Third baseman Ariel Coburn knew her wrist was hurt – she just didn’t know how badly.

Maybe a bruise at worst, she thought. She could tell from the pain she had been hit, yet the umpire didn’t agree, ruling that the ball hit the bat first. He made her finish the at-bat, and she promptly struck out.

Unfortunately for her, she has the lasting evidence to prove she was hit – a cracked bone on the outside of her upper-right wrist.

Coburn was unable to finish the game. After an initial prognosis of a six-week recovery period, she faced the sudden reality that – as a senior – her career was potentially over. Coburn had already played in more then 30 percent of the Cyclones’ scheduled games, making her ineligible for a medical redshirt.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is the end of my season?’ I cried, of course, and I didn’t know what to think,” Coburn said. “I couldn’t redshirt, so I was determined to come back and play because I wasn’t going to be hurt for my senior year and not play.”

As big of a blow as it was to Coburn personally, losing her meant the Cyclones were losing one of their biggest bats. Before she was injured on March 18, the Cyclones’ clean-up hitter was hitting .400 through 38 games and was leading the Iowa State offense to an average of 5.4 runs per game. During the 14-game stretch without Coburn in the lineup full-time and the Cyclones facing tougher Big 12 competition, the team’s offensive production dropped to 1.9 runs per game.

Coburn decided not to get a cast for her wrist and instead play through the pain. Co-head coach Gary Hines said that most of her pain wasn’t coming from making contact with the ball, but from checked swings. His advice? Swing away.

And swing she has.

In her third full game back in the lineup – she had two pinch-hitting appearances against Drake going 0-for-1 -Coburn exploded against Nebraska for two home runs and a career-high five RBI. Since Coburn returned, she is batting .333, and – better yet for the Cyclones – the team is 2-1 and averaging 6.0 runs a game.

Coburn said her wrist is feeling better each day and rated its health at 90 percent. After Tuesday’s two-home-run performance, Coburn raised her slugging percentage to .756, good for second in the Big 12, and a testament to Coburn’s resiliency.

“I try to keep my head up, and I’m determined to show that, yeah, I am hurt, but I can still deal with it,” Coburn said. “I was determined to come back on the field – determined.”

Ford mechanical troubles

In a game against Texas A&M on April 5, senior pitcher Amie Ford fell upon some screwy control issues – literally. Ford, who has pitched well in 72.1 innings with her lowest ERA of her career (2.71), hit six batters in just 1.1 innings, allowing four runs.

Hines looked at tape following the game and determined it was a mechanical issue. The reason for the unusual performance was that she didn’t have control of her best pitch – the screwball.

Hines said her screwball – which moves in on right-handers – was tailing in hard when she got it up high. To make matters worse, a strong wind was blowing in the same direction as the break.

“I feel like I’m fine,” Ford said. “I think it was just one of those things that I don’t want to let affect me mentally because I know that I am better than that.”

Ford has pitched only one inning since, giving up one run on three “dink” hits, but she had her control issue in check. Both Hines and Ford said they aren’t worried about having her pitch – the problem has been corrected, and she is ready to go when the matchup is right.

“She is a senior, and I think she came through it pretty well,” Hines said.

“Once we kind of determined that it was mechanical, it helps the pitcher, because they can say ‘OK, all I have to do is fix this and it will be all right.'”

Texas pitching pipeline

Although the ISU softball team loses Ford to graduation, they will replace one Texan with another. Texas hurler Lauren Kennewell signed with the ISU softball team on Tuesday and joins fellow Texan Rachel Zabriskie and Missourian Charissa Carlin in the 2009 pitching rotation.

Kennewell, of Flower Mound, Texas, earned District 6-5A Pitcher of the Year honors as a junior after going 17-4 with a 1.74 ERA.

She is the sixth Texan coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler has recruited, but it was Kennewell who made herself known to the Cyclone coaches at a camp.

“I think she wanted to play in the Big 12, and here she had that opportunity,” Hines said.

Hines said they liked what they saw in terms of physical attributes for a pitcher, describing Kennewell as having “good size with long levers,” and “really good velocity.” Both Gemeinhardt-Cesler and Hines said they envisioned Kennewell contributing right away to give the team depth and a different look from the position.