SAN MARCOS -- It was a word Alex Hutchinson dreaded hearing.

A lower abdominal strain had kept the Palomar College softball standout out of the lineup since the first game of the season. When she tried to return a month later, she still could not assume her role as the No. 1 pitcher for the Comets.

"It had been a month, and I wasn't about to miss conference, so I was ready to play third base," Hutchinson said earlier this week. "Then (Coach Mark Eldridge) asked me if I wanted to redshirt."

Redshirt. The word can all but wipe out an entire season for a college athlete.

"I didn't know if I wanted to do that," Hutchinson said. "I didn't like hearing that, but I was literally a yes or a no from redshirting."

After considering her options, Hutchinson decided against sitting out the rest of the season. Then she made the decision a productive one in her first game on the field since sustaining the injury, going 3-for-3 with a double in a victory against San Diego City.

"I guess it was a good thing I didn't redshirt," she told her teammates at the time.

The rest of the Pacific Coast Conference might disagree. Not only did Hutchinson return to form at the plate, she recovered enough from her injury to become a force again in the pitcher's circle. Last week, the Rancho Bernardo High graduate was named the Pacific Coast Conference pitcher of the year. On Monday, she accepted a scholarship to play at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

This weekend she will lead the Comets against Riverside in the first round of the Southern California Regionals. The best-of-three series at Riverside begins Saturday.

For Hutchinson, this season marked a crossroads for her pitching career. Now in her 14th season of competitive softball after starting as a 5-year-old playing on an under-10 team, Hutchinson had been called upon to pitch year in and year out simply because of her athletic ability.

"I was 8 when I started pitching, but I never started liking it until this year," Hutchinson said. "Being an athlete, I could get the ball over the plate, but all I had was a fastball and a changeup.

"I never worked on any pitches."

That had to change this season if Palomar was going to be successful.

"Everybody is OK at something until you start working on it," Hutchinson said. "When I was hurt, I watched two people take my position, and they worked their butts off. I just told myself that I've got to start working my butt off."

As a result, Hutchinson fashioned a 10-1 record in conference play with an 0.84 earned run average. She allowed only 25 hits in 66 innings while striking out 53 batters with 24 walks. She also batted .390 as the Comets won the PCC title with a 13-2 record. In addition to her conference pitcher of the year honors, Hutchinson was named first team all-state.

Hutchinson, who is 13-6 overall with an 0.82 ERA, is one of five Comets from this year's team to receive scholarships to four-year schools.

Fellow pitcher Chelsea Blackman (Jamestown College), shortstop Andi Anti (Abilene Christian), third baseman Shawna Barrow (Abilene Christian) and catcher Andrea Nedden (Cal State Monterey Bay) have also accepted scholarship offers.

"We've got a very hard-working group of kids this year, and to see five of them move on sets a great example for the freshmen," said Eldridge, who returned for his 30th season with the Comets this year after a two-year hiatus.

Barrow, who leads the Comets in batting with 65 hits and a .478 average, and Anti, who has a team-leading six home runs, both were named second-team all-state in addition to receiving first-team all-conference honors.

"When we started in the fall, we had a new coach and new girls to go with the players we had from last year," Hutchinson said. "I could tell we had a lot of work to do. At first, we really didn't do anything together, on the field or off the field, but at a preseason tournament in Las Vegas, I think we had a big turnaround.

"We saw what we were all made of, and we started playing more as a family. If she's going to put her neck on the line for me, I'm going to do the same thing for her."

The Comets' family does have a bit of regrouping to do. Since clinching the PCC championship on April 17 with an 8-3 win over Southwestern, Palomar has lost three straight to fall to 21-17 overall. On Saturday the Comets will begin a best-of-three series against a Riverside team that is seeded No. 5 after a third-place finish in the powerful Orange Empire Conference. Palomar is seeded No. 12, and the two teams have met twice this year, with Riverside (33-11) winning both games.

"What it boils down to is mental toughness," Eldridge said of his team's playoff chances. "You can say that you refuse to be denied, but you have to be strong with it.

"We've had our moments. Against Grossmont, when we clinched a tie for the title, we refused to be denied (in an 8-5 come-from-behind win). But we've got to be more consistent with that attitude."