Hudek enjoying change after 8 years of baseball
COLLEGE STATION — Texas A&M freshman Sarah Hudek might own the earliest retirement from softball among her peers in the sport. Well, temporary retirements, anyway.
“I missed the mound, I missed pitching,” Hudek said of her decision to go from baseball to softball and back to baseball, all at the ripe, old age of 10. “I hung up the softball cleats and went back to baseball.”
The baseball career of Hudek, the daughter of former Astros reliever John Hudek, lasted another eight years and culminated with a season on the mound at Bossier (La.) Parrish Community College a year ago.
“Junior college is its own little world,” Sarah Hudek said of pitching in front of sparse crowds and in the no-frills environment of community college baseball.
So Hudek, who experienced her share of success in the male-dominated sport of college baseball, traded that barren setting for the frills and thrills that come with playing softball in the Southeastern Conference.
“I don’t want people to think the game pushed me away. I left on my own terms,” Hudek said. “I know I could have kept playing, but softball gave me the best opportunity moving forward.”
Hudek walked into an ideal situation, joining and quickly contributing to an Aggies team (45-10) that will play Tennessee (47-10) in an NCAA Tournament super regional starting 5 p.m. Friday. The winner of the three-game series at Knoxville, Tenn., advances to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City, where the Aggies are trying to land for the first time since 2008.
“She’s a little fireball,” A&M pitcher Samantha Show said of Hudek, the Aggies’ starting right fielder. “She comes through with a lot of big hits, and in the outfield her arm is amazing. I’m hoping somebody runs on her (this weekend), we make a play at the plate and she shows everyone who she is.”
Hudek, a former George Ranch baseball player, was bitten by the baseball bug as a youngster hanging around her dad’s batting cages and field near Sugar Land — John Hudek’s AllStar Baseball Academy, which is now closed.
“It was my second home, really, I was out there all of the time,” said Sarah, who was too young to remember much about father’s pro baseball career in the 1990s. “Just being able to not only surround myself with my dad’s knowledge of the game but a handful of pro guys that played at the time. I’d watch them give lessons and be on the side mimicking them and listening in on all of those little hints. I spent hours out there, and wouldn’t be the player I am today without it.”
Hudek excelled at George Ranch and was a member of the U.S. team that won a silver medal in 2014 at the Women’s Baseball World Cup in Japan. She pitched in 13 games for Bossier Parish CC last season, putting together a 2-1 record while striking out a dozen batters in 20 innings.
In her short time at A&M, she is hitting .281 with 53 starts in 55 games. She is a freshman in eligibility since she is playing a different sport, with last year considered a redshirt season in softball. Hudek said her biggest adjustment in making the switch from college baseball to college softball has been at the plate.
“Just the timing, but with each game I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable,” she said.
Pitching in baseball is overhand, while softball is underhand, and her strong arm is conditioned for baseball. And that is why she won’t be appearing in the circle for the Aggies.
“If I threw a pitch out here, my arm might go with it,” she said, smiling.