BIG HIT

For the last three seasons, La Habra’s Jenny Topping has defined the softball power hitter.

But it’s another Geney--short for Genevieve--who is primed to break the Southern Section record for home runs in a career by a high school player.

Geney Orris, a Brea Olinda senior, came into the season with 24 homers and needs only two more to tie the record of 28 set by Jenny Dalton of Glendale (1990-92). Orris already is second all-time, according to the section record book.

By contrast, Topping has 16 home runs.

“She’s very dedicated, very coachable,” Brea Coach Sharen Caperton said of Orris. “When she came out as a freshman, she was kind of shy. She’s our captain this year; that’s how much she’s matured.”

Orris, who pitches and plays right field, works hard on and off the field. Not only is she batting .609 and holding a 0.64 earned-run average, she’s also holding down a 3.0 grade-point average despite being dyslexic.

But as powerful as Orris is, she isn’t all about home runs.

“She hits for average and doesn’t strike out,” Caperton said. “She has softball sense--she’s very aggressive on the bases.

“She knows the game and is very competitive. Even in drills--she makes everyone else want to do it.”

The numbers bear that out. Orris, who has made an oral commitment to attend Nevada Las Vegas, is batting .609 with 10 runs batted in.

She seems to be equally powerful in the circle. A hard-throwing right-hander, Orris (4-1) has struck out 51 in 43 2/3 innings. She has given up 23 hits and walked nine.

“I think she’s underrated as a pitcher,” said Mater Dei Coach Doug Myers, who has followed Orris’ career through travel ball. “She’s not [Pacifica’s] Amanda Freed, but she’s in the next category.”

In fact, it is pitching--not a home run--that may have been the most meaningful moment in Orris’ softball life.

As a sophomore, she pitched 16 innings against top-seeded Upland before finally losing, 1-0, in the Division III semifinals. She discovered she could compete--as a pitcher--at the highest level.

“That game put me on the map,” Orris said. “It helped me out as a pitcher because it helped me realize I could go longer than I thought, that I was stronger as a pitcher than I thought.”

Orris calls her own pitches. Her favorite is the curveball. She makes her money on the corners.

But it is her hitting that has built her reputation. Her slugging average over four seasons is .774 . She was a Times Orange County second-team outfielder the last two seasons.

“Her home runs are not flukes; she hits the ball nine miles,” Myers said. “She kills the ball.”

Orris has the distinction of being one of only a few players in the county who use a high-end DeMarini bat. Priced at about $300 each, Orris has two.

“She’s the only girl I know who has one for cold weather and one for hot weather,” said Myers, who is also a batting coach. “It’s the most high-end bat there is. But the way she hits home runs, she could use a Coke bottle.

“She’s one of the scariest hitters to pitch to--she can mis-hit a ball and hit it over the fence. It would equate to trying to pitch to Mark McGwire in baseball.”

Orris no longer keeps one bat for warm or cold weather, but chooses based on the comfortable weight--one is 29 oz., the other 28 oz. She no longer is the player who could be handled with a certain pitch, either. Though she struck out 27 times in 98 at-bats as a sophomore, she makes good contact nowadays. She has struck out only once this season, and “when she gets hold of it,” Caperton said, “it’s gone.”

Sunny Hills gave her four intentional walks in a game. She has been walked nine times this season as teams pitched around her, according to Caperton.

Orris’ power has been cultivated by weight training she began in sixth grade. She tries to maintain a workout schedule when she isn’t playing regularly, and she credits that for providing much of her power.

But the strength doesn’t help with the pressure she says she’s feeling from classmates, teachers and sometimes teammates, to break the home run record.

“It’s in the back of my mind [but] I try not to think about it,” Orris said. “People keep bringing it up, ‘Have you broken it yet?’ I don’t care. Well, I do care because it’s something to be proud of, but I don’t want to be conceited about it. . . .

“It’s something I’ve worked at for four years--I didn’t know it was going to happen--but now that I’m in this position, I feel kind of happy, and I know I can do it. That’s the pressure--finishing.”