A popular song on the radio by Lady Gaga contains the lyrics, “Can’t read my... can’t read my... no, he can’t read my poker face...”

When Porterville College pitcher Jennifer Gliddon is on the mound, no one — not the batters, opposing coaches and sometimes her own catcher — can read her.

Gliddon’s game face (or lack thereof, apparently) is one of the ingredients that makes the state’s leading pitcher in innings pitched so successful.

“It’s her mentality and her focus,” PC coach Vickie Dugan said of her only starting pitcher. “She’s been banged with direct shots to the shin and you could still look at her face and wouldn’t know if we were ahead by 10, behind by 10, or tied.

“Her composure on the mound is the best I’ve seen,” added Dugan, who’s coached for 20-plus seasons including 12 in Porterville. “She’s got that poker face.”

How fitting, then, that Gliddon calls Las Vegas — host to the World Series of Poker — her stomping grounds. Her uncles tend bars on the Strip — one inside the MGM Grand. She spent numerous days within Circus Circus — “Because of the theme park,” she says — and she attended Las Vegas High School 20 minutes from downtown.

But she was never completely inundated with the Vegas experience as most tourists are. In fact, she walked through the Bellagio Hotel for her first time just last weekend over spring break and she’d never tried her hand at gambling until, ironically, she moved to Porterville last summer.

“(The Eagle Mountain Casino) gave us 20 bucks when I signed up and I lost it all plus another 10 of my own,” Gliddon said. “Then I went back and lost 20 more and I was like, ‘Uh, I’m never doing this again.’ I had no idea what I was doing.”

Little did she know that she’d keep on gambling every time she stepped on the mound for the Pirates this season, leading them to a 17-18-2 overall record, 8-7 in the Central Valley Conference.

When teammates Kelly Dotzler (broken hand) and Rachel Morris (strained hip) went down as options No. 2 and 3, Gliddon found herself the only one left standing.

“I was really excited because I knew I could do it,” the freshman said of the sudden responsibility as the lone workhorse. “On my travel teams, I either started or finished every game. The only hard part is in the tournaments where we do four or five games in one weekend.”

PC catcher Candice Burns recalled a particularly rough March chock full of doubleheaders and tournaments nearly every weekend.

“Towards the end she told me my arm hurts so bad,” Burns said. “I told her to keep pushing and it’ll all be over soon. She knows how to block out the pain and get the job done.”

The sophomore catcher was also thrust into her position after playing mostly third base last season. As a result, the two were forced to develop on the fly a chemistry that often takes pitchers and catchers years to create.

“I think I was lucky because she hits her spots so consistently it makes my job easy,” said Burns, a Monache product who turned down several Division I opportunities to play at PC. “I remember coming out the first day and I saw her pitch. I was so excited for this season.”

Unfortunately, that was before the backups went down, leaving Gliddon — to date — pitching 238.1 innings out of a possible total of 255 this season. That’s nearly 80 innings — or almost 12 full games — more than the conference’s next highest (Fresno’s Nicole Reed).

“She loves to pitch, obviously,” Dugan said. “I’ve never had less than three pitchers in a season and this is amazing what she’s doing.”

Gliddon has become so indispensable and yet so reliable that the Pirates have no contingency plan should she ever go down with injury.

“We’d have to put someone in there who just throws it across the plate and get a hit every time,” said Dugan. “(PC recruiter) Mike (Genovese) has made a hundred calls (to find a backup pitcher) and we can’t get anyone to come out.”

Burns, for one, is quick to appreciate Gliddon’s current iron-man streak, which includes 145 strikeouts, 34 complete games (many on back ends of doubleheaders) with an ERA of 1.43 and eight shutouts,

“It’s nice to be on the field knowing she’s pitching because she can handle herself,” Burns said. “If something bad happens in her personal life, she doesn’t let it affect her. If anything, it fuels her even more. She gives her all every time.”

Gliddon’s repertoire on the mound comes down to about five pitches, her curveball being the deadliest when she needs a final strike to put away the batter.

“When I catch around Jennifer, I can never just sit down and wait for the ball because it has so much incredible movement,” Burns said. “My legs are usually sore because I have to take a whole step to the side for her curve balls.”

Pitching coach Gracie Steidley typically makes the call from the sidelines and Gliddon usually follows through on the task.

“She’s such a strong pitcher and she’s so consistent,” Burns said, “so whenever you call one pitch and it does something else, it’s surprising.”

What may seem an even greater surprise is that Gliddon started pitching just three years ago, when her father, as coach of her city rec team, asked her to switch from her previous position as catcher. That’s when the other schools started noticing.

“Mike attended a showcase camp the day before and he talked to me and my dad after he saw me pitch,” said Gliddon, who hopes to move on in computer studies after PC. “He gave me a card and I looked up the school and he had me call (Vickie) the next day.”

Western Nevada and Costa Mesa also came calling for her services, but some shrewd recruiting brought Gliddon to a town that seems worlds apart from the glitz and glamour of Vegas.

“The girls kind of talked (Porterville) up a little bit like, ‘You can do this and this,’ and I was like, “Alright! Let’s do it!’” Gliddon laughed. “And then I got here and was like, ‘What the heck is this?’”

But Gliddon quickly settled in and made friends through her squad, whom she calls “family.”

“I love them all,” Gliddon said of her teammates. “I hope they see that I really wanna win and I’m here for them.”