Playoff Profiles : This Pitcher Helps Herself

Don’t tell Danielle Ferreira how to pitch--even if you’re her coach.

“We have a deal,” said Alan Eberhart, coach of the Crescenta Valley High softball team. “If she sees me walking toward the mound, she’s to tell me to go away. I have no idea how to pitch.”

Fortunately for the Falcons, Ferreira does.

Ferreira, who has a 4.6 grade-point average and a scholarship to Cal State Fullerton in hand, studies pitching the way she approaches academics.

Her course load includes advanced-placement classes in English, physiology and Spanish. Her athletic resume this season includes 15 shutouts, 234 strikeouts and an 0.50 earned-run average in 181 1/3 innings.

Ferreira (22-6), who pitched a two-hitter with 11 strikeouts in a 7-0 victory over Peninsula on Tuesday, leads Crescenta Valley against Woodbridge at 3:15 p.m. today at Crescenta Valley in a Southern Section Division II quarterfinal.

“It’s kind of a little joke,” Ferreira said of her agreement with Eberhart. “He doesn’t know anything about pitching, so he doesn’t have the slightest idea what to tell me. He just knows when I’m doing something wrong. It’s more like a venting thing.”

Eberhart has offered Ferreira little in the way of instruction and has opted for a reliever only once this season as Crescenta Valley cruised to a second consecutive Pacific League title.

Eberhart attempted to pull his pitcher on another occasion when Ferreira was bothered by a painful blister on her right hand. But Ferreira shooed him back to the bench.

“It was a huge blood blister and it wasn’t pretty,” Ferreira said. “I was in a lot of pain, but I wore a band-aid and tried to pitch as best I could. I try to get myself out of my own struggles.”

Ferreira has sought personal pitching instruction for seven years. But developing tenacity, Eberhart said, has been the pitcher’s biggest improvement this season.

“She’s a sweet kid, and she was kind of smiley and apologetic,” Eberhart said. “But this year we talked about her providing leadership and she has--beyond my wildest expectations.”