Injury sidelines senior standout

BRADEN RIVER — Trisha Zuknick had barely stepped off first base when she heard the crack of a bat and saw the line drive whizzing toward her.

It was the hardest hit softball the Braden River High pitcher and first baseman had even seen. Zuknick instinctively put her hands out to shield herself from the ball.

The opposing hitter wasn’t more than a couple steps outside of the batter’s box when the ball collided with Zuknick’s right hand, bouncing onto the ground in front of her. Zuknick grabbed the ball and stepped on the bag all the while ignoring the pain surging through her hand.

It was a pain like nothing the senior co-captain had ever experienced before.

“The only thing I remember after that was coach Doug (Powell) coming out to check on me, and I remember saying, ‘Oh coach, it’s broken, but I’m fine,’” Zuknick said. “At the time, I could bend it, so I just kept moving it. … I’m used to playing with injuries.”

Zuknick stayed in for the remainder of the game, and it wasn’t until the following day after her palm had swollen and lost its color that she learned she had cracked the top of her thumb and shattered her knuckle.
Doctors told her she would be out for at least seven weeks; but with it being her final season and knowing what lies ahead for the team, Zuknick made a vow to return to the diamond in four weeks.

In the past two weeks, Zuknick, who has a soft cast on her right hand to protect her thumb, has continued to work out every day with the team, focusing on running and hitting drills using her left hand. And although she won’t be able to throw overhand for four weeks, doctors said she could begin hitting again later this week if all goes well.

Zuknick, who spends more than an hour every day batting left-handed off a tee working on her timing, said she hopes to return to the Lady Pirates’ lineup for senior night on April 13.

“It’s my last season, and we have a lot of potential to make it to states,” Zuknick said. “I still want to be a part of the team. Since I was little, softball has been my life, so I don’t know what I would do without it.”

As for pitching, there’s a chance Zuknick may already have pitched her final game in a Braden River uniform.

“I don’t know what it’s going to be like,” Zuknick said of the possibility. “I won’t be able to pitch again for (quite) a while though because they said the pressure might ruin my hand.”

The transition has been difficult for Zuknick, who has had to adjust to not being able to be out on the field with her teammates helping control the game. Instead, Zuknick has been relegated to the bench where she has become the Lady Pirates’ No. 1 cheerleader.

“I can’t stand it,” Zuknick said. “I hate sitting out. I get anxious. I get really tense even if it’s not me. It just sucks feeling so helpless and not doing anything.”

Zuknick has been injured before, but this is the first time since she began playing softball 14 years ago that she’s been completely sidelined. The injury also has caused her to rethink her decision not to play softball next year at Florida State.

Instead, Zuknick decided to forego her aspirations of playing collegiate softball — at least for now — to focus on academics. Zuknick plans to major in biomedical sciences and pursue her dream of becoming an emergency room physician.

“This injury to my thumb has made me rethink my decision because I want to keep playing,” Zuknick said. “The reason I decided not to play was because of my major. I had to make a decision between four years of college softball or what I want to do with my life.

“My thing is I don’t want to quit,” she added. “I don’t want to make a commitment to the team and then not be able to follow through on it because academics mean a lot to me. I’ve never had a normal life. To have friends and to be able to hang out … I kind of just want things to be normal.”

Prior to her injury, Zuknick was having her best overall year statistically. She was batting .425 with two homeruns and was 5-1 as a pitcher with a .28 ERA. And although she hopes to play in her final home game at Braden River, Zuknick is now focusing her attention on getting healthy while motivating her teammates along the way.

“I try to give my two cents to the girls,” Zuknick said. “If I don’t play, then hopefully I can at least motivate them so they’ll want it like I do and don’t take it for granted. We complain sometimes (about practice), but I would rather be out there complaining than not being able to do it at all.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].