ROCCO HAPPY WITH NEW BEGINNING.Byline: GERRY GITTELSON Community Sports VALENCIA - Once among the Southland's most touted softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' pitchers after winning a school career-record 49 games at Valencia High, Tori Rocco has endured constant heartache since leaving for a scholarship at Arkansas Tech two years ago. First the right-hander injured her shoulder after complaints of soreness were ignored prior to her freshman season, then she was removed from the Arkansas Tech roster after butting heads with then-coach Kirstie Betancur. A comeback at College of the Canyons College of the Canyons is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state. According to the National Junior College Research Association, College of the Canyons consistently ranks in the top 50 community colleges in the nation. has been delayed a year while Rocco has recovered after slicing her arm through a window, requiring 150 stitches. Now Rocco, who'll be 21 next month, is finally OK - her arm and her attitude - and she couldn't be happier. She's 0-1 with one save for the Cougars - the loss came on bloop bloop Baseball n. A blooper. tr.v. blooped, bloop·ing, bloops To hit (a ball) into the air just beyond the infield. adj. Hit just beyond the infield. single in the bottom of the 10th inning against Pasadena City College last week - with a 0.40 ERA and and 12 strikeouts in 17 innings heading into Tuesday's Western State Conference matchup at Hancock of Santa Maria Santa Maria, city, Brazil Santa Maria (sän`tə mərē`ə), city (1991 pop. 217,592), Rio Grande do Sul state, S Brazil. It is a major railroad terminus and the site of an important military base. . ``I'm still building myself up, but the important thing is I'm a lot more relaxed and outgoing than I used to be,'' said Rocco, who admittedly never enjoyed media attention during high school. She's put her experience at Arkansas Tech behind her, and that's a good thing. ``I think I just got off on the wrong foot in Arkansas because of the injury, and the coach was pretty ticked off that I couldn't play because I was supposed to be the No. 1 pitcher, and the team hadn't done that well,'' Rocco said. Rocco said her arm injury in Arkansas originally was misdiagnosed as tendinitis, when it was actually a tear. ``It just wouldn't fix right over a whole year. I was working with trainers but they couldn't figure out what was wrong,'' she said. Rocco still has her sights an eventual college scholarship, and Canyons coach Ray Whitten is simply thrilled to have the hard-throwing right-hander in the interim. ``You know what? For some reasons attitudes change during college, and Tori's attitude has been tremendous,'' Whitten said. ``She's smiling and laughing, and as far as I can see it's a pleasure to have her on our team.'' Rocco has suffered a minor setback because of arm soreness related to scar tissue scar tissue n. Dense, fibrous connective tissue that forms over a healed wound or cut. from surgery to repair the cut. She plans to visit a neurologist Neurologist A doctor who specializes in disorders of the brain and central nervous system. Mentioned in: Cervical Disk Disease neurologist a specialist in neurology. Wednesday but isn't concerned about long-term effects. She's just happy to be pitching again. ``I've missed it a lot. This is what I've always wanted to do,'' Rocco said. Looking back, Rocco now believes things have worked out for the best because she doesn't think she ever could have been happy in Arkansas. ``The hardest part there was missing my mom. It was hard to leave her, and I don't think I was ready,'' she said. Now Rocco is more focused than ever. ``I think I'm going to come back strong. I'm pitching as well as I've ever pitched,'' she said. At Valencia, Rocco had some run-ins with teammates and coaches because she often was misunderstood. She didn't excel academically in high school but insists she was not a slacker, and these days she remains close friends with former teammates such as Jaisa Creps, who's now "Who's Now" was a daily series aired during SportsCenter throughout July 2007, in which viewers helped ESPN determine the ultimate sports star by considering both on-field success and off-field buzz. at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX . It's a different Tori Rocco today. She's healthy and happy - and for the first time in a long time optimistic op·ti·mist n. 1. One who usually expects a favorable outcome. 2. A believer in philosophical optimism. op about the future. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Pitcher Tori Rocco has returned back to Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, from Arkansas to play softball for the College of Canyons. David Crane/Staff Photographer |
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