The Colleges : Community College Notebook : Patti Taylor Takes Advantage of Vacation to Rest Her Busy Pitching Arm

The Saddleback College softball team isn’t competing this week because of spring break.

This comes as a welcome relief to one player in particular--pitcher Patti Taylor.

Taylor, a sophomore right-hander, has had a sore arm most of the season and can use the rest. She has pitched in 24 of Saddleback’s 26 games and is 22-2. She is 10-0 in Orange Empire Conference play for first-place Saddleback (23-2, 10-0).

But all that throwing, even though it is an underhanded motion, is putting a lot of stress on her arm.

“My arm has been hurting all season,” said Taylor, sitting in the Saddleback training room rubbing her arm last week. “I’m glad we don’t play during vacation, so I can get some rest.”

One of the reasons for Taylor’s sore arm--besides all the games she pitches--is the number of strikeouts she is getting this season.

Taylor, who was 32-6 last season for Saddleback and led the Gauchos to their first state title, had 310 strikeouts.

This season, Taylor already has 258 strikeouts for Saddleback, which still has 10 conference games left and most likely an appearence in the Southern California playoffs.

Taylor developed a new pitch for ‘88--a changeup--to go with her 65-mile-per-hour fastball, her drop and her screwball, which she rarely throws because of the stress it causes her arm.

“It was time to come up with a new pitch,” said Taylor, who has been pitching for 10 years. “Everyone was getting used to my speed and my drop, so I had to do something to fool the hitters.”

Taylor developed the changeup with the help of Bill Owens, a private coach who has worked with Taylor for nine years.

“She was a good pitcher, but the changeup makes her that much better,” said Saddleback Coach Pete Morris. “There’s nothing a hitter can do about it. You can’t look for it. When it comes, you just end up looking silly most of the time.”

Taylor came to Saddleback after she starred at Fountain Valley High School for three seasons. She pitched Fountain Valley into the Southern Section final as a senior in 1985 but lost, 1-0, to St. Joseph.

She had planned to enter the cosmetology program at Golden West College after high school but discovered that the course schedule would not allow her enough time to compete in softball.

“At first I was just going to take classes full time and not play softball anymore,” Taylor said. “But I called Pete (Morris) to see if something could be worked out.”

Morris was able to arrange with the cosmetology school affiliated with Saddleback to allow Taylor to attend classes part time and earn enough vocational units to be eligible for softball.

Taylor, 19, will not be going on to a four-year college or university.

“I was almost ready to stop playing after high school anyway,” Taylor said. “You can’t make any money at it, so I might as well go to work. I might play on a traveling team or something, but I’m more concerned about this season right now.”

Alonzo Jamison of Rancho Santiago and Jerry Anderson of Columbia have been voted state players of the year by the state basketball coaches’ association and the J.C. Athletic Bureau.

Jamison, a 6-foot 6-inch freshman forward from Santa Ana Valley High School, averaged 19.6 points and 8.7 rebounds for Rancho Santiago, which finished second to Cypress in the Orange Empire Conference.

Anderson, a 6-8 forward, averaged 18 points and 9 rebounds for Columbia, which lost to El Camino in the state championship game at Santa Clara University earlier this month.

David Miles of Orange Coast, who averaged 18.1 points and 10.2 rebounds, was the only other player from Orange County to make the 20-member all-state team.

Baseball tournaments: With spring break here, most of the local baseball teams are getting ready for tournaments.

Rancho Santiago opens in the Ventura tournament against American River today, Saddleback plays East Los Angeles and Golden West plays San Diego City in the four-team Saddleback tournament starting today.

Fullerton is in the Mesa Arizona tournament starting today, and Orange Coast is taking the week off.

“We’re going up there to become a better team,” said Don Sneddon, Rancho Santiago coach. “Some of our guys were asking if they can bring their surfboards or golf clubs. I’m starting to wonder if they have the wrong idea about all this.”

Community College Notes

John Wardrup, a member of the Saddleback golf team, leads the Orange Empire Conference in stroke average at 72.8 with three matches left in the conference. Saddleback is in first place in the Southern Division with 34 points. Palomar is second with 32 points. . . . Kathy Werth, a 6-foot forward for the Golden West women’s basketball team, has made an oral commitment to attend Cal State Fullerton. Werth, a transfer from Fresno State, averaged 15 points and 9 rebounds. . . . Chris Matney, the 1986 Garden Grove League defensive player of the year from Bolsa Grande High School, has transferred to Orange Coast and will play football next fall. Matney was the starting outside linebacker at Coe College in Iowa last season.