Before Brittany Hitchcock recorded her 21st out on a Sunday afternoon last March, she had a notion her final pitch of the day might be the last of her University of Hawaii softball career.
Through the ache in her back and pain shooting down her left leg with each plant toward the plate, Hitchcock willed herself from the dugout to the circle seven times in a complete-game effort against James Madison.
“I remember thinking this could be my last game because I was pitching in a lot of pain that day,” Hitchcock said. “Over the last couple innings I had to come in and sit on the bench when we were on offense and mentally tell myself to keep going.”
At the end of that March 4 duel, the Rainbow Wahine senior right hander had limited James Madison — which would end the season eighth in the country in scoring — to four singles while striking out six in a 1-0 hard-luck loss.
By then, Hitchcock knew too well that her health fortunes had turned against her as well. A doctors visit confirmed that the buildup of pain early in the season was due to a herniated disc while nerve compression affected her leg.
“Everything had just locked up and I had tons of inflammation in my body and I was like, ‘This isn’t good,’ ” Hitchcock recalled.
“I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t able to move my body without excruciating pain.”
The same injury led to Hitchcock redshirting in 2014 and her immediate thought upon its return was to rest and rehab in time for a farewell appearance later in the spring — that is, until UH coach Bob Coolen raised the possibility of another shot at her senior year.
After the second surgery of her college career, Hitchcock applied for a medical hardship, which was officially granted by the NCAA in September. Now in her sixth season in the program, a healthy Hitchcock leads an otherwise green UH pitching staff into the 2019 season and is poised to make an unprecedented fifth opening-night start for the Rainbow Wahine.
“Every year you have those goals,” Hitchcock said. “But the fact that I’ve been given another chance makes it that much more motivating that we really want to get this done. We want to get that Big West title and just give back to the program for all that it’s given me.”
Coming off a 23-27 2018 campaign, UH faces Georgia State on Thursday to open the program’s 35th anniversary season. A matchup with UCLA — ranked No. 1 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 and No. 2 in the USA Today/NFCA poll — awaits in the nightcap of Friday’s Paradise Classic schedule.
After recovering from her initial injury, Hitchcock earned All-Big West second-team honors as a freshman and sophomore and elevated to the first team her junior year. She made the NFCA All-West Region third team twice and was on track to complete her graduate degree in educational psychology (she had earned her bachelors degree in three years) last spring.
Following last April’s surgery, she extended her academic work to coincide with her return to the field this season.
HAWAII PARADISE CLASSIC
At Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium
When: Thursday-Saturday
TV: Friday’s UH games on Spectrum Sports
Radio: Friday UH-UCLA game on 1420-AM
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Thursday—UCLA vs. UT Arlington, 9 a.m.; Fresno State vs. UCLA, 11:30 a.m.; UT Arlington vs. Fresno State, 2 p.m.; Georgia State vs. St. Mary’s, 4:30 p.m.; Georgia State vs. Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Friday—Fresno State vs. St. Mary’s, 9 a.m.; Georgia State vs. Fresno State, 11:30 a.m.; St. Mary’s vs. UT Arlington, 2 p.m.; UT Arlington vs. Hawaii, 4:30 p.m.; UCLA vs. Hawaii, 7 p.m.
Saturday—UT Arlington vs. Georgia State, 9 a.m.; UCLA vs. Georgia State, 11:30 a.m.; St. Mary’s vs. UCLA, 1 p.m.; St. Mary’s vs. Hawaii, 3 p.m.; Fresno State vs. Hawaii, 5 p.m.
“I was planning on moving back to California after (last) May,” she said. “I had my whole house packed up. It was a big shift.”
Hitchcock (55-38 in her career with a 2.10 earned-run average) returned to campus for the fall semester confident but not assured of regaining her senior season and was well into her comeback when the NCAA approved her paperwork. She was 5-4 and had lowered her ERA to 1.97 after a rough start last year when she shut it down after 10 appearances, under the limit of 15 to apply for the extra year.
UH’s strength and training staff modified a conditioning regimen to reduce pressure on her back (more Pilates, less running) and she was back in pitching shape in time for UH’s fall exhibition tournament last November. She struck out 26 over 15 innings and the Wahine went through five games against Division II and junior college competition without surrendering a run.
“I saw the old Brittany back in the fall,” Coolen said. “She threw well, she was moving the ball, she was powering the ball, she was pitching.”
Coolen said he’ll manage Hitchcock’s workload according to how her back responds over UH’s 51-game schedule, but plans to have her again hold the “go-to” designation for the pitching staff.
Hitchcock noted she could be into her coaching career by now if not for the injuries and has embraced a mentor role for a staff including two sophomores (Dominique Martinez and Emily Klee) and two freshmen (Izzy Dino and Ashley Murphy). Dino, a 6-foot-2 right hander from Canada, is slated to complement the 5-11 Hitchcock in the starting rotation.
“I hope they see that she’s giving it her all and they’ll do the same thing,” Coolen said.
“We need to have that savviness that Brittany has. Our other pitchers have to understand that it’s not just how hard you throw, it’s how well you throw, how well you set up a batter.”
