Will and grace

Norco High’s softball team was at a restaurant, and the waitress thought she’d play a little game of her own. So she went around the table, guessing each girl’s position.

When she got to Teagan Gerhart, she guessed right -- for the wrong reason.

“You must be the pitcher,” the woman said. “It looks like you took a line drive to the face.”

The remark led to an awkward moment, which Gerhart handled with maturity beyond her years.

She laughed it off, congratulated the server on her guess, and calmly revealed that the scars on her face weren’t from playing softball.

Gerhart, the ace for the The Times’ top-ranked team in the Southland, bares the remnants from 17 surgeries to correct a congenital birthmark and cleft palate.

More might be done, she explains, were she willing to take more time away from the field. But she’s not.

“When sports became a part of my life I decided I was done,” Gerhart said. “To fully remove the birthmark, I would’ve been out for a couple of months.”

Any negativity about it she dismisses with the same haste that she fires pitches.

“I have scars,” she said. “I have accepted they’re part of me.”

A very small part.

Gerhart takes a 25-2 record, 0.37 earned-run average and 283 strikeouts with 14 walks into Norco’s Southern Section Division I playoff opener at home today against La Palma Kennedy. She also played basketball and volleyball, carries a 4.6 grade-point average, and is headed to Stanford.

Though many of her surgeries were painful -- skin was removed from various parts of her body, stretched, then grafted onto her face; titanium bones were put in both ears to correct an 80% hearing loss -- she is grateful for the treatment and kindnesses she received.

Her indefatigable nature and toughness is admired by her father, Norco’s longtime football coach, who has watched his daughter throw every pitch in as many as three tournament games in a day.

“A lot of kids fall apart and you have to pull them out,” Todd Gerhart said. “That never happens to her, and that’s probably due to her life, due to all of the plastic surgeries and speech therapy.

“Her life has made her tougher than the average girl -- football tough.”

Though with a soft side.

Before each game Gerhart pitches, she uses her finger to etch D-A-D into the dirt at the back of the mound -- her way of honoring Ken Robinson, the late father of Norco’s softball coach.

Robinson died last year of heart failure at 86. He was close to Gerhart, who was quiet and stayed mostly to herself when she first joined the Norco varsity as a freshman.

The old man and the shy girl would often sit together during down time at practice, Robinson patiently coaxing her into conversation.

“He was humble, asked questions, and I felt comfortable around him,” Gerhart said.

During the fifth inning of a recent game against Corona Santiago, Robinson’s widow watched as Gerhart stooped to repeat her tribute as she paused to refocus.

“It was really emotional,” Sandy Robinson said. “I’d like to think he knows when she does that.”

Her own health issues, and those of “Dad,” may have shaped Gerhart’s future beyond softball. She wants to become a nurse.

“So many people have helped me,” she said, “now it’s my turn.”

On the Norco softball team, Teagan, a triplet, competes alongside her sisters, Kelsey and Whitley. Next year, Kelsey, the school valedictorian, plans to join Teagan at Stanford. Whitley will attend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“I’m sure glad to see Teagan graduate. I won’t be missing her a bit,” Jo Ann Byrd, Corona’s coach, said admiringly. “Glad she’s taking her sisters with her.”

Norco’s opponents will be happy to know that leaves only one Gerhart sibling left to torment them -- 14-year-old Coltin, a baseball player who will also take up football when he begins high school next year.

Oldest brother Toby, 22, is a two-sport athlete at Stanford, where he plays running back and patrols the outfield. Garth, 20, plays center for the Arizona State football team.

Teagan seems prepared for whatever challenges lie ahead.

“After everything I’ve gone through, I’ve learned to always look at the positive and never let things affect me,” she said. “I think I can overcome anything.”

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melissa.rohlin@latimes.com