South San Francisco Softball Player Fought Through Injury to Win Championship

No pain, no gain.

You're probably familiar with the popular expression. It now has a name to associate with it.

South San Francisco's Selina Rodriguez.

The 16-year-old softball star endured a painful couple of months this summer. And in the end, she made a critical decision: If more pain meant more gain, she was willing to do it.

So Rodriguez, preparing for her at-bat as her San Bruno Storm fastpitch softball team was putting the potential tying and winning runs on base in the last inning of the Western "B" Nationals championship game in August, decided to tear the protective wrap off her hyperextended right elbow.

"I wasn't hitting well that game," the El Camino High senior explained. "I wanted full mobility. "

A hit away from winning the championship for her team, Rodriguez took a mighty cut at a 1-0 fastball from rival Buena Park's star pitcher. It was painful.

And it was joyful at the same time.

Rodriguez belted a shot to right-center field, easily scoring teammates Jacey McDaid and Tori Eng, triggering a massive dogpile-style celebration on the Hillsboro, Ore., field that resulted in--you guessed it--more pain.

"Unbelievable. It was the greatest feeling," she assured. "I don't think I've ever been happier."

You can imagine how her dad felt. Standing just 50 feet away, Raul Rodriguez, the manager of the team, didn't get a real good look at the celebration. That's because one of his assistant coaches was jumping on him.

"The thing that overwhelms me is she's such a gamer. She has an incredible passion for this game," he gushed. "In other tournaments, she'd get spiked in arm, in the wrist, knocked over…She never pulled herself out.

"Just that makes me proud of her. For her to get the winning hit with a hyperextended elbow makes me that much more proud of her."

The Storm, which brought together standout players from five different West Bay high schools, certainly couldn't have been considered a surprise winner of the tournament. After all, they'd finished third a year earlier in Lancaster, and they'd begun the summer with 18 consecutive wins.

But things started to unravel a bit late in the season when Selina Rodriguez suffered a serious hamstring injury in the quarterfinals of a tournament in Benicia. The team, which had won four previous tournaments, didn't even make the finals that weekend.

More important, with the Western Nationals only three-and-a-half weeks away, all of a sudden Selina was a doubtful performer.

But a trip to Dr. Taylor Rabbetz in San Francisco got her massaged, taped up and ready to go in Oregon, until she made an awkward throw from shortstop in one of the preliminary-round games, hyperextending the elbow and forcing her eventually to have to move to first base.

"We needed her in the lineup," assistant coach Manny Cotla insisted. "She controls the infield and makes key plays. And the leadership…Plus, she hits the ball pretty well."

The made-for-Hollywood ending might not have been possible if not for the effort of Cotla's daughter, centerfielder Amanda Cotla. She crashed into the outfield fence – yep, injuring herself, too – to save a potential two-run home run earlier in the game after the Storm already had fallen behind 1-0.

Rodriguez, a two-time All-Peninsula Athletic League selection, and Cotla were two of four South San Francisco athletes on the team. Geenamarie Bonilla and Elaina Revilla also participated in the celebration, one Manny Cotla will not soon forget.

"When I saw the ball go past the outfielders, I actually followed Tori all the way to the plate," the team's third-base coach said. "I was jumping up and down, and everything just went haywire after that. I wound up in Raul's arms."

Cotla, who was in charge of giving the signals from his third-base box, actually considered not letting the injured Rodriguez swing.

"Usually I would bunt her to get the tying run in," he said. "But I kinda had a feeling.

"She's a really good player. She just knows how to play the game."

But apparently she doesn't know when to stop playing, and because of that, the Storm are national champions.