STRIKEOUT QUEEN

The hand-me-down glove was weather-beaten, stained and frayed, but it was the best Valentine’s Day present Taryne Mowatt had ever received.

Mowatt, a sophomore pitcher for the Corona Santiago High softball team, got the glove this year from her pitching coach, Doug Finch. It once belonged to Finch’s daughter, Jennie, an All-American pitcher at Arizona who last season won an NCAA-record 32 games without a loss.

Perfection seems to be rubbing off on Mowatt, who earlier this season strung together 88 consecutive scoreless innings, three shy of the Southern Section record set by Tracy Compton of Santa Maria Righetti in 1981.

Mowatt has also been piling up strikeouts at an eye-popping rate, leading the Southland with 293 through 22 games. The section record is 509 by Placentia Valencia’s Michele Granger in 1987.

“I’m just worried about winning,” Mowatt said. “Everything else is just a bonus.”

She needn’t worry.

She has a record of 17-4-1 and Santiago, No. 10 in The Times’ rankings, is 17-4-1, 9-2-1. The Sharks are in first place in the Mountain View League after their nine-inning, 2-1 victory over No. 23 Corona (16-8, 8-4) on Wednesday.

Mowatt, who has pitched every inning for Santiago this season, threw a three-hitter, striking out 16. She gave up her second home run of the season, to Washington-bound shortstop Dena Tyson, in the bottom of the sixth. In the ninth, Mowatt got a one-out single. Kelsey Delannoy replaced her as a pinch-runner, then scored the game-winner on a two-out single by Justine Yacco.

Mowatt’s drive for success started early. She was 8 when she began meeting with Finch once a week at his La Mirada practice center to polish her pitching and hitting skills. It was during these sessions that Mowatt began using Jennie’s old leather glove.

“I might have asked if I could have [the glove],” Mowatt said, “but only once.”

Doug Finch, who launched his private coaching business after he quit driving a cement mixer several years ago because of a back injury, believes Mowatt, 15, has a bright future.

“To a certain extent, she’s already at [Jennie’s] level,” Finch said. “She’s throwing 65 mph, has masterful command of all of her pitches and she’s intelligent out there.”

Mowatt’s dedication--she also plays for a club team in San Diego, traveling three times a week to practice--has not gone unnoticed by her Santiago teammates.

“We see it when she plays,” first baseman Sarah Murphy said. “She goes out there every day and loves playing the game.”

Mowatt’s scoreless streak ended last Friday with consecutive doubles by Norco in the second inning of a game it went on to win, 2-0.

“That caught me off guard,” Murphy said. “I had never seen anyone get back-to-back doubles off her before.”

Mowatt’s streak included a one-hitter in late March against Hacienda Heights Wilson, then No. 2 in The Times’ rankings. She struck out 21 in the nine-inning, 1-0 victory.

A few days later, Mowatt opened the Charter Oak tournament with a perfect game against Hacienda Heights Los Altos. She closed it with a four-hit, 13-strikeout performance against Covina Charter Oak, winning, 3-0, in the championship game.

Kim Robinson, a junior second baseman, doesn’t mind the lack of action on defense.

“We have a lot of confidence when she’s pitching,” Robinson said. “She always comes through for us.”

Mowatt is looking forward to another trip this weekend, when she will travel to Tucson to watch Finch pitch her final regular-season home game for Arizona.

In the coming years, Mowatt is hoping to make more trips to Hillenbrand Stadium, where attendance for Wildcat softball games averaged 1,660 last season, second-best among Division I teams.

“I’ve always wanted to go there but didn’t know they were good until a few years ago,” she said. “I just liked their colors when I was a kid.”