Achenbach faces a different type of hitter

Somewhere in there was an oven mitt.

"There" was the left leg of 9-year-old Tristin Achenbach's softball pants, and the oven mitt was in there as protection from the cast that slapped Tristin's leg as she pitched.

"When I was pitching with the cast, I had this big bruise on my leg," Tristin recalled. "My mom wrapped this oven mitt around my leg until the bruise went away."

Somewhere along the line, that 9-year-old who refused to let a broken wrist keep her from playing the game she loved became pretty darn good at that game.

Achenbach, one of just two Choteau girls on the Conrad-Choteau softball team, pitched the Cowgirls into the Class B-C state championship game as a freshman last season.

Sporting a 13-1 record in the circle with two no-hitters and an earned run average of just 0.42 this season — she has 184 strikeouts in 84.1 innings pitched — she's been even better.

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But Wednesday, on the Cowgirls' home field and with no spectators, Achenbach faced a different challenge: her older brother.

Collin Achenbach had never stepped into the box against his sister.

"I always ask him to stand in the batter's box when I'm pitching in the gym, and he won't do it," Tristin said. "I even tell him he can use a mitt, and he still won't do it. So I'm surprised he actually came out here."

The Choteau junior — an all-state point guard for the state champion Bulldogs — rolled into Conrad wearing sandals, carrying a pink batting helmet and nothing else. He stepped into the box left-handed, looking out at eight smiling Cowgirls, all waiting for him to strike out.

Collin saw a few pitches. It had been awhile since he played baseball, and he'd never seen fastpitch.

"I've got to get it down first," he said.

He took the next pitch as well, called a ball outside to the dismay of senior catcher Michaela DeBoo.

Collin: "That was way outside!"

A few more pitches. Some foul balls. A swing and a miss. A changeup he poked toward the second baseman.

Coach Mick Morris: "A changeup? Really?"

Collin's last swing was a poke to third base that resulted in a throwing error. Overall, it wasn't a bad performance.

"Maybe that's big brother syndrome. He didn't want to lose to his little sister," Morris said. "… He's a tremendous athlete. Watching him in football and basketball, I know he's got good hands and stuff like that. I was impressed."

Or maybe there was another explanation.

"She took it really easy on him," DeBoo said.

Tristin wouldn't fess up.

"She should have hit him," DeBoo went on. "I gave her the 'hit him' sign on the first pitch."

But DeBoo had to give credit where it was due as well.

"I've seen her pitch against other guys, and they just looked awful," she smiled, perhaps thinking of a certain newspaper reporter who took some cuts after practice.

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Tristin throws six pitches — fastball, changeup, riseball, screwball, curveball and drop-curve — and can hum them all over home plate for strikes. Most high school pitchers have three options at best.

"I wouldn't say I've mastered them," Tristin said, "but just having the confidence that you can throw it — it's probably more mental than it is physical, throwing different pitches."

Finding a catcher who could handle the load proved to be nearly as challenging as hitting against Tristin.

"We went through three catchers last year," Morris said. "Michaela was the third one we put behind there. … We lost some games early on last year just because we couldn't catch Tristin. When you're striking out 18, 19 a game, you've got to have somebody back there."

DeBoo said she's far from perfect as a backstop — she wears a thumb guard after catching a screwball the wrong way last season hurt a tad too much — and she certainly won't take any credit for any wins.

"I just have to sit there and catch it," the senior said. "She's doing all the work. Some days it's more fun than others. Some days it's kind of stressful … like dropping the third strike. I've ruined a few perfect games doing that."

But overall, it's where she wants to be.

"I like being in every play," DeBoo said. "It's way different than being at short or in left field."

Tristin agreed, getting back to the sustained concentration required to excel in the circle.

"You have to be in each pitch, knowing what you're going to do with your arm, where you're stepping, which way to flick your wrist. That's all mental."

And that mental fortitude is what coach Mick Morris enjoys most about his ace. Calling her tough at the plate is an understatement. Tristin is hitting .519 in 52 at bats this season. She leads the team or is tied for the team lead in batting average, hits, doubles, home runs and on-base percentage. She's only struck out twice.

"I think what impresses me the most about her is just her mental makeup," Morris said. "I've never seen her in a situation — watching her in three different sports (softball, volleyball, basketball) — where she seemed overwhelmed by a situation."

And Achenbach has been in quite a few. After tossing the whole state tournament as a freshman, she helped lead the Bulldogs to state in both volleyball and basketball this school year, nailing a pair of key free throws to help Choteau win a divisional challenge game over archrival Fairfield.

After that kind of pressure, what's a few pitches to big brother anyway?

To see video of Collin and Tristin Achenbach's showdown on the diamond, see gftrib.com.