Pacifica softball coach Mark Campbell vividly remembers Kaley Winegarner‘s final pitch of the 2013 season.
He can still picture her delivery, and he’ll never forget the result.
“She threw a pitch and I watched it sail off the top of the backstop,” Campbell explained. “Then I look back at her, and she’s lying on the ground and she’s just hitting (her knee) because it buckled.”
It was on April 12 that Winegarner, then a sophomore, tore her left ACL pitching in a Michelle Carew Classic game at Peralta Canyon Park.
One of the more devastating injuries a pitcher can sustain, Winegarner was obviously heart-broken. Her season was over, and for her to return to the circle, a surgery followed by a nearly year-long rehab process was staring her dead in the eye.
“It was so hard to see her go down last year,” Campbell said. “She works her butt off and it was just a freak thing, but you feel sorry because they put so much into it. Not only here at the school, but their commitment to their travel teams and everything that goes into it.”
As Winegarner will tell you, her road to recovery was an uphill battle. For the past 10 months, she has rehabbed her ACL for the sole purpose of returning to the diamond.
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Wednesday, the junior pitcher took a major step in returning to her old form.
Sporting a left knee brace, Winegarner trotted out to the circle and pitched in a live scrimmage with her Mariners teammates.
“(The rehab) has been going really well,” she said. “I just got cleared officially last week. I’ve been pitching, but I’ll officially be able to start playing in games with the team again soon. I’m so excited.”
Winegarner, a Stanford commit, could be back in live game action as early as this weekend in the Best of the West Tournament.
“You don’t want to rush her back,” Campbell said. “You have to fight her off because once high school starts, she wants to be out there with her teammates. But we feel confident. She’s been released. She’s been out here throwing. And she’s gradually increased the number of pitches she’s been throwing.”
Physically, Winegarner says she’s back at 100 percent. The big test will be between the ears.
“It’s going to be all mental for me,” she said of her return. “But as long as I can get past that, I know I’ll be able to do it.”
LOADED FIELD
The 16-team Best of the West Tournament begins today with games at Pacifica High and Mark Twain School in Garden Grove.
Three of the county’s preseason top-10 teams (Pacifica, Mission Viejo, Canyon) are part of a loaded field that includes Norco (No. 2), West Ranch (No. 5) and ML King of Riverside (No. 9), all ranked in the CIF-SS Division I preseason poll, and Chino (No.1 in Division 2).
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
