Jealousy isn’t supposed to get you far in life.
For Amy Harris, jealousy started her pitching career — and her pitching is how she is making a name for herself.
“One day — we lived out in Veneta — and Jennie Cook, who pitched for the Ducks, her mom was holding pitching lessons in the Elmira gym,” Harris said.
“So my sister for some reason got started up in that. I was kind of jealous, and I thought it would be fun, so I went one day and just got started. Just one day — one random weekend — I went with her to pitching lessons, and I realized that’s what I wanted to do.”
The freshman from Eugene has already made a place for herself on the Oregon squad — pitching 48 percent of Oregon’s innings with a 1.20 ERA — after four stellar years at North Eugene High School.
As a Highlander, Harris led her squad to three state 4A Championship games — winning as a sophomore in 2000 — and had a career ERA of 0.31.
“There’s a lot less stress in high school,” Harris said. “We had team barbecues all the time and just kind of goofed around a lot.”
North Eugene’s championship season in 2000 was the last that Harris and her sister, Jennifer Harris, played together. Jennifer Harris, now a junior at Oregon Institute of Technology, is also a pitcher. The two were teammates on three different teams — when they played 10-and-under, for a few years in summer ball as well as two years at North Eugene.
“My sister’s the reason that I pitch,” Amy Harris said, referring to the weekend in the Elmira gym. “I miss my sister a lot. It was probably one of my best memories when we played together. It’s real fun having her on the team.”
Harris has played softball “ever since I could,” and pitched since the third grade — when she learned how to pitch from Cook’s mom.
Now at Oregon, Harris leads a pitching staff that is perhaps the strongest part of the Ducks’ squad.
Her statistics after 26 appearances — including nine
appearances against national-powerhouse Pacific-10
Conference competition — are a sight. A 1.20 ERA stands at fourth best in a single season by a Duck freshman. If Harris finishes the season with an ERA lower than 1.79, she will have the lowest single-season earned-run average for a Duck pitcher in nine years.
“Coming in as a freshman I really didn’t know what to expect,” Harris said. “I knew that playing in our conference was going to be a big step — especially from high school ball — and I think our whole team has adjusted real well.”
Harris — it seems — has adjusted. Her record sits at 10-9 after picking up two wins against Portland State on Wednesday.
With only the 26 appearances and 20 starts under her belt, Harris is also three strikeouts shy of breaking into Oregon’s top-10 career strikeout list. Her total of 110, with at least 13 games left for the Ducks this season, is third all-time for single-season strikeouts by a freshman.
In addition to her low ERA and high strikeout total, the 19-year-old has six complete games and four saves.
Harris, of course, knows games depend on the entire team, not just the pitcher.
“We’re really confident in our ability,” she said. “I think we’ve done a really good job this year and proved a lot of people wrong. We’re pretty confident going against the Beavers — we beat ’em pretty bad last time.”
The 10-2 win against Oregon State in Corvallis matched Harris against Beaver pitcher Monica Hoffman.
Hoffman, a junior, and Harris pitched against each other in the 1999 and 2000 Oregon 4A Championship games. Hoffman’s team — Portland’s Central Catholic — won the 1999 game 1-0, while Harris and the Highlanders took a 1-0 win in 2000.
“It was fun to see later on in our careers how we matched up,” Harris said of the March 15 game against Oregon State.
The two will undoubtedly face each other again today or Saturday as Oregon hosts the Beavers.
Harris and the Ducks will have plenty of crowd support in the games at Howe Field — or at least a certain loyal fan base.
“It’s really cool (that my family is here), because every game I know they’re going to be there,” Harris said. “A lot of girls on our team don’t really get that opportunity to have their family show up to every game.”
Harris’ mom, not her dad, is the athletic influence for Harris and her sister.
“My mom did track in high school,” Harris said. “My dad never did any sports.”
Harris’ mom, Doris, also coached her in 12-and-under and 14-and-under leagues.
“I’ve had quite a few good pitching coaches,” Harris said. “My mom knows a lot about pitching because she’s been to every one of my pitching practices.
“I still ask her for help
sometimes.”