DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE OF THE WEEK:

An old man wearing a black fedora and working the makeshift snack bar behind the backstop held a sheet of paper.

No one bought goodies late in Costa Mesa High’s softball game Wednesday. You couldn’t possibly eat enough sugar to keep pace with the Mustangs’ attack.

Sami Feinstein needs no sugar to be on a constant high.

Twenty-six runners came around to score against Century by the fourth inning. The old-timer had more than time on his hands during his stint as the snack-bar operator.

The man showed a sheet of paper. Feinstein’s stats popped out to anyone who bothered to look at the paper in the man’s right hand.

The sophomore who believes her swing is terrible hit .500 through nine games.

Feinstein’s best friend and double-play partner, shortstop Alex Krohnfeldt, is always surprised by the second baseman’s act, on the field and off it. The next act involved Feinstein warming up to pitch against Century.

The running joke at Costa Mesa is someday Feinstein will get to pitch. No one laughed because Feinstein never made her debut in the circle.

The game was called in the fifth inning due to the mercy rule, Costa Mesa won, 26-8, a lopsided score. Crazy things tend to happen when Feinstein is involved.

One happened on Friday the 13th. Krohnfeldt and the rest of the Mustangs are used to Feinstein’s randomness, but what she pulled off last week was wild.

Krohnfeldt, in the dugout injured, witnessed a rare play in softball. Feinstein turned a triple play.

The smallest player on the field, all 5-foot-3, 106 pounds of Feinstein, got Costa Mesa out of a jam late. The Mustangs went on to beat host Newport Harbor, 4-1.

Feinstein’s triple play started with her catching a ball traveling toward shallow center. Two runners took off, one to third, the other to second.

Feinstein raced to second base and stepped on it for the second out. Next thing she did was fire a throw to first base. The entire play happened so fast Feinstein said she gave it no thought.

Her instincts are what stand out to Coach Marcus Franco.

Feinstein played a vital role to Costa Mesa going 5-0 last week and also winning the Costa Mesa Tournament Bronze Division. She went 11 for 17 with five runs batted in and she scored five runs.

The Mustangs are off to a 7-3 start, their best since 2007.

“Little Mighty Mite” is Feinstein’s nickname. She’s grown three inches since her freshman season. An inch for every sport she plays at Costa Mesa.

Straight from the girls’ soccer season, Feinstein joined the softball team soon after the Mustangs lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs. Before soccer in the winter, it was girls’ volleyball in the fall.

Fall, winter, spring, who says the seasons don’t change in Costa Mesa? Feinstein’s seasons do and they take a toll.

“I’m all about enjoying the high school experience,” said Franco, referring to seeing athletes compete in multiple sports, “but she has the capability of being so much better [in softball], even where she’s at now. She’s such a good athlete with excellent eye-hand coordination.

“I just wished I had her a little more during the [off-season in the] summer and the fall. It’s just about getting [players] to fall in love with the game.”

Feinstein enjoys all three sports for different reasons.

Out of the three, soccer is the sport she said she’s played since 4 or 5 and the only one she currently plays for on a club team, the Newport Mesa Soccer Club.

The constant running on the pitch as a midfielder and action on the court as a setter attracts Feinstein. Softball tests her mentally.

Feinstein is torn about which sport to focus on. Franco is hoping it’s the one with the diamond, because which girl turns down a diamond?

“Next year I’m going to have to decide,” said Feinstein, a first-team All-Orange Coast League selection in softball last season. “If I want to play in college, I’m definitely going to have to commit to one sport and do everything that I can do to … make myself better at that sport.

“If softball was my main [sport], if I played travel ball, I would probably be a completely different player. Franco says that I have really quick hands, but my swing is terrible.

“I always seem to make contact with the ball and get on base.”

The proof is in the old man’s right hand, a sheet of paper with statistics you can’t argue against Feinstein’s softball abilities.

You bet he tipped his hat to her behind the snack bar.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].