Griffin dived and Conrad went sailing over Griffin, landing in a crumpled heap. Conrad, who lost consciousness for several minutes, suffered a shoulder sprain.

Griffin, a junior right-hander, landed on her left arm.

“I just remember my coach saying it’s not that bad,” she said.

But Griffin, who led Simi Valley High to a Southern Section Division I title in 1993, knew differently.

Her left arm was broken in two places and some tendons pulled away from her wrist.

Three weeks later, she was diagnosed as having a broken elbow. Griffin was placed in a cast from palm to armpit.

“If I was standing up, it wouldn’t have happened,” she said of the collision. “I saw the ball going into my mitt and [Conrad] ran by and caught it.”

In a second, Griffin’s goal of becoming the first four-time Big Ten player of the year was lost. It was one of the first things she thought about at the hospital.

Griffin, a two-time All-American, was 15-2 and led the team with 36 hits, 36 runs batted in and 10 doubles in 39 games before the injury.

This is only the second summer since age 8 that Griffin has not played softball. She decided to pass on a national team tryout and offers to play with top-notch women’s teams because she didn’t feel the arm was healed.

“I haven’t seen live batters since April,” she said. “If I’m going to play for a top-quality [summer] team, I want to be in good shape and I want to be at the top of my game.”

Having to sit and watch as Michigan advanced to the College World Series gave Griffin a new perspective on her softball career.

“I found out just how much softball means to me,” she said.

Now she wants to illustrate its importance by coming back stronger than ever.

“I look at it that I was robbed a year,” Griffin said. “But let me tell you, they’re going to see a totally new Sara [next season]. I’m not holding back anything.”