Hellon unknowingly steals her way into history

Pitt softball’s Sheena Hellon has quite a few role models in the sports world.

In addition… Pitt softball’s Sheena Hellon has quite a few role models in the sports world.

In addition to the more famous Michael Jordan and Jerry Rice, Hellon especially admires USA softball player Natasha Watley.

“When you see her run, you can’t believe how fast she goes,” Hellon said of Watley. “She amazes me when she plays, and I look up to that.”

Hellon may as well be talking about herself.

She leads her team with 53 stolen bases this year, a career-high for Pitt softball.

Pitt head coach Michelle Phalen knows the value of having someone like Hellon out on the bases.

“She’s a great base runner, and she does a great job,” Phalen said. “She pushes herself, and she does whatever she needs to do to get into the base. She’s also a very aggressive base runner, and she’s very dependable, a very strong player.”

Hellon, however, didn’t even know she was nearing the Pitt stolen-base record until after someone told her she’d surpassed it. Her mom often calls from home in California to ask her daughter how she did in a game, and Hellon just directs her to the Internet to look at the stats.

“I just simply go out and play,” Hellon said. “I think when you get all the stats and stuff involved it kind of distracts you from what you’re supposed to do. I like just going out and playing every game the same way. I’m not worried about batting average or anything like that. The only thing I probably want to know is my errors, because that affects the team.”

Hellon loves her close-knit team and has great memories of their victories together.

Her junior year, she hit the game-winning two-run homer in the Big East Championships against South Florida. It was Pitt’s first trip to the Big East Tournament, making the moment all the more impressive.

“I was just on top of the world,” Hellon said. “I just remember looking at my whole entire team, and we knew we did that together. We did something that we can tell everybody about. We set a milestone together and that was awesome. I love that memory.”

The team ended up losing in the tournament to Notre Dame, but beating USF was a huge accomplishment in itself for Pitt.

“This year we want it even more,” Hellon said. “We want to go further. We want to go all the way.”

Her favorite memory, in addition to that championship game, is when she hit a grand slam as a junior, securing a win against Syracuse.

“The bases were loaded, and we were down, I think, three runs,” Hellon remembers. “When I hit the grand slam, I knew I could never forget that moment. I knew it was the kind of thing I could tell my kids when I get older -your mom got a grand slam in college. I never thought I’d have a moment like that.”

Even if she never does have another moment like that – which is unlikely based on the way the season is going so far – Hellon still has enough to be proud of.

She’s started every game in her three years at Pitt. Her favorite number, 11, shines on her back from both the shortstop position and behind the plate. Last year she had six home runs, stole a season-high 23 bases and tallied the team’s second-highest batting average of .476.

This season Hellon boasts three home runs, 13 RBIs and 20 stolen bases.

In high school, Hellon lettered in softball, basketball and volleyball, and her team went to three straight conference championships.

She’ll graduate in December of next year and isn’t sure where she’ll go afterward.

“I’ve always wondered how it would be without playing softball because I’ve done it since I was five or six, and I’ve never been without it,” Hellon admitted. “I’ll always be active with it, I’ll probably still swing a bat once in awhile or go running, but I really don’t know if I’ll still play. You can’t really find a competitive environment when you’re not in college – you can’t go backwards. Sometimes I think, ‘I don’t know what I’ll do without softball,’ but I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

If not, she has plenty of memories of a long, outstanding career to look back on.