DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

Don’t blame Amy Hartwell if she wants today’s softball game to end earlier than expected.

Don’t get her wrong, it’s a huge game for Estancia High. The Eagles open Orange Coast League play at cross-town rival Costa Mesa at 3:15 p.m.

But Hartwell’s done it before, stop games before the usual seven innings with her bat. Last week she combined to go nine for nine with 13 runs batted in, three doubles, two triples and one home run in two wins against Bolsa Grande.

Each game lasted only five innings. No mercy.

With the kind of schedule Hartwell has, forget about having any pity. She has to fit a lot into one day.

School. Softball. Volleyball. Studying.

Quite a load for a sophomore. Somehow she finds the time to excel in the classroom, the field, and on the court.

Hartwell said she boasts a 4.2 grade-point average while taking honors English, Spanish II and Advanced Placement World History.

She has a .667 batting average, tops on a robust lineup.

She’s a standout libero on a club volleyball team.

She’s the ace in the circle. Now this one took some time to get used to.

On her club softball team, Hartwell plays catcher and third base. She knew before the season her name would be called at Estancia after Josie Flores graduated last year after earning the Orange Coast League Pitcher of the Year honor by going 15-6 with a 1.80 earned-run average.

“I have to pitch. We have no other pitchers,” Hartwell said. “I’m used to being like the best and it’s really hard to like pitch because I’m not the best and I have to accept that fact.

“But I’m doing this for my team. I’m stepping up to the plate.”

In a huge way for the Eagles (8-5). Hartwell usually helps herself when she’s the pitcher of record. By reaching base (.704 on-base percentage), scoring runs (29), and driving in runs (18).

Hartwell’s pitching stats won’t blow you away, nothing like Flores’ three shutouts, one no-hitter, four one-hitters, two two-hitters, or five three-hitters of a year ago.

The numbers are respectable in the softball world, a 7-5 record, a 4.32 ERA, and 39 strikeouts in 66 1/3 innings.

With the kind of run support at Estancia, around 12 runs per contest, Hartwell can afford to not be perfect. She’d tell you herself that she’s nowhere close.

The demanding schedule forces her to leave softball practice early at times. She said she practices, or plays volleyball four times a week on a club team in Anaheim, usually from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. On lucky nights, she said it’s from 6 to 9, allowing her to stay through the duration of the softball practice.

Crazy hours for a 15-year-old, who said she comes home around 9:30 every night. Some of her softball teammates have questioned her taking off from practice at 4 p.m., barely spending half of it with the team.

“I don’t want the girls to think that I’m not committed,” Hartwell said. “I’m really committed to volleyball, and I’m really committed to this [softball] team, too. I always say about this commitment stuff. They’re like, ‘Amy, you’re not committed.’ But I’m like, ‘Yeah I am.’ My schedule is very busy.”

Tommy Rausch, a co-coach with Judd Fryslie, is happy Hartwell comes out every time prepared to give it her all. He expects nothing less, even if he said he wasn’t familiar with softball before taking over.

“I knew it was the first time they won league in school history and they made it to the first round and lost,” said Rausch of last year’s accomplishments. “I knew that much.”

And Rausch, the girls’ basketball coach, figured he could count on Hartwell.

Rausch said he knows the Hartwell family well, having coached Amy’s older brother, Kris, a member of the Eagles’ CIF Southern Section Division III boys’ volleyball championship team in 2004, in basketball.

“Even though she’s a sophomore, she’s still one of our leaders,” Rausch said.

One time Rausch tried to scale back Hartwell’s production at the plate. The second game against Bolsa Grande was already out of control before it ended with the Eagles winning, 23-0.

Hartwell, a home run short of the cycle, came up with the bases loaded.

“We were kind of telling runners to leave a little early, so we get outs [for Bolsa Grande]. I’ve been on that [losing] side on basketball. It gets rough,” said Rausch, whose basketball team went 3-23 in the winter. “I told her, ‘Amy, take a pitch.’ I guess she didn’t hear me. I told the girl at third to take off like was stealing home. She got called out and Amy hit the farthest ball we’ve seen this year. She hit it a mile.

“She looked at me like, ‘What?’ I was like, ‘Sorry Amy, I owe you one.’ ”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.