Ohio State sophomore catcher/utility Sam Hackenbracht (24) rounds third base during the Ohio State-Michigan game on April 10. Ohio State lost 1-3. Credit: Andrew Horne | For the Lantern
It took two pitches in two innings in her first two at-bats for sophomore catcher Sam Hackenbracht to bash two home runs in Game 2 at Penn State April 3.
Hackenbracht clubbed a two-run single in the fifth inning and drove in another run in the seventh, moving her line to 4-for-4 with six RBIs.
While she trotted around the base paths with an extra pep in her step, Hackenbracht had a mission: Get back to the dugout bench so she could lie down.
“I pretty much went up to hit, hit the home run, came back to the dugout and laid on the bench with ice on my head because I felt horrible,” Hackenbracht said. “That’s pretty much all I did the whole entire game when I wasn’t hitting was lay in the dugout with ice on my head. Then, after the game was over, I went back to the hotel and I threw up about 10 more times.”
Hackenbracht began to feel ill after the Buckeyes made the five-hour road trip to State College, Pennsylvania, April 1, head coach Kelly Kovach Schoenly said. Although Schoenly’s initial concern was that her player had come down with COVID-19, which prompted the team to take the Buckeye to a local hospital, Hackenbracht’s test came back negative — but too late for her to play in Game 1.
Hackenbracht remained at the team’s hotel in uniform, and upon feeling better enough to head to the field in time for the second game of the doubleheader with permission from the team doctor, her father, Dan Hackenbracht, left Nittany Lion Softball Park to get his daughter.
“So he goes down to get her, she had about five minutes of warmup,” Schoenly said. “Her entire warmup was five minutes of hitting, and then she went off like that. It was great. It was like the Michael Jordan flu game for Sam Hackenbracht. It was a fun story for sure.”
Graduate infielder Carley Gaskill, who said Hackenbracht is her usual roommate on the road, said she didn’t think much of getting her own hotel room as the Buckeyes were split up.
But the narrative changed rather quickly.
“Sam got really sick, like throwing up, like Michael Jordan flu game,” Gaskill said. “I agree with coach as how you would describe it because everytime she said, ‘I’m going up there and swinging at the first pitch,’ and she hit it over the fence, literally ran the home run, ran straight to the bathroom in the dugout and threw up. That’s how sick she was.”
Hackenbracht said she knew she didn’t feel well enough to suit up behind the plate, but felt good during her brief warmup, to her surprise.
Sure enough, the Massillon, Ohio, native was slotted No. 5 in the batting order and started as the designated player for Game 2. Hackenbracht crushed the first pitch she saw in each of her first two plate appearances for home runs, doubling her season total.
She wasn’t done, however. Hackenbracht started the game April 4 in the same spot in the lineup, and blasted a two-out, two-run home run to extend Ohio State’s lead to 9-0 in the fourth frame.
Hackenbracht finished the weekend a remarkable .833 at Penn State while driving in eight runs, earning Big Ten Softball Player of the Week honors. She reached base in all but one of her seven plate appearances.
Now feeling better, Hackenbracht said she’s eager to get back to putting in the work to add a second conference honor to her mantle — no stomach bug next time.
“It was really cool, I felt pretty special all day,” Hackenbracht said. “But I’m still gonna get right back to work and get ready to go play Michigan. Hopefully I can get Player of the Week again sometime this year.”
