It was an injury that can shake an athlete to their very
core.
Pain. Fear. The great unknown. Will I ever play again, and
if so, when?
All of those feelings were real for Xavier softball pitcher
Emily Richards earlier this week, when she was struck in her pitching shoulder
(right) by a line drive off the bat of a player from Phoenix Camelback.
After a few days of rest and no worse the wear, Richards
recovered nicely and was in the circle on Friday (March 13) as the Gators
played the first of two games in their own Invitational tournament at the Rose
Mofford Sports Complex in north Phoenix.
Richards pitched five solid innings, giving up four hits, as
Xavier defeated Glendale Raymond S. Kellis 15-4 in a game shortened to five
innings by the 10-run rule. Xavier fell to Buckeye Verrado 12-11 in its second
game.
The tourney wraps up on Saturday (March 14) and Xavier will
play two more games, at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Richards likes to stay on top of her game by throwing even
on days when she doesn’t pitch in a game. Her routine was interrupted when she
was instructed to rest, but it was better than perhaps not being able to throw
for a long time.
“I was pretty scared and shocked when it happened. I was
crying,’’ said Richards, a junior. “The athletic trainer (Laurie White) came
out and we put ice on it and she told me she thought it was only a bad bruise,
and it was.’’
Against Kellis, Richards was able to work on refining one of
her pitches, the drop ball.
Xavier, serving as the visiting team in this one, took
advantage of the Kellis pitcher’s control problems and scored four runs on only
one hit in the top of the first inning. The only hit was a two-run single by
Richards. Three walks and a hit batter also aided Xavier’s cause.
Another hit batter and another walk contributed to three
more runs in the second inning. From there, the only suspense was if the Gators
could get the game wrapped up within five innings.
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