SLO County softball player with only one hand brings ‘so much energy,’ head coach says
From a young age, Riley Osborne has “played pretty much every sport you can think of,” her mom said.
Basketball. Soccer. Flag football.
At age 4, Riley picked up a softball. Now she’s the starting left fielder at Arroyo Grande High School — and one of the team’s faster players.
In many ways, the 15-year-old sophomore is just like her teammates. In one way, she is not.
Riley was born without part of her left arm, and so she plays a game that calls for throwing, catching and hitting all with one hand.
Does it faze her? Not in the least.
“Everyone has their challenges,” Riley said. “I have my challenge.”
How Arroyo Grande teen plays with partial arm
Doctors aren’t absolutely sure of the diagnosis, but they think Riley was born with a rare birth defect called amniotic band syndrome, said her mother, Lisa Osborne.
That’s when the inner layer of the placenta is damaged during pregnancy and the fiber-like bands tangle around the developing fetus, resulting in limb deformities, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Riley’s “little arm,” as her family calls it, extends to just beyond the elbow, ending in a stub. She uses her fully formed right arm to catch, throw and grip a bat.
Riley has learned to catch with a glove on her right hand and then smoothly tuck the mitt under her “little arm” to stabilize, remove and throw the ball — all in one motion.
In hitting, she uses her left arm to balance the bat, waiting for the pitch, before letting with a right-handed whack at the ball.
Her goal is to reach base by connecting on sharply hit line drives, or to find the holes through the infield. She also bunts.
“I honestly haven’t had a lot of people that have limited me. They’ve always wanted me to go as high as I can,” Riley said. “If we were doing a drill and my coach says, “Oh, I don’t think you can do this one.’ ... I’ll always find a way to do it. Maybe it won’t be the same as everybody else, but I’ll find a way to do it a little bit differently. And that has made me feel a lot more comfortable, more confident with the team don’t feel like an outsider and different from everybody else.
Outfielder doubles as basketball player
Softball isn’t Osborne’s only high school sport. She also plays basketball, competing last year on the Eagles’ freshman team.
There, she uses her left arm to stabilize her shot, gripping and releasing the ball with her right hand.
This year, Riley was forced to choose between basketball and softball due to coronavirus-related scheduling conflicts, and she decided to lace up her cleats. But she plans to play basketball next season as a junior.
“I played a lot of sports since I was little,” she said. “I never looked at it any differently. I just wanted to play sports.”
In soccer, she transitioned to the position of goalkeeper because, she said, “I could catch things.” It’s the one position in the sport where players are allowed to use their hands.
“When she first asked to play goalie, I told her ‘OK, well, let’s see what your coach says,’ ” Lisa Osborne said. “It turns out she was really good at it.”
Riley also enjoys drumming.
“All of these these just happened to be things she liked,” her mom said. “She just didn’t think anything of it. She just did it.”
Varsity athlete has defensive prowess
Riley’s coaches note how she flies around the outfield, covering ground with long strides to make rally-killing snags.
She’s helped the team to a 15-2 record as Arroyo Grande High prepares to play top opponent Templeton High School (14-2) in a decisive weekend series.
The two teams face off Saturday in a doubleheader that could determine the league title in advance of the CIF-Central Section playoffs.
Arroyo Grande is led by two star seniors in shortstop Anaiah Cuadill (.438 average, five home runs) and catcher Kahlia Jensen (.351 average, with a team-high 20 hits), both recruited by college programs.
“This is a great group of girls,” Arroyo Grande High assistant coach Tommy De La Rosa said. “I’ve coached for over 15 years, and the grind of being around teenage kids can get to you. But I look forward to being out here every day (with the current team). I look forward to this group.”
Outfielder is improving as a hitter
Osborne acknowledged that she has some room to improve her hitting.
As of Friday, Riley was batting just .118 on the season, compared with a .314 team average. But her coaches are confident she will get better as her high school career continues.
“I have no doubt she can hit over .300 over the next couple of years,” Arroyo Grande High head coach Jose Ramirez said. “She is getting better every day.”
The key has been leveling out her swing to keep from popping up, and fine-tuning her bunting — an effective strategy against pitches that fly in at 60 to 65 miles per hour from a 40-foot distance.
“I mostly just wasn’t really confident,” Riley said. “I could just never get the power. I would always dip and open up. Working with my hitting coaches helps me a lot to get the form.”
De La Rosa praised Osborne’s determination and positive attitude.
“I have never seen her down — ever,” De La Rosa said. “She’s always upbeat.”
Riley’s appreciate for the game illustrated that attitude.
“I like softball because it’s a team sport, but it’s also individual. So you can work on your own individual playing, and it all contributes to one big outcome on the team,” she said. “And when you mess up, they’re just there to back you up and cheer you up. So it’s just like every other team sport. ... They don’t see me any differently. That’s what I love about these girls and this team.”
Player inspired by Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Abbott
As a fifth-grader, Osborne got to meet Jim Abbott — the former Major League Baseball pitcher with one hand who threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in 1993 as a member of the Yankees.
Abbott recorded 87 career wins and finished third in the American League Cy Young Award voting in 1991, posting an 18-11 record.
Osborne’s father, a Santa Barbara County firefighter, lined up the meeting between his daughter and Abbott, who was speaking as part of a cancer foundation event.
“It was very exciting because I hadn’t met anyone around here who plays sports with one hand,” Osborne recalled.
She said Abbott offered her words of motivation and support.
“He was super friendly,” Riley said. “He was a really tall, calm, humble guy. I showed him how I tie my shoes (with one hand). I remember that.”
“I gave him a ball to sign and he wrote a little note, saying ‘Future Hall of Famer,’ ” Osborne said.
Osborne, who has a cumulative GPA of 3.87, hopes to play softball in college.
Once she graduates from college, she is considering a career in bioengineering to make more effective prosthetic devices.
“I know what they were like for me, and I used some that I didn’t like,” Osborne said. “I want to help other people and make prosthetics that work for them.”
In the meantime, she plans to play full seasons of basketball and softball next year.
“Riley is like a ray of sunshine,” Ramirez said. “She brings so much energy, and her spirit is felt by everyone around her.”
This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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