The Chino softball team is also used to battling deep into the playoffs but the Cowboys have their work cut out for them if that is to be the case this year.
Senior pitcher Courtney Springman is out for the season with a shoulder injury which leaves duty in the circle to freshman Violet Salazar.
Springman had to come out of a Hacienda League game against Los Altos (which the Cowboys lost 4-1) on Thursday. The injury was diagnosed as either a partially torn rotator cuff or severe sprain with 30 to 45 days rest recommended.
“She is capable,” coach Mike Smith said of Salazar. “She just doesn’t have a lot of experience. Courtney is 6-1 and throw mid 60s and Violet is 5-1 and throws mid 50’s so its just different.”
The Cowboys do have the luxury of having a good defense which they’ll have to bank on now.
The Cowboys also had a strange scenario play out at a weekend tournament at Corona Santiago. They defeated Chaminade earlier in the day 5-1 with Salazar in the circle. But then ended up with a forfeit against host Santiago of a game they were winning 4-0.
Smith had left to go to a track meet in which his son was competing, leaving the team in the hands of is longtime assistant Sean Brashear. But Brashear got ejected in the third inning after a Chino player was called out on a play at third base. Smith said Brashear was tossed for an obscenity which he disputes.
Since there was no other coach, the game had to go down as a forfeit.
“It has been a tough week,” Smith said. “But we’re not changing our expectations. We still expect to go out there and win a league tile but it will be more difficult now.”
The Cowboys are 8-7 overall and 1-1 in league play with a home game coming up today against West Covina.
