COOS BAY - Since the first day she picked up a softball, which she said was at birth, Shay Oberg feels she's never exactly been on a level playing field.

While her peers battled for starting jobs growing up, Oberg first had to battle for interviews - a chance to show what she could do on the field.

Today, Oberg is putting her talent to good use, playing right field for Southwestern Oregon Community College. The Lakers' 5-foot-9 starter can out hustle, out throw and out field almost anyone she's played against at the junior college level. Oberg's teammates know her for her base stealing, her sub-three-second time to first, her feather-soft drag bunts and her quick throws to the plate. All of this she does exceptionally.

And all of this she does with one hand.

“It's always been a challenge for me - getting the time of day to show what I can do despite my disability,” the sun-baked sophomore said last Friday after a game against Lower Columbia. “To other girls, opponents and coaches, I'd always have to do a lot to prove myself. I still have to, even today.”

The process has taken its toll on her body, judging by her wrist that grows almost twice in size when taped before games. With that wrist, she's batted a cool .275 this season while driving in five runs. Oberg's also nabbed 19 bases, second on the team only to Mel Powell's conference-best 41.

“There's no question that she needs to be in the lineup,” said Lakers coach Mike Duffy. “She's batted everywhere in the lineup - from fifth to eighth.”

The way she plays the game is a style known only to her. In the field, Oberg snatches grounders and fly balls with her gloved right hand, then cradles the glove with her shortened left arm and in a flash, has the ball back in her right hand ready to throw.

“It just felt natural to do it that way when I started playing,” she said.

Even as a righty, Oberg can bat from both sides of the plate, swinging in a forehand and backhand motion.

Altogether, you can't help but be impressed watching her.

“She can play just as well as anyone else,” said Powell, the Lakers' starting center fielder. “You don't see any less from her.”

Oberg's success hinges painfully on her overworked wrist, which she ices several times daily.

“It's unbelievable,” she said. “It's tiring because I over use it. My doctors and trainers tell me, ‘Don't use that arm so much,' and I'm like, ‘How can I not?'”

Oberg has always pushed herself, as Powell will attest.

“When I first met her two years ago when we were both freshmen, and I had no idea she had one hand,” Powell said. “I didn't know about it until the third day of practice! It's easy not to notice it because she plays so hard.”

It's not the first time her disability has been overlooked. Oberg said it gets by even her family members.

“Sometimes I'll talk to my mom on the phone and tell her how I hurt my wrist, and she'll say, ‘Which one?'”

When asked about her upbringing, Oberg said she never drifted far from sports. Behind a pair of dark Oakley sunglasses, her eyes gazed toward the softball field at Southwestern, looking back at her life as she would a motion picture.

Oberg tried a variety of sports while growing up in Billings and Great Falls, Mont. With a slight East Coast accent stemming from her early years spent in Langley, Va., she recalled being one of the toughest to defend in flag football, one of the best outside hitters in volleyball, and one of the kids you never wanted to play against on the blacktop.

“I played with all the boys growing up. I was too rough for the girls,” she said smiling. “I got in trouble a lot for fighting.”

That same spirit helped her excel in softball - her first love. Some of Oberg's earliest memories were spent watching her parents play slow pitch. Her talent is almost genetic, she said.

“There was no comparison with her and the others,” Oberg's mother, Cindy, said over the phone. “The greatest part of all was watching people be intrigued by her. ... She can hit a ball over the fence, and she can throw your butt out at home.”

As an athlete, Oberg wasn't compensated for her disability in any way by Cindy and Shay's father, Shane.

“That's how she was born. We treated her by who she is,” Cindy said. “That's probably why she turned out as good as she did.”

Of course, Oberg's upbringing wasn't without its hardships. It wasn't until her family moved to Billings that Oberg had an opportunity to show her talent.

“I never got a chance to play sports when I was living in Great Falls,” she said. “They couldn't see past the disability and see that I was as good as everyone else. People always underestimated me.”

At Billings West High School, Oberg became an all-league multi-sport star. She unwillingly gave up basketball after an unfortunate incident her senior year. Billings West's coach, at the time, had a freshman daughter he wanted to move up to varsity. In order to do so, however, he would have to cut one player from the already full roster.

Guess whose name got scratched.

“They openly said she couldn't play because she had one hand,” Cindy said. “That was their reason, so they said.”

Cindy was tempted to take the matter to court but decided against it.

“I didn't want Shay to make the team just because I complained,” she said. “Everyone already knew she can play with anyone. Some say she can do better than most with two hands.”

Experiences like that helped Oberg grow as an athlete. After a senior year that saw her average 15 kills a game in volleyball and earn her all-conference honors in softball, Oberg drew attention from Southwestern's former softball coach, Jenn Franklin.

“I had heard about her from another player we had from Montana. I took a recruitment trip out to see her and said, ‘This girl is awesome.' I was impressed right off the bat,” Franklin said, no pun intended.

In little time, Oberg was wearing a Lakers uniform and roaming the outfield. Franklin recalled a game against Clackamas in which Oberg made a play that NWAACC coaches and players still talk about.

“This girl was tagging up from third on her,” Franklin said. “And Shay gunned her down at home, no problem. I've seen girls with two hands that can't make that play.

“People are in awe of her. She impresses everyone. What amazes me about her is that she doesn't realize the talent she has.”

Oberg's biggest weakness has nothing to do with her body, only her mind, Franklin said.

Oberg openly admitted she's at a disadvantage against anyone that walks on to the field.

“It's a challenge both mentally and physically,” she said. “Everyone tells me I get down on myself too easily.”

Her numbers suggest the same, according to Duffy.

“When she has her confidence going, she's a very tough out,” he said. “She's one of the biggest parts of our defense. The biggest thing we try to work on with her is her confidence.”

Oberg has her teammates to help with that - mainly Powell, who's played next to her in the outfield for the past two seasons. The two sophomores have drawn support from each other since day one.

“We understand each other's weaknesses. It's a love-hate relationship,” Powell said jokingly. “I'll get upset with her if she gets down on herself.”

“It's tough love,” Oberg adds. “It's always helped.”

In her lifetime, Oberg has gotten support from a grocery list of admirers. The one that stands out most hearkens back to 1999 when Oberg got to meet a professional athlete of similar disability, who became one of Major League Baseball's most inspiring players - Jim Abbott.

“He was my childhood hero,” Oberg said.

Abbott enjoyed a 10-year career in the majors despite being born with one hand. He once said “the only thing that could hold me back was myself.”

In 1999, Abbott's final year, arrangements were made for Oberg and her family to fly out to Denver to watch him pitch for Milwaukee during a four-game series against Colorado at Coors Field. Oberg got to meet Abbott before a game.

“He told me to keep pushing and pursue my dreams, pretty much,” she said.

Oberg wants to put those words to good use next year. She plans on making a jump to Division II softball next year as a walk-on at Montana State University-Billings. Oberg had a letter of intent signed to play there earlier this year but was left off the recruiting list after the school made a coaching change.

Oberg still is confident she can play for the Yellowjackets, who were ranked as high as No. 2 in the West Region this year.

“It would be awesome to play in my hometown and be close to my family again,” Oberg said, smiling at the thought of it. “Hopefully, that'll work out for me. I'm going to do a lot of physical training this summer for my wrist. I'll play another two years if it lets me.”

Rest assured, it will.

Notes: Oberg and the Lakers will be playing their final game of the season Saturday against Chemeketa at noon.