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Apr. 18—BROOKINGS — Toeing the rubber on the baseball diamond has been far from a guarantee for Mitchell product and South Dakota State University pitcher Brady Hawkins.
Overcoming multiple injuries since joining the Jackrabbits, including an elbow injury as a freshman that required Tommy John surgery, Hawkins has made it a point to not to sit and dwell on his own battles to play the game. Instead, he chose to be an uplifting spirit to his teammates given the nature of what constitutes success in baseball.
"We play a failure sport," Hawkins said. "I let them know that it's OK to fail sometimes. But it's always about the next pitch and not the last pitch. Seeing those guys succeed and being able to do a lot of things that I believe they can do gives me just as much of a good feeling."
It's also a mindset Hawkins carries himself when he gets the call to enter a game, pushing him to perform as a result.
This season, Hawkins, a redshirt senior, has logged 11 1/3 innings in 10 relief appearances, picking up six strikeouts. While his 11.57 earned run average was a result of a pair of outings early in the season where he gave up four or more runs, Hawkins has posted a 2.84 ERA since March 16.
Despite having issues with pitch command, which include 10 walks and five hit batters, Hawkins is someone who looks to get in as much work as possible in the quest to improve, a trait head coach Rob Bishop says shows his commitment to the program and to everyone on the roster.
"(Brady's) somebody that's really committed to just being better a little bit each day in every area," Bishop said, "Whether it's academics or off the field or whether it's a baseball thing. ... He's a leader on every team he's been on and was somebody that really wanted to be here."
A three-sport athlete growing up in the Mitchell area, Hawkins played football and basketball at Ethan High School and baseball in the summer with Mitchell Post 18, where he pitched and played third base.
Scouted to play both football and baseball collegiately, Hawkins ultimately chose SDSU after attending Jackrabbit events as a kid and for falling in love with the community setting in Brookings. Moving exclusively to the pitcher's mound in college, it was the best opportunity in his eyes to display his competitive juices.
"I wanted to win," Hawkins said. "That's kind of like where I shined the most and just decided that this was probably the best for me to stick to this part for my career path. You keep working and learning more every day, and kind of using that stuff to also learn about going through hard stuff in life and pushing through it."
The first test of Hawkins' strength came after firing a pitch in a bullpen session before his freshman year was set to commence. Immediately after throwing the ball, he felt a pop in his pitching elbow, a sign he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right arm.
Having Tommy John surgery to replace the torn ligament, Hawkins spent the next 18 months rehabbing his arm to return it to strength. In that time, he redshirted his freshman year and started to put his playing career into perspective, maintaining a positive mindset throughout the recovery time.
"First off, you have to be grateful for the opportunities that you do get," Hawkins said. "I learned that if you can get through these hard things in life, I can say, 'I didn't quit. I kept going.' Having self-belief and self-confidence that no matter what strikes you, you can get through it and continue on."
Hawkins made it back in time for the final month of the 2022 season, posting a 2.00 ERA in four appearances. Moving into his sophomore campaign, he began experiencing right shoulder pain and the loss of feeling in his pitches.
An MRI revealed his infraspinatus muscle's strength had dissipated to the point where some of the nerves in the area were destroyed. Dealing with shoulder problems for most of his sophomore and junior seasons, Hawkins didn't make his injury battles a distraction for the rest of the team.
"He struggled with that personally but he doesn't let that impact the kind of teammate that he is," Bishop said. "It takes some serious determination to come back from injuries like that, owing to the persistence and consistency he attacked with every day. He's had plenty of good moments where he's been rewarded for all this hard work."
It was during that time he learned how to become a complete pitcher, as the injuries saw him transition from a power pitcher armed with a 95 mph fastball into an arm relying on movement and location to get outs.
Using a five-pitch mix that consists of a four-seam and two-seam fastball that tops out at 90 mph along with a cutter, slider and changeup, Hawkins goes into each outing focusing on how he executes sequences and where he needs the ball to go. Once it began translating into results, he showed gratitude for having the chance to compete again.
"I realized that I can be competitive and pitch the way I want to," Hawkins said. "My teammates matter a lot to me and knowing that those guys are behind me also makes it a lot easier for me to go up there and compete with what I have."
Hawkins will transition into a graduate assistant role with the Jackrabbits baseball program following this season as he continues his studies at SDSU, having majored in sports and recreation management.
Not lost on him is the impact the game of baseball has made, from playing in a competitive environment to overcoming adversity along the way. Upon finishing his playing career, the hope with all graduating players is they take more away from their time than only baseball.
"Brady's exactly the kind of guy we want in our program and we're always looking for," Bishop said. "Learning resilience and the willingness to fight through adversity and the benefits of being part of a team, a family and a group of guys that love each other and play hard for each other will help him in anything that he does."
Hawkins wants to be in a role where he can instill some of his experiences to others with the goal of them taking away a vital piece of information, similar to his role on the pitching staff with SDSU, while preparing him to step into a new chapter of his life, wherever it might take him.
"At some point, the real world gets here and you have to grow up," Hawkins said, "But I don't want to take for granted all the moments that I've had with my different coaches, friends and teammates. I hope to carry those things with me forever."
