The realization finally hit Morton senior Ei’Lani Herrera.
She didn’t believe it at first.
“Everybody says these four years are going to fly by,” Herrera said. “When I started here, I was like, ‘I’m so tired of school. They’re lying.’ But now that I’m a senior, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they weren’t lying. It does fly by.’
“I feel like I literally just started yesterday. It’s my last season, I’m excited and I’m ending strong.”
As one chapter ends for Herrera, a four-year starter for the Governors, another is on the verge of beginning, and it’s a special one. She will head from Morton High School to Morton College, where she has a full scholarship to play softball and study nursing.
“When I wasn’t as confident, I was like, ‘Am I really going to go to college? Am I not?’” she said. “But then I started seeing things pop up on recruiting pages, and I was like, ‘This was always a dream that I wanted to live.’ My parents have six kids, and none of them really followed through with college, and I wanted to be the first generation to follow through with college and make them proud — not just them, but myself as well.
“Everyone’s really proud of me. It’s also just a great feeling, everyone acknowledging all the hard work you put in to make it this far. I’m really excited.”
Morton coach Angel Feliciano, who was an assistant last season, also is excited about Herrera’s present and future. Primarily a shortstop in her first two seasons with the Governors, Herrera has been their No. 1 pitcher in her final two.
“We rely on her heavy,” Angel Feliciano said. “She’s a fierce competitor — fierce competitor. She’s our coach on the field when we’re not coaching. She’ll run practices. She’ll talk to her teammates, ‘Hey, you’re doing this wrong,’ and she’ll do it in the right way. She’ll adjust them at the plate. She’s just great all around.
“She’s a multisport athlete. She’s a good volleyball player also. She plays travel ball, of course. Morton College is getting a steal. She could’ve been at an even higher level, but that’s something she wanted to do, and we support it. She’s just a great overall kid. She’s a very hard worker. I wish I had her for another two years. She’s that much of a playmaker.”
Herrera is hitting a team-high .607 with a team-high four doubles, seven RBIs, a team-high 16 runs scored and eight stolen bases as perennial Great Lakes Athletic Conference champion Morton (4-3, 1-0) played at East Chicago Central on Thursday. She also has posted a 3.61 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 33 innings pitched.
Herrera has been an impact player since she debuted as a freshman. But she’s in a different place now.
“Starting freshman year, I wasn’t very confident in myself,” she said. “I would also want to thank all my coaches from travel ball, here, just all the coaches that have coached me since I was little and helped me build my confidence. Now that I’m being confident up to bat, on the pitcher’s mound, all of that, it brings me confidence that I’m going to do well. It’s like, ‘I’m going to do it,’ and I end up doing it when I have confidence. That’s all I needed.
“I’m also a hard worker. I’m coachable. That just makes me the player I am.”
Herrera also has taken freshman pitcher Giselle Valenzuela under her wing this season.
“I’ve been teaching her this change-up,” Herrera said. “She’s doing really good with it. She brings relief for me. I don’t have to be the only pitcher, so it’s great. But I love pitching for this team. I love doing what I have to do for this team to win.
“Since I started here, I’ve seen a lot of improvement from all the girls. We all work hard, and we just get better, no steps back. We all bond very well, and that makes us able to play well together and communicate well on the field.”
Herrera is the second-youngest sibling in her family and the only girl. She said she hopes to “push” her younger brother, a sixth grader who plays football, basketball and baseball, as her older brothers and parents have done for her.
Herrera has already been a source of motivation for the Governors. Feliciano said Herrera and sophomore shortstop Analiya Feliciano are “my engines,” and they form a dynamic one-two combination.
“She brings a lot of energy to the team,” Analiya Feliciano said. “She’s our biggest hype man. She also helps coach us a lot. She corrects us if we’re doing things wrong. She’s always on her game, and she just cheers us up whenever we’re down.
“She’s great at pitching. Her defense is amazing. She has a great arm. Her hitting is phenomenal. She has so much power. She contributes a lot to the team.”
