A chance meeting turned into an unexpected opportunity to pitch at the international level for Brittany Hitchcock.
After completing her freshman season with the University of Hawaii softball team, Hitchcock was content to devote her summer to pitching lessons, conditioning and playing in a 23-and-under league back home in Huntington Beach, Calif.
That is until she was spotted in a "get-together scrimmage" with other college players in the area and was approached about helping to fill out the pitching staff for the Puerto Rican national team for two summer tournaments.
Now the Rainbow Wahine right-hander could find herself in the circle opposite some of the best in the world over the next two weeks and will be about 15 minutes from home when Puerto Rico opens the 10th World Cup of Softball on Monday in Irvine, Calif.
"It’s definitely something I didn’t plan on doing going into the summer," Hitchcock said in a telephone interview.
Puerto Rico faces Argentina and Venezuela in a doubleheader on Monday at Bill Barber Park and takes on the United States national team on Tuesday. The team also faces the U.S. Junior Women’s team, Canada, Mexico and Japan in the tournament, which runs through July 5.
Hitchcock will then accompany the team to Surrey, British Columbia, for the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship, scheduled for July 7-13.
Hitchcock said the surprise additions to her summer schedule arose after talking to the father of Puerto Rico’s pitching coach, who had seen her throw in the aforementioned scrimmage. She was told the team needed pitching depth for the two tournaments, "so he said if I was interested then he would get me more information," Hitchcock said.
Hitchcock, in turn, made sure to remind the coaches that "I am not Puerto Rican."
Even so, she was invited to join the team for the tournaments, which lead into the Pan American Games in Toronto in July.
"I think they’re just trying to get players because they had injuries in their pitching staff," said Hitchcock, who will not be on the roster for the Pan Am Games.
Hitchcock was scheduled to meet the team in Irvine this weekend, with two practices set up prior to the World Cup.
The international tournaments ramped up Hitchcock’s summer regimen as she looks to build on a strong finish to her freshman season at UH.
After redshirting her first year due to a back injury, Hitchcock went 18-7 with a 2.37 earned-run average in 32 appearances this spring on her way to earning a spot on the All-Big West second team and the NFCA All-West Region third team.
"I think recovering from my back injury was in the forefront of my mind in the beginning of the season," she said. "I didn’t want to re-injure myself, so I still had to be cautious in some ways."
Passing the one-year benchmark following her surgery in March gave her the confidence to "pretty much go full force and not have to constantly think about anything else."
She went 9-2 with two shutouts and eight complete games in Big West play and won seven of her final eight starts of the season.
Hitchcock said playing for the U.S. national team has "always been a dream of mine," but would welcome the challenge of facing the lineup of former and current college standouts if called upon on Tuesday.
She could see a former UH teammate in the World Cup and Canadian Open. Alyssa Villalpando, who played two seasons at UH before transferring to Fresno State last year, is on Mexico’s roster for the summer.