Continue reading...
Overcoming multiple injuries since joining the Jackrabbits, including an elbow injury as a freshman that required Tommy John surgery, Hawkins has made it a point to not to sit and dwell on his own battles to play the game. Instead, he chose to be an uplifting spirit to his teammates given the nature of what constitutes success in baseball.
"We play a failure sport," Hawkins said. "I let them know that it's OK to fail sometimes. But it's always about the next pitch and not the last pitch. Seeing those guys succeed and being able to do a lot of things that I believe they can do gives me just as much of a good feeling."
It's also a mindset Hawkins carries himself when he gets the call to enter a game, pushing him to perform as a result.
This season, Hawkins, a redshirt senior, has logged 11 1/3 innings in 10 relief appearances, picking up six strikeouts. While his 11.57 earned run average was a result of a pair of outings early in the season where he gave up four or more runs, Hawkins has posted a 2.84 ERA since March 16.
Despite having issues with pitch command, which include 10 walks and five hit batters, Hawkins is someone who looks to get in as much work as possible in the quest to improve, a trait head coach Rob Bishop says shows his commitment to the program and to everyone on the roster.
"(Brady's) somebody that's really committed to just being better a little bit each day in every area," Bishop said, "Whether it's academics or off the field or whether it's a baseball thing. ... He's a leader on every team he's been on and was somebody that really wanted to be here."
A three-sport athlete growing up in the Mitchell area, Hawkins played football and basketball at Ethan High School and baseball in the summer with Mitchell Post 18, where he pitched and played third base.
Scouted to play both football and baseball collegiately, Hawkins ultimately chose SDSU after attending Jackrabbit events as a kid and for falling in love with the community setting in Brookings. Moving exclusively to the pitcher's mound in college, it was the best opportunity in his eyes to display his competitive juices.
"I wanted to win," Hawkins said. "That's kind of like where I shined the most and just decided that this was probably the best for me to stick to this part for my career path. You keep working and learning more every day, and kind of using that stuff to also learn about going through hard stuff in life and pushing through it."
The first test of Hawkins' strength came after firing a pitch in a bullpen session before his freshman year was set to commence. Immediately after throwing the ball, he felt a pop in his pitching elbow, a sign he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right arm.
Having Tommy John surgery to replace the torn ligament, Hawkins spent the next 18 months rehabbing his arm to return it to strength. In that time, he redshirted his freshman year and started to put his playing career into perspective, maintaining a positive mindset throughout the recovery time.
"First off, you have to be grateful for the opportunities that you do get," Hawkins said. "I learned that if you can get through these hard things in life, I can say, 'I didn't quit. I kept going.' Having self-belief and self-confidence that no matter what strikes you, you can get through it and continue on."
Hawkins made it back in time for the final month of the 2022 season, posting a 2.00 ERA in four appearances. Moving into his sophomore campaign, he began experiencing right shoulder pain and the loss of feeling in his pitches.
An MRI revealed his infraspinatus muscle's strength had dissipated to the point where some of the nerves in the area were destroyed. Dealing with shoulder problems for most of his sophomore and junior seasons, Hawkins didn't make his injury battles a distraction for the rest of the team.
"He struggled with that personally but he doesn't let that impact the kind of teammate that he is," Bishop said. "It takes some serious determination to come back from injuries like that, owing to the persistence and consistency he attacked with every day. He's had plenty of good moments where he's been rewarded for all this hard work."
It was during that time he learned how to become a complete pitcher, as the injuries saw him transition from a power pitcher armed with a 95 mph fastball into an arm relying on movement and location to get outs.
Using a five-pitch mix that consists of a four-seam and two-seam fastball that tops out at 90 mph along with a cutter, slider and changeup, Hawkins goes into each outing focusing on how he executes sequences and where he needs the ball to go. Once it began translating into results, he showed gratitude for having the chance to compete again.
"I realized that I can be competitive and pitch the way I want to," Hawkins said. "My teammates matter a lot to me and knowing that those guys are behind me also makes it a lot easier for me to go up there and compete with what I have."
Hawkins will transition into a graduate assistant role with the Jackrabbits baseball program following this season as he continues his studies at SDSU, having majored in sports and recreation management.
Not lost on him is the impact the game of baseball has made, from playing in a competitive environment to overcoming adversity along the way. Upon finishing his playing career, the hope with all graduating players is they take more away from their time than only baseball.
"Brady's exactly the kind of guy we want in our program and we're always looking for," Bishop said. "Learning resilience and the willingness to fight through adversity and the benefits of being part of a team, a family and a group of guys that love each other and play hard for each other will help him in anything that he does."
Hawkins wants to be in a role where he can instill some of his experiences to others with the goal of them taking away a vital piece of information, similar to his role on the pitching staff with SDSU, while preparing him to step into a new chapter of his life, wherever it might take him.
"At some point, the real world gets here and you have to grow up," Hawkins said, "But I don't want to take for granted all the moments that I've had with my different coaches, friends and teammates. I hope to carry those things with me forever."
Continue reading...
