Before Sierra Hyland gets on the mound, she takes a breath. She then steps with her left and steps with her right onto the mound. With both feet on the rubber, she takes another breath while looking at her glove. She looks up, gets her sign and takes another breath or two. There’s another breath after the sign, the glove comes down and she begins her windup.
The senior pitcher from Cal Poly opened her 2017 season last weekend with a no-hitter against Purdue and followed it up with a perfect game against Creighton at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz. She credits her breathing and staying composed for getting her through the two games.
“We’ve been working on my breathing technique for about two years,” said Hyland. “I’ve always worked at a quick pace and sometimes I would get really excited, sometimes too excited and my routine would go out the door.”
Pitching coach Ally Carda along with a sports psychologist at Cal Poly have been working with Hyland to slow the game down and force her to think a little more, take the game pitch by pitch instead of rushing herself.
In the first game, Hyland struck out nine, gave up three walks and an unearned run. It was her fourth career no-hitter and tied the program record with her 90th career start.
She followed that performance with a perfect game and another nine strikeouts. She became the second Cal Poly pitcher and the ninth pitcher in Big West Conference history to record 700-plus career strikeouts. She now ranks eighth all-time.
“I really haven’t seen that before,” said head coach Jenny Condon. “That was crazy! It was kind of fun to watch.”
Hyland threw a mixture of five pitches: rise, curve, off-speed, screw and a knuckleball. Every one of them was working well for her.
“Ally (Carda) did a great job of calling the game and our defense came up with the plays,” said Condon. “I think the biggest thing for us was our offense put runs on the board and that allowed our pitcher to do her thing.”
Part of that offense included Hyland’s three-run home run and triple against Creighton.
“She traditionally hits four for us and moved all the way down to five just to give her a little more opportunity to see some better pitches but she may move back,” said Condon. “She’s our fastest player and overall a great athlete. For us, she’s probably the best athlete to come through this program, definitely.”
The Mustangs travel south to play in the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic this weekend in Cathedral City. The game to circle on the schedule is the matchup with UCLA on Friday at 5:30 p.m. PST.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if she pitches against UCLA,” said Condon. “I think that will be a great matchup but we will see how the week plays out. You never know.”
Photo was taken by Ray Ambler, RAPhotos.com
