Pacifica's Harrison selected county softball player of the year

Pacifica outfielder Andrea Harrison is one of the most pure hitters to come out of Orange County.

She hits for power. She hits for average. She hits everything.

She has one of the most powerful throwing arms and has incredible instincts in the outfield.

She is the total package.

Harrison is among the county's all-time best, batting .410 with 158 hits, 111 runs scored, 23 stolen bases, 24 home runs and a county-record 127 RBIs during her four-year career at Pacifica.

The last two seasons when Harrison did her most damage, she was putting up those huge numbers against some of the top teams in the nation and in the Empire League, which is one of the toughest leagues in the county.

This season, Pacifica played in the Tournament of Champions in Bullhead City, Ariz., the Nike Faster to First Classic in Huntington Beach and the Michelle Carew Classic in Anaheim Hills. There was not a tougher schedule to be found anywhere in the county and Harrison hit against everybody.

She finished with a .393 batting average, 13 home runs, 35 runs scored and 44 RBIs.

Harrison helped her team reach the CIF-SS Division I finals in 2006, win the Division I championship in 2007 and reach the Division II semifinals this season.

Harrison is the Register's 2008 Softball Player of the Year.

It's no surprise UCLA gave her a full scholarship where she will once again play alongside her sister, Monica, another superstar softball stud to come out of Pacifica.

“On the field, she is more of my support system,” Harrison said of her sister. “I get really heated if we don't get a call our way or someone can't produce a run, and she just calms me down and tells me, ‘Everything is going to be OK. Me, you or somebody else is going to pick up the team.' That's one of the main reasons I picked UCLA.”

Monica was unable to participate in Pacifica's 5-1 victory over Kennedy in last year's Division I final because she was playing left-handed pepper before the game, which is a violation of CIF-SS rules. Andrea was devastated.

“About five minutes before the game that's when they told everybody and I just lost it, my whole focus for the game,” Harrison said. “I have rituals that I do before every single game. I'm a freak. I wear the same outfit. Something like that gets tweaked and I freak out. My whole mindset for the game was bad and I was like, ‘What are we supposed to do now?' She is the vocal leader of our team.”

Harrison struck out on three pitches in her first at bat before her big sister called her over for a pep talk.

“She called me over and said, ‘You need to do this,' and ‘I know you can do this,' and ‘You need to do this for me,'” Harrison said, who came back to hit a home run that got the Mariners back into the game to spark the victory.

Harrison and her sister have always been close. They have been playing on the same teams since she was 4 years old. They practiced together on their won when they were little kids. They would go to the park across the street from their house and Monica, a shortstop, would throw balls in the dirt, so Andrea, a first baseman back then could practice making the picks.

“We played more competitively in 8-and-under and she was our pitcher/shortstop,” Harrison said. “She told me, ‘Dre, we're going to need you to play first base because you are the only person I trust to catch the ball.' She used to be that player that would make the play at short and run the ball all the way to first.”

Look out Pac-10, the Harrison sisters are about to be reunited.

Contact the writer: carias@ocregister.com