Kennedy pitcher overcomes a lot to become a City Section champion

Doctors told Christian Carbajal that she should avoid the softball field after a soccer accident in eighth grade blinded her left eye.

She chose not to listen, and in the most important performance of her high school career on Wednesday, the senior pitcher led Granada Hills Kennedy (24-6) to its first City Section championship since 1982 in a 1-0 victory over Chatsworth (25-6) at Cal State Northridge.

The accident happened when Carbajal was 14, when a kicked soccer ball smashed into her cheekbone, sending it upwards to crush her retina. She endured multiple surgeries, and said that she can still see blood when she looks out of that eye.

Some of her family members wanted her to quit sports, fearing that she could be completely blind if anything happened to her right eye.

After a year away from softball, however, she could no longer resist its allure.

“When they told me, ‘You’re not going to be able to play no more,’ ” Carbajal said, “I started pitching on my own. I knew I was going to play again. I pushed harder.”

She made her comeback in ninth grade and at first she struggled, unable to accurately gauge the location of the catcher’s glove.

“Having one eye,” Carbajal said. “It throws things off balance.”

But she adjusted and going into Wednesday’s game, she had 240 strikeouts in 172 innings and a 0.57 earned-run average.

Before the championship game, her coach, Craig Becker, pulled her aside and told her to leave everything on the field. She responded with a two-hitter, striking out eight.

“Their pitcher was outstanding,” Chatsworth Coach Jay Creps said of Carbajal.

Since the incident, she’s often overheard her opponents underestimate her abilities, whispering that she’s disabled.

To them, she has one thing to say.

“I can accomplish just as much as you can,” Carbajal said.

melissa.rohlin@latimes.com