Thanks to NCAA ruling, Oakdale alum gets another shot at leading ASU softball
Arizona State senior softball player Maddi Hackbarth jumped up a little bit and had a big smile on her face when she saw the news on March 30:
“The NCAA Division I Council was giving spring-sport athletes another year of eligibility.”
Hackbarth, an Oakdale High alum, had led the Sun Devils with 32 RBIs and tied for the team lead with nine home runs before the season was halted on March 12 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Last week while circulating social media, Hackbarth thought spring sport athletes had already received their eligibility back but as more and more people started tweeting about the upcoming NCAA Division I meeting, she said she got a little worried.
The day after the decision was made, Hackbarth went to Farrington Stadium (ASU’s home ballpark) and walked around on the field.
“I am just happy I get to play more,” Hackbarth said on Wednesday. “I wasn’t going to leave (she planned on getting her master’s) but playing and being a graduate assistant is very different.”
While Hackbarth has already made her decision to return, she said her twin sister, Kindra, a senior who led ASU in batting average (.443) and runs scored (32) hasn’t decided yet.
Washington senior infielder Nicole “Sis” Bates (Ceres) has also yet to make a decision.
As the coronavirus started to spread in mid-March, Hackbarth said she was so focused on softball that she didn’t really see the news of it potentially affecting the season.
Arizona State was 22-7, ranked No. 15 in the nation, and had won five in a row and preparing to face the defending national champions and No. 1 ranked UCLA (March 13-15 in Los Angeles) when Hackbarth said the changes started to happen.
“Coach (Trisha Ford) said she was switching our flights to the bus because of the virus and then slowly news started to come up,” Hackbarth said.
Before their scheduled trip to UCLA, the Pac-12 Conference held its men’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas and announced on March 11 that fans would not be allowed inside as well as fans not being allowed at various spring-sport events.
As one of the senior leaders, Hackbarth said she was getting the mindset of how to lead the team and get the freshmen ready for a big series with no fans. Some of the players’ families were planning to attend the games.
That series never happened as spring sports were suspended on March 12 before being officially canceled two days later.
Since the end of the season, Hackbarth remains in Tempe but said she might come to the Central Valley for a little bit but is following along with the coronavirus news.
ASU coaches and players communicate through a GroupMe app and the team has a group Snapchat where they FaceTime for five minutes each day.
In 2019, Hackbarth led the team with 19 home runs, tied for second-most in a single season in school history, and she said she wanted to break the record this year. The school record is 20.
“There were so many things I wanted for myself,” she said. “There were so many goals that I wanted.”
When she was young, Hackbarth said she always wanted to hold a school-record no matter what college she went to and admitted she put too much pressure on herself early in the 2020 season that led to a slow start (one home run in first 11 games).
She will have another shot at the record next year.
“It’s going to be a great year in 2021,” Hackbarth said. “I am already looking forward to it ... because I’m bored.”
This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 1:02 PM.
