Nothing Little About Her Game

There was a moment four years ago that seemed to catch everyone off guard.

On a Riverside Poly softball team that featured power-hitting catcher Elizabeth “Binky” Peterson, who had just been walked intentionally to load the bases, a wisp of a girl strode to the plate against Moreno Valley Valley View and slugged the ball over Poly’s left-field fence. The ball sailed even beyond the baseball team’s bullpen and into its outfield.

Mindy Cowles had just done in a game what Poly’s revered sluggers Peterson and Andrea Loman had never done in a game.

“It went 260 feet, easy,” said Coach Eddie Jones. “It was stunning.”

Cowles, a 5-foot-3, 120-pound dynamo, quickly became the face of Poly softball. Pitcher, hitter, infielder, leader, Cowles was terrific.

“She’s a stud,” Jones said. “She looks like a cheerleader and you wonder, ‘How can this kid be that tough?’ She’ll dive on the ground, she’ll get hurt, she’ll do anything it takes to win.”

She leads Riverside Poly, ranked No. 7 in the Southland by The Times, into the Thousand Oaks tournament today.

For Poly, which is 14-4, it’s a chance to emerge from the shadow cast in the Inland Empire by No. 1 Corona Santiago, No. 4 Norco and No. 5 Corona. It also can redeem itself after a 5-3 Ivy League loss Friday to Valley View. Poly opens against Los Alamitos at 1 p.m. and plays a second-round game at Thousand Oaks against either No. 17 Sun Valley Village Christian or Orange El Modena.

“I don’t know if we have something to prove or something to learn, but in any case, it will be a good experience for us,” Jones said.

Cowles has something to prove for several reasons. Her travel ball teammates, Briana Santos and Heather Johnson, play for No. 3 Santa Ana Mater Dei, which plays on the other side of the bracket against No. 25 Simi Valley Royal.

“Before, I wanted to show that I’m on a good team too,” said Cowles, who will play at Arizona State next season. “We had to prove to other people that we belonged with the top teams. Now we have to prove to ourselves that we’re good enough to win.”

In past Southern Section playoffs, quality teams have been a problem. Poly has never been past the quarterfinals, Jones said, which was one reason why he back-loaded his schedule with tougher competition. Soft schedules in the past led to lofty records but may have done more harm than good.

“If we have to step up a little bit, we have to get it done in the next month,” he said. “There’s three weeks left in the season; it gives us a little time to say this is what we’ve got to do.”

This season, Cowles is batting .536 with five home runs, 20 runs batted in, 18 runs scored and 12 stolen bases. Fourteen of her 30 hits are for extra bases.

In her third season as pitcher, the former second baseman isn’t the overpowering type, such as Santiago’s Taryne Mowatt, Norco’s Daniela Urincho and Corona’s Brittany Bargar. Still, Cowles is 8-3 with an 0.79 earned-run average -- she gave up four earned runs in Valley View’s five-run first inning Friday -- and she’s practically indispensable as a player-coach.

“They probably listen to her as much or more than me, which I don’t have a problem with,” Jones said. “A lot of times, you want to kill the messenger, but she has a way to get the message across and the kids accept it and know she’s right.

“She just tries to help the kids get better.”

Teammates have been listening since “the Wiffle ball incident” her freshman year.

Practicing in the gym because of bad weather, Cowles hit a Wiffle ball that struck Peterson in the face. “Everyone was scared of her,” Cowles said of Peterson, who was intense and not so diplomatic. “She yelled at me, and I yelled back.”

Jones called it an important moment.

“I don’t know that it became her team, but the kids respected her,” Jones said of Cowles. “The other kids didn’t like being told what to do by Binky, and it was like they had a voice.”