Erik Hite '20 Recruiting Profile

   Baseball has been a big part of my life since I can remember. I started playing select baseball when I was 9 years old and I loved the competitiveness. I always knew I loved baseball but it was not until I was 13 years old that I knew, baseball was the sport that I wanted to focus on. 

   My select team, the Lincoln Sox 13U, was a big underdog going into the Nebraska 2014 USSSA Triple-A state tournament. We knew we could beat any team in the tournament and we knew we were the underdogs but we used that as motivation and we eventually made it to the state semifinals. We were facing our biggest opponent yet. We fell behind by 8 runs but we all decided we weren’t done yet. We came back and took it to extra innings when I came up with runners on 1st and 3rd and a chance to walk it off. I hit a line drive to right center field to send us to the state championship! 

   We ended up losing in the championship but that moment was when I knew baseball was the sport I wanted to play for the rest of my life. My favorite part about baseball is that you are never out of the game, like in basketball you can just run out the clock but in baseball the pitcher still has to put something over the plate to get outs so everyone always has a chance.

   When I remember that moment when I hit the walkoff, I don’t remember the hit I had. The first thing I remember is celebrating with my teammates at first base and all of the hardwork we put in, in the games before to even give us that opportunity. I make my teammates my brothers that I never had, and I play for them and my family, never for myself.