A Charged-Up Combo

Elizabeth Peterson is a muscular catcher, a senior with a lot of intensity and a knack for occasionally being less-than-diplomatic.

Mindy Cowles is a slender pitcher, a sophomore with a happy-go-lucky attitude and a penchant for practical jokes.

When the first round of the Southern Section softball playoffs get underway on Friday, Riverside Poly will rely heavily on its odd-couple battery, which is one of the best in the Southland.

Poly is the No. 2-seeded team in Division II, which is loaded with most of the region’s top teams. The Bears will be trying to prove they belong in such company by reaching the finals for the first time.

They blew through their regular-season schedule with a 24-2 record, won their fifth Ivy League title in six years and, until last week, had won 19 games in a row.

But their schedule has not been nearly as tough as some of the other top-ranked schools. Poly faced only two teams that have been ranked in the top 25 by The Times. In consecutive games the first week of the season, the Bears defeated Corona Santiago, 5-4, and lost to Orange El Modena, 3-1.

“That [schedule] is something I have to live with,” said Eddie Jones, in his 12th season as coach. He says he began an upgrade of the schedule this season that will continue next year for a team that is expected to lose only two starters.

At Poly’s core this season are Peterson and Cowles.

Peterson, one of the top catchers in the state, has signed with Michigan State.

She enters the playoffs batting .500 with a .728 on-base percentage, five home runs and 25 runs batted in. She has scored 21 runs, accounting for more than 35% of her team’s total while batting third in the lineup.

Peterson, who calls all the pitches, is a defensive standout. Jones said there have been no passed balls and, because of Peterson’s considerable skills, Cowles has only two wild pitches.

“I don’t think anyone’s attempted to steal on her since she was a freshman,” Jones said.

Jones was exaggerating.

“Someone tried to steal on me last Thursday,” Peterson said.

And?

“They were out,” she said. “The key word is ‘tried.’”

Peterson can’t remember the last time someone stole a base against her, and her reputation clearly keeps activity on the base paths down.

Despite the unassuming nickname of “Binky,” Peterson has an intense personality that sometimes gets the best of her.

“I will bite your head off,” she acknowledged. “I can understand physical errors, but mental error after mental error? Oh my god, make an adjustment!

“I have so many people who expect me to do my job, when they don’t do theirs, I get extremely mad.”

But her teammates seem to understand.

“She’s kind of like another coach,” Cowles said. “We know the only reason she gets on us is that she’s trying to help us.”

Jones has found himself serving as peacemaker on occasion.

“We’ve had some talks as a team based on some things that were said in the heat of the battle,” he said. “It gets worked out. Everybody understands what she’s bringing to the table. Other kids have said, ‘Sometimes I need to be that intense.’

“If you’re going to play the game for two hours, you better be into it because [Peterson’s] going to ask you to bring everything you’ve got.”

It’s that intensity that has driven Peterson to become the player she is, from her days practicing with her father and older brother at La Sierra Park, to focusing on an 0-2 pitch from Santiago’s Taryne Mowatt and driving it 260 feet, over a 20-foot fence, in the Corona tournament.

Cowles has, perhaps, benefited most from Peterson’s intensity. On the field, they are similarly focused.

Cowles is 20-2 and has a 0.63 earned-run average. She has a .348 batting average, has scored 24 runs and has 11 RBIs batting leadoff in front of sophomore center fielder Liz Caputo, a .451 hitter who has scored 22 runs.

Though Peterson and Cowles may have different personalities, at their heart, they are the same.

“We’re both leaders,” Cowles said. “We’re both competitors.

“We just want to win. We hate to lose.”