The pain was out of this world. While out back playing pitch-and-catch with his daughter, Mike Corley looked down after a pitch got away from him and saw one of his big toenails pushed all the way back.

Yeah, it hurt, all right.

But things were going to be OK.

It may have been at that point where he realized his daughter Christy, the baby of the family, may have something special going in throwing a softball. That was during her freshman year, and it was one of several shots he’s taken over the years as Christy Corley worked almost non-stop in trying to be a dominant pitcher in softball at Vidalia.

&uot;She started working on that drop ball, and it drove the toenail back up in there,&uot; Mike Corley recalled. &uot;It took me about a year and a half to get that back. She’s messed me up several times over the years. We’ve been doing this since about the fifth or sixth grade. She’s knocked me off the bucket a few times.&uot;

Since then he’s learned to adapt and continue catching Christy to work on her pitches out in the backyard. She’s given plenty of abuse to her dad throwing pitches over the years, but that never slowed down either of them.

&uot;When I really, really wanted to (pitch), my dad was there through the bruises, nicks and getting hit upside the head with the ball,&uot; Christy Corley said. &uot;He’s the one who’s really helped me. He always sat on the bucket, and he fell sideways (after I hit him). He couldn’t walk on it. I said, ‘I’m sorry daddy &045; you don’t have to catch me again if you don’t want to.’ He wore steel-toed boots after that.&uot;

Corley kept working on her pitches every opportunity she could, and the toenail incident didn’t curtail anyone’s efforts. Everyone’s hoping it all pays off this spring as the hard-throwing right-hander prepares for her senior season with the Lady Vikings with a number of goals unfulfilled &045; including another trip back to the state tournament in Sulphur.

The Lady Vikings officially open the season Tuesday at Monterey.

&uot;Christy worked hard during the off-season, and any time you do that you make improvements,&uot; said Rut Horne, who coached Corley in the summer with the Ferriday Gators. &uot;That’s the name of the game. The person who goes out there and throws more than anybody else is going to be better than anybody else. I’d say she’ll throw over 60 mph this year. As hard as she’s worked, she ought to have picked up a mile or two. Hopefully she’ll have a very good year.&uot;

It’s been an off-season of work on just about every pitch for Corley, who spent countless hours with catcher Jamiee Jordan working on her assortment of pitches. They got together to work at least three times a week, and she pushed herself to work on every pitch &045; going with the mindset that any pitch could be her out pitch.

She can come with the fastball, curve, riseball, drop and changeup, and she wants to throw them to anyone at any given time.

&uot;Just trying to stay in control of my pitches,&uot; Corley said. &uot;Nothing is perfect. There’s always something you can correct to make things better. I think (my fastball) has picked up a little from last year. When you practice every day, it helps. Spin is a big thing. You can have a ball moving (a little), but if you get the spin a little better, it’ll move this much.

&uot;You’ve got to have all of them. There’s no one important than the other.&uot;

She kept enough batters off balance last season as a junior to put up gaudy numbers and lead the Lady Vikings to the second round of the Class 2A playoffs. Corley finished with a microscopic 0.82 ERA and 142 strikeouts and 35 walks in 165 innings pitched en route to earning District 4-2A MVP.

&uot;She can throw them all for strikes,&uot; Vidalia head coach Gary Paul Parnham said. &uot;She’s gotten faster this year, and that’s going to be a big plus for her. She’s going to be one of the top pitchers in the state, no doubt. We’ve been pretty fortunate to have some pretty good pitchers since I’ve been here, and she falls right in there.&uot;

The changeup may be her toughest pitch to hit, but Parnham noted the curveball really picked up as the season went on last year. Horne worked with her on the riseball, but her fastball can break up and away from a right-handed batter.

And there’s the changeup that Horne said may be her best strikeout pitch.

&uot;Her curve is breaking about a foot to a foot and a half,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;She’s really picked up command of most of her pitches. That’s some of the difference I’ve seen with her. All of her pitches are her out pitches, but if I had to pick one, it would be the curveball.

&uot;We very seldom throw fastballs. Most of are pitches are riseballs, curveballs and drop balls. We try to keep a batter off balance.&uot;

All her efforts may pay off for a pitcher who had the bulk of the duties last season for the Lady Vikings. Corley was out there working on the mound for every inning of all but one of the team’s 27 games as a junior in her first season to really get a good amount of work on the mound.

That was on a team in a rebuilding mode of sorts following a 2003 state championship. Now nearly everyone has returned this spring, and she won’t feel all the pressure of putting the team on her back.

&uot;At one time you believe that because pitchers are a very big part of the game,&uot; Corley said. &uot;But if you don’t have a good first baseman, you don’t get all the outs. Nothing works without the other. That’s a good thing we have. Last year we started off with a pretty young infield. You have to trust everybody. I really think this team has a lot of potential. We have a lot of talent.&uot;

The team returns most of its infield from a season ago, including Emily Raley at second, Lauren Clayton at shortstop, Chelsey Knapp at first and Jordan behind the plate.

It’s the outfield that will have new faces, but that’s the least of everyone’s worries.

&uot;We lost a bunch of one-run games last year that could have gone either way,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;She could have been easily 20-5 last year. A good pitcher can carry you a long way. But when I was a pitcher in high school, I felt good when I had a strong defense behind me. And Christy feels the same way. She has confidence in her teammates.&uot;

That’s perhaps why Corley is excited about this spring. One of her goals when she got to high school was to get a state championship ring, but she wants a second one before she leaves.

There’s still a goal of playing at the next level, and she’s sent tapes to Louisiana-Lafayette, Delta State and Louisiana Tech. But her primary goal right now is to pitch and lead the team, and everything else may eventually fall into place for the game she’s loved since the age of 4.

&uot;We’ve got some good up-and-coming freshmen I’ve been impressed with,&uot; Corley said. &uot;I really think this year starting off we already had team unity. That’s what makes a team. It feels good to see people who love the game just as much as you do.&uot;