Abby Lockman finished her career at Norco High, Calif. as one of the most prolific power hitters in Inland Empire history and a strong candidate for FloSoftball All-American honors when the teams are announced this month, but she’s also the kind of player that will do anything to help her team win.

The Cougars had the bases juiced with two outs, trailing West Ranch of Valencia, 2-0, in the CIF-SS Division 1 championship game on June 6 in Irvine, Calif.

“I was just thinking get a hit, keep the inning going, make sure you hit a hard ground ball,'” said Lockman, who hit a school record 32 homers, including many of the tape measure variety, in her career.

“I had been popping up. Hit a hard ground ball somewhere and just keep the inning going, so the next batter can come up and maybe we can get something else to happen. I was just … hit the ball hard somewhere and see what happens.”

Lockman hit a chopper in the 5-6 hole and legged it out for an infield single to drive in Norco’s first run. The Cougars ended up rallying for four runs in that inning and held on to win 4-2 to claim the Division 1 championship. Norco coach Rick Robinson, who’s also the pitching coach for the So Cal Choppers (Calif.), didn’t dream up that scenario.

“Who would have thought Abby would leg one out to keep us alive?” Robinson said.

“Out of the box I was like, ‘You gotta be safe. Just run as hard as you can,” said Lockman, who was honored this week as he CIF-Southern Section Div. I Player of Year as selected by coaches.

Lockman’s focus has shifted to helping the Corona Angels (Calif.) during this six-week run up to the PGF Nationals in August.  After that, she’ll head off to the Univ. of Tennessee where she was one of the key signees last fall in the Vols top five recruiting class.

“I mean, it’s just getting back into shape, because it’s so different from high school ball,” said Lockman, who helped the Corona Angels reach the semifinals at last weekend’s So Cal A’s Invitational in Santa Ana, Calif.

“It’s just continuing from high school ball and bringing it to this and just playing every game and keep putting 100 percent effort out there. We’ll see what happens.”

So what’s the biggest difference between high school and club softball.

“I think every game the competition is just better,” Lockman said. “That’s the main thing. It’s just you want to progress to PGF and you just want to get better every game and that’s the main difference.”

“In high school, you have to be at your best every time because everything matters. These games right now (at club tournaments) you’re just starting to work up to PGF when it really matters. That’s what we’re working on right now, trying to get better for PGF.”

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