There was a time that needing a break from softball would have been unfathomable for Emma Mendoker.

But the former Amherst Regional star and current Williams College pitching coach needed to step away last year. She gave up her remaining eligibility at UMass and spent her senior year focused on schoolwork.

She completed her art education degree and spent time painting.

“I didn’t think about softball at all,” she said. “I was really into my art education major. That was my break.”

Mendoker had dedicated so much of her life to softball before that. High school softball in the spring. Travel teams and Bay State Games in the summer. She gave and got private lessons at Planet Fastpitch year round.

She loved softball, and through high school she was never more in control than when she stood in the circle with a ball in her hand.

“I always loved the game, but I felt a little betrayed to be honest. I felt hurt emotionally about the game,” she said. “It gave me a lot of great things, but in college it went downhill.”

A season-ending arm injury and turmoil in the East Carolina coaching staff derailed her freshman year. She transferred to UMass, but after a tough season where she sought to rediscover her mechanics, she was injured again. On top of that, legendary coach Elaine Sortino, who’d helped Mendoker rebuild her confidence post injury, lost her battle with breast cancer.

Coming back from her arm injury, Mendoker struggled again in 2015 as her control never quite returned. The game stopped being fun. So she walked away and found solace in art.

“For me, the process for making art was the same as when I was pitching,” she said. “You get in the zone. It’s a very calming mindset and a very charging mindset if that makes sense. It was therapeutic for me.

“Pitching in high school was when I really experienced this,” she continued. “When I was working with (Amherst Regional catcher) Zoe Dillon-Davidson, I was confident. I could visualize the pitch being thrown and hitting my spot and seeing the movement. I pictured how it felt when I threw it. For art, it’s kind of the same thing. How are the colors going to react or relate to each other on the paper. How the brush feels on the canvas. It’s the same process.”

The time off paid off. In the spring of 2016, former UMass teammate Lindsay Webster suggested she try slow pitch softball in an Amherst adult league. It was Mendoker’s first step back.

“It was fun and what I remembered softball to be,” she said. “It reminded me how fun the game is.”

She played and kept playing, joining a summer team after the spring season ended. She played first base and outfield mainly. Mendoker approached Denise Davis, who runs Planet Fastpitch, and began giving pitching lessons again.

“It was a slow process, a healing kind of thing,” Mendoker said.

When Williams College was looking for a part-time pitching coach, Davis recommended Mendoker, who balanced coaching with her new job as an art teacher at JFK Middle School in Northampton.

Most Division III programs don’t have full-time pitching coaches and the part-time gig was perfect for Mendoker. A few times a week, she’d finish school, grab a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and make the trip northwest.

It’s been a fun ride. Williams won the NESCAC championship, an NCAA Regional, a Super Regional against Babson and is headed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the eight-team double-elimination national championship tournament.

Mendoker will hop on a plane after school Thursday and join the Ephs, who play St. John Fisher, Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

It’s the zenith of what’s been a happy return to competitive softball. The ball isn’t in her hand anymore, but pitching is in her head again in a good way. She’s trying to let the Ephs pitchers benefit from the lessons she learned both from her successes and her struggles.

“I think it’s hard for someone to understand a drop in your confidence unless you’ve really experienced it. If their body is tight, it’s more noticeable to me because I’ve been there,” Mendoker said. “Because of my experience having a more challenging time on the mound I know what to say to them. I want them to succeed and do well, but most importantly have fun.”

Williams pitchers have a collective 2.34 earned run average and 212 strikeouts. Both are second best in the NESCAC.

Mendoker hears advice Sortino gave her coming out in her coaching.

“I hear her voice all the time in my head. She’s very much with me still,” she said. “I wish I spent more time with her. I only had a year with her. But I was lucky to know her. She was awesome. She was so knowledgeable. She adds a lot to my coaching life and my life in general.”

Mendoker plans to coach the Western Mass Intensity, a summer travel team, and could be back at Williams again next year.

Eventually she’d like to coach in high school, but wasn’t sure how soon. She’s still playing slow pitch and would someday like to play fastpitch again.

“My goal in a few years, is to play fastpitch again. I don’t think I’m going to pitch. Maybe I will. I’m not sure,” she said. “I don’t want my last year at UMass to define who I am as a player. I wanted to try again.”

For now she’s glad to have softball playing a primary role in her life and was eager to head west to ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, which annually hosts the Women’s College World Series. This year it is hosting the Division III Tournament for the first time.

“Oklahoma City for any coach or player is a dream,” Mendoker said. “To be part of it for the first year is really cool. I’m excited for the team. For the staff. We’ll see how far we can go. I’m really excited. I’m lucky to be a part of it.”

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage

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