One play at second changed two lives (and a number) ‘‘

Seeing his friend’s injury and recovery, Williams spent a lot of time in prayer. He questioned whether he should continue to play baseball.

“It makes you re-evaluate what’s important and what’s not important,” Williams said. “Is baseball important? It was a good gutcheck.”

After Hahn’s injury, Williams researched the spine, learning how each vertebra controls different parts of the body and how spinal cord injuries change people’s lifestyles.

“You fall into that WebMD hole,”Williams said.

A few days after the injury, Williams received a text saying Hahn’s big toe had moved. At the hospital, Williams and teammates encouraged him to try to do it again. Williams watched as a machine showing Hahn’s heart rate ticked up, from 65 to 75 to 95 to 115 beats per minute, as Hahn attempted to repeat the motion — “just trying to move his freaking big toe,” Williams said. “And it didn’t do it.” It turned out to be a musclespasm.

Williams and Hahn grew up in Southern California, and during high school they were teammates on the ABD Bulldogs, a travel team. The San Diego Padres selected Hahn, a star high school pitcher and outfielder from Orange County, in the 26th round of the 2010 MLB draft, but he opted to play baseball for Arizona State and enter the draft again in a few years. Williams, a San Diego native, had already committedto the Sun Devils, and they decided to live together in an athletedorm freshman year.

After his injury, Hahn had to spend a year away from Arizona State to recover. At first, he couldn’t feed or dress himself; he couldn’t wash his own hair. When Williams was home in California over the summer or during holidays, Williams would visit him at arehab center in San Diego.

“It came to the point where he knew my schedule better than I knew my schedule,” Hahn said at baseball’s winter meetings, held in December in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. “He would text me in the morning being like, ‘Hey, rehab tonight, right?’ “

In those rehab sessions, Hahn tried to regain the mobility that had left his body. He did standing exercises and, strapped into a harness, went through the motions of walking on a treadmill. A coffee cup in hand, Williams would observe Hahn and chat withhim in between reps.

“He would just sit there and watch, honestly,” Hahn said. “To explain my rehab, there’s a lot of struggle for sure —struggling to do things, struggling to make your body work, and it doesn’t work.”

Sometimes, Williams brought extra baked goods made by his then-fiancée and now wife, Jackie. One time, he brought a cigar and whiskey. After the session, he asked Hahn to be one of hisgroomsmen.

“I became a better individual becauseof him, and I hope I’ve had that same impact on him,” Hahn said. “We’re at the point where we’repretty much family.”

After his injury, Hahn always planned to return to college, and Williams and their two other roommates were waiting for him. Throughout the fall and winter of sophomore year, the roommates kept the master bedroom of their off-campus house open for Hahn. The landlord added ramps to the house to makeit accessible.

After Hahn returned to school, his father, Dale, quit his job and moved to a hotel to care for his son. Every day, Dale Hahn would help Cory bathe, brush his teeth and dress, shepherding him to andfrom campus. Their morning routine took an hour and a half, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Back on campus, Hahn stayed involved with the baseball team as a player-coach. His No. 34 jersey still hung in his locker.

Had all gone according to plan, Hahn would have entered the MLB draft in 2013, after his junior year, like Williams and other college players bound for the majors. That June, to his surprise, the Arizona Diamondbacks selected him in the 34th round; they’ve since named their 34throundpick after him.

Despite missing a year of school, Hahn managed to graduate on time, and in 2014, he joined the Diamondbacks’ amateur scouting department. He’s now theircoordinator of pro scouting.

Williams was drafted in 2013, too, taken in the second round by the Miami Marlins. At the time, Williams told Hahn that if he made the majors, he would try to wearNo. 34 on his back.

“When I was drafted, it was one of those things just like, ‘Dude, if I ever make it to the big leagues, I’m going to do everything I can in my ability to change my number,’ “Williams said.

The Pirates acquired Williams in October 2015, and he debuted in the big leagues the next year. This fall, after Hutchison was outrighted to Class AAA Indianapolis, Williams got a chance to fulfill his pledge. In early

Williams called Hahn office to ask whether still wear No. 34.

“It’s almost like he asked marryhim,” Hahn said.

Less than two weeks Williams watched an NFL for the first and only time Williams didn’t have team, and his San Chargers had left for so he wasn’t especially

in the league. But he did happen to “Monday Night Football” matchupbetween the Steelers the Cincinnati Bengals, watched as Ryan Shazier tackle and fell to the ground. soon as he saw Shazier’s he knew the linebacker

his spinal cord. The he texted was Hahn, he’dseen the injury.

Williams understands Shazier’s rehab has quiet. At the hospital in Hahn was known as “John