Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.
In past years, there was a clear formula for picking the state's best softball player -- find the state champion, note their starting pitcher's dominance and pass along the title.
Shannon Crisp and Brianne McGowan were both clear-cut choices. And with all due respect to McQueen pitcher Katie Eshelman, who carried the Lancers to the title in May, the state's best softball player was playing hurt before her team's early exit from the state tournament.
Silverado's playoff scenario was exactly what coach Steve Hodges had hoped to avoid. Through the season, he'd tried to get pitcher Jessie Rivas several starts, in large part to keep Kelly Griego fresh late into the year.
But Hodges' dream situation -- heading into the playoffs with Griego reaching her peak -- nearly turned into a nightmare when Griego came up lame during an early May non-league contest against eventual state runner-up Sierra Vista.
"To have her go down in that Sierra Vista game, in a meaningless game that I scheduled to get us more competition right before the playoffs, I was sick," Hodges said of Griego's leg injury. "You just see a whole season going up in smoke."
Pain or not, Griego made her intentions clear shortly after the injury.
"She told me when she got to school she would be ready to play and that was the end of it," Hodges said. "I was dumb enough to believe that she would be and she was."
She shut out Coronado and Green Valley in the regional playoffs, and pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a 3-0 loss to Las Vegas High in the regional final. In the state tournament play-in game, she shut out Cimarron-Memorial before the Skyhawks fell twice Sierra Vista in the state tournament. One of those losses was a 1-0 defeat in which Griego gave up two hits and struck out 11 batters.
All told, Griego went 15-4 with a 0.89 ERA and 244 strikeouts in 133 innings. She walked 14 batters and opponents batted .121 against her.
Griego also led the city in RBIs (52), was ninth in batting average (.495) and tied for second in doubles (15) in 101 at bats. She's signed to play with UNLV next season.
"Once you sign a college letter of intent it's real hard to focus on high school softball games, when you know eight weeks from now you're a college player," Hodges said. "She never let down. She gave us everything the entire time. People take a lot of shots at that young lady -- I think it's pure jealousy."
In voting by coaches, Griego was not named to the all-region team for the Sunrise Region.
"I can tell you in the 15 years I've coached I've never had a pitcher as talented and effective as her and I've never come close to having a hitter like what that young lady did to a softball," Hodges said. "To have a 50-hit, 50-RBIs in a season in 36 games, those are huge numbers."
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