Defying odds: Phillips blossoms into starting pitcher at CBA

By Allen Etzler
Published in Sports on May 25, 2014 9:40 AM

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aetzler@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock pitcher Allie Phillips is in a jam.

Two runs have already scored and the Golden Falcons trail for just the third time all season. Runners are on first and third as Phillips steps off the mound and turns around to take a few deep breaths.

A raucous Topsail dugout screams and bangs against the fence to try and throw off her focus.

She tells herself she can pitch her way out of the jam and keeps the moment in perspective. After all, softball is just a small matter compared to what she's been through.

Phillips suffered a massive stroke when she was 91/2 months old.

Doctors doubted she would make a full recovery -- much less lead a normal life.

But the high school sophomore has overcome her minor deficiencies and emerged as one of the county's most effective pitchers inside the circle.

Phillips boasts a 12-1 record and 1.61 earned run average for the Golden Falcons and has held opposing teams to a .189 batting average.

And throughout CBA's pursuit of a state championship, she has been the ace pitcher that head coach Emily Burke has trotted out to the mound time and time again.

"You can't have a victory without a struggle," Burke said. "And her struggle has been more intense than your average kid."

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Phillips was born with Craniosynostosis, a condition that causes the infant skull to fuse together prematurely, which often results in an abnormal head shape.

And when her parents elected to have surgery performed on their daughter, the procedure caused a stroke when an artery spasmed and blood flow stopped. Doctors warned Phillips' parents that although the initial effects of her condition would not be noticeable, they would become more apparent as she grew older.

The stroke attacked the left side of the frontal lobe of Phillips' brain -- meaning the right side of her body would be impaired. It also impaired the way Phillips processed information, which her parents began to notice around the time she started first grade.

"What most people need to be told one or two times, she might need to be told three or four times," her mother, Donna, said.

Phillips doesn't remember any of what happened.

And she doesn't talk too much about it.

She prefers to focus on her team rather than her personal achievements.

"I remember the other week against Eastern Wayne she threw a no-hitter," her mother, Donna, said. "We were so proud of her and we said, 'Honey, you did so good you threw a no-hitter.' And she looked at us and said, 'Yeah, but more important, we won the game.' That's just how she is."

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Phillips' sanctuary is the softball field.

When she started to play, she was forced to use a fingerless glove because the motor functions in her right hand were slow.

As she got older and the finger movement developed, she began to wear conventional slotted gloves.

It was the stroke -- not genetics -- that determined whether Phillips was left- or right-handed.

Every time Charles B. Aycock softball catcher Abbie Walton throws the ball back to the circle, Phillips is sure to cover the ball with her pitching hand when it hits her glove, because she still can't squeeze it completely shut.

She doesn't wear a batting glove on her right hand when she walks to the plate because she feels it takes her too long to separate her fingers into each slot in the glove.

Burke sees a lot of herself in Phillips, as she does with most girls on the team. Each lefty has the same movement and Phillips displays a work ethic nearly parallel to her coach -- which is all the more impressive to Burke.

"Pitcher is a heck of a position to put yourself in when someone has told you that there is a possibility you will never play sports," Burke said. "It's such an intense part of the game that requires certain things that position players don't have to do. It says a lot about her as a person and her confidence and her faith to go out there.

"She's a fighter."

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Phillips exhales a final deep breath and toes the rubber.

She stares down Topsail's Ashton Bizzell as the batter's teammates continue to make noise.

She fires the pitch and, moments later, a ground ball makes its way toward the mound.

Phillips squeezes her glove, covers the ball with her left hand -- as always -- and tosses it to first base for the inning-ending out.

It's just another fight she's won in a life that's been full of them.