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The cardiac monitor began beeping loudly in the background, so Damon Lovato raised his voice through the phone.

"I feel bad that I didn't call you with the score last night," the Amphitheater softball coach told the Star on Wednesday night from his bed at Tucson Heart Hospital.

"We won 8-5. I heard it was a really good game."

Lovato's memory of Tuesday's win over Flowing Wells is understandably muddled. He suffered a stroke in the middle of the game and was rushed away by ambulance.

Barely 24 hours later, Lovato, 23, was taking care of his duties as coach and trying to convince anyone who would listen that he would be back in the dugout for Thursday's game at Scottsdale Coronado.

He was not, but he expects to be released from the hospital Saturday and back at practice Monday.

Somebody somewhere should be engraving Lovato's name on a Dedicated Coach of the Year plaque.

But his unwavering commitment is accompanied by his team's and school's intensified sense of worry.

As vibrant and promising as he is as a coach, Lovato has suffered nearly as many strokes in the past 10 months (two) as Amphi has wins this season (four).

"It's like playing Russian roulette," said Dr. Ricardo Samson, Lovato's cardiologist since he was first diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — a disease of the heart muscle — at age 12.

"The more times you have a stroke, the chances of having permanent and severe damage increase."

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in people under age 30. McCollins Umeh, a UA football freshman in 2004, died during his first practice with the team because of HCM symptoms.

Last month, a star Louisiana high school girls basketball player with HCM collapsed and died in the middle of a game.

Lovato has a defibrillator-pacemaker in his chest that provides an electrical shock to the heart when the heart rate becomes dangerously fast, a necessary safeguard against sudden cardiac death.

But he knows he has dodged a couple of bullets already.

"I won't be so fortunate next time if I have another stroke," he said.

Samson saw Lovato at University Medical Center last Friday in the clinic and wrote him new prescriptions for his two blood pressure medications and the blood thinner Coumadin.

Shortly thereafter, Lovato, who turned 23 on Sunday, missed a dosage of his medicine and his heart went into atrial fibrillation — a symptom that causes blood to pump ineffectively out of the heart and often causes clotting.

During the fourth inning of Tuesday's game, a clot traveled from Lovato's heart to his brain, resulting in the stroke while he was in the dugout.

"I heard a really big crash, and Coach had collapsed right behind me," said Amphi senior captain and catcher Marisa Zuniga. "I was in total shock. I had no idea what was going on."

Lovato smacked his head against the concrete. He had a seizure that seemed to last for an eternity. The left side of his face was paralyzed. His hands twitched uncontrollably.

Amphi school officials immediately called an ambulance, but the umpires and many of the players were unaware of the situation. The game continued with Lovato still seizing.

"It was scary. It was depressing to watch such a young kid go through that," Amphi athletic director Armando Soto said.

The rest of the game played out like something from a Hollywood script, a "win one for the Gipper" moment, if there ever was one.

Lovato somehow gathered his thoughts long enough to give Zuniga, who did not play defense Tuesday, clear instructions.

"He asked me to call the pitches for the catcher from the dugout," Zuniga said. "I kind of laughed and said, 'Are you kidding?' He said, 'Mari, go call the pitches!' "

After three straight outs, Zuniga led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single that spurred a seven-run rally. The ambulance arrived in the middle of the onslaught and play was briefly delayed.

"They got there really quick but it seemed like forever," Zuniga said. "The girls went out to the outfield and we were all sobbing. We were so scared."

Lovato learned of the win that night while still coming to grips with the incident, one that likely will serve as another life-changing event. After his first stroke last May, his entire approach as a coach was transformed.

"I used to be verbally aggressive toward umps," said Lovato, who started coaching Little League at age 14. "There are a lot of outside influences you have to deal with in softball, and I think being aggressive was my way of coping.

"Now, those people I once saw as being against me, I know they are in my corner. The stroke really forced me to accept that."

Lovato said doctors were surprised by his rapid recovery thus far. He expects to conduct his own physical therapy, should he need any.

His time away from the ball field will be minimal, and he and the team will press on like normal.

"If I'm tentative, the girls are going to be tentative," Lovato said. "I'll take better precautions, but we have to keep playing."

Amphi beat Coronado 13-0 with assistant coaches Eva Ramirez and John Rotzell running the show on Thursday.

Lovato dismisses the notion that the Panthers are playing to win for him. This has the potential to be Amphi's best season in history, and he insists his players are focused on winning region and state championships.

Just one of those feats would cause the school to hang a softball banner in the gymnasium for the first time ever.

But after seeing their coach in peril, Zuniga said the Panthers would trade a trophy for Lovato's safe return in an instant.

"Yeah, that would be really nice to get that banner, but that (incentive) is out the door now," Zuniga said. "We're doing it for Coach, whether he likes it or not."