In an instant, the light was gone, and everything went black.
Alicia Cook stood behind the center field wall, never expecting a ball hit by teammate Neena Bryant to connect with her left eye. On Thursday, the unusual became reality when Bryant’s batting practice hit connected with Cook’s face.
Cook dropped to the ground. As she sat up, she realized her eye had swollen shut and the tears began to fall.
“It scared me then,” she said. “It hit me pretty hard.”
X-rays were negative. A cat scan, checking for a possible concussion, was also negative.
The eye, though, was black and blue and swollen shut.
So accustomed to starting big games, she instead sat near the coaches, a scorebook in hand on Friday and out of uniform. She hid the bruise with sun glasses, and showed it to curious fans afterwards.
On Saturday, again she sat, this time in uniform.
Coach Kathy Arendsen had penned the senior into the starting lineup for Sunday. She had contingency plan in place.
Arendsen came to the ballpark anticipating Cook would pitch, unless trainers told her otherwise. The coach knew if need be, she could fall back on the dependable Melissa Rice.
“She not only pitched – she pitched well,” Arendsen said. “A two-hitter against that team, who’s been hitting really well, is a real accomplishment.”
Cook held a Cal offense, which had manufactured seven hits and six runs the day before, in check. Four times this season Cook has held an opponent to two hits or less.
Maybe most importantly, all four of Oregon’s wins in the Pacific-10 Conference have come with Cook pitching.
The irony is that this is the first season Cook has been able to pitch from the start of the season seemingly to the end of the season without missing significant time. Previous seasons had Cook missing time due to academics or injuries.
Senior year arrived, and when this season began Arendsen had tempered optimism about the possibility that Cook could make it through the entire schedule unscathed.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Arendsen said then, adding, “She’s worked very hard but up to this point the only luck she’s really had has been bad luck.”
Now it seems like the inevitable occurred.
“Of course her, of all people,” Rice said. “This is her first year not getting hurt.”
The timing of the injury, as poor as it is to lose her during Pac-10 play, did allow her to pitch last Tuesday in an important win at Oregon State and although she missed starts Friday and Saturday, Oregon had the more than capable Rice and freshman Brittany Rumfelt available.
Rice revealed after Cook’s dominating outing she believed her teammate would be ready for her turn in the circle.
The junior Rice, like her teammates, saw the injury occur. Rice was shagging balls in left field when she saw the ball hit Cook through the green covering on the outfield fence and joined her teammates in checking on the Elmira native.
“We knew she was hurt,” Arendsen said. “I was praying. I thought it was going to be more serious.”
Arendsen saw the injury and thought to herself, “her career probably had ended.”
The medical tests came back negative, and all Cook could do was wait for the swelling to go down so she could return.
“The first couple days it was completely swollen shut,” Cook said. “Seeing out of one eye, I couldn’t drive or anything.”
Trainers massaged the eye the day of the game to help get fluid out, and Cook iced it each inning to make sure nothing flared up.
“The last couple weekends at home I definitely want to be on the field with my team trying to get those wins before regionals,” Cook said. “It was hard to sit out, but it felt good to get back out there.”
[email protected]