Photo by: Eric Evans/GoDucks.com
Resilient As Ever, Delgado Forges Onward
04/24/24 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
Less than two weeks removed from a terrifying injury, Hanna Delgado is on her way to recovery and still providing an impact for her team.
A brace around Hanna Delgado's neck limits her range of motion, helping injuries to her spine heal. The Oregon softball senior's voice is still a bit thin, as wounds in her throat heal following surgery to repair that spinal damage.
Still evident though, is her competitive spirit. Her sense of humor. And, most of all, the huge heart that made her such a vital member of the UO softball program the last four years, endearing her to teammates, coaches and fans who are now rooting Delgado on through a different battle — a return to normalcy in her life following a terrifying injury suffered nearly two weeks ago.
It was Friday night, April 12, the Ducks playing at Arizona, when Delgado dove and contacted the outfield wall. She suffered fractures and a dislocation to vertebrae, avoiding paralysis by the thinnest of margins. But a week later, she was back in the UO dugout for the first game of Oregon's final home weekend of the season. And this past Sunday there was Delgado, in uniform and announced as part of the starting lineup on her Senior Day at Jane Sanders Stadium.
"Seeing her back at home this weekend gave us a lot of joy, and just motivation for the rest of the season," fellow senior Emma Kauf said. "Like, it can be taken away from you so quickly. And so it just reminds us all to be very grateful for what we have left."
What's left for the Ducks is one more home game at The Jane, this Sunday against Northern Colorado at 11 a.m. Then, there's the final regular-season series of the spring, at Stanford, where Oregon will stay into the following week because the Cardinal also hosts the Pac-12 Tournament.
Assuming she can get caught up on schoolwork she missed last week following her injury, Delgado intends to be with the team every step of that journey, and however long into the postseason it lasts. On Wednesday afternoon, she met with media for the first time since being hurt. Her eyes appeared to well up a few times during the interview. The number of times she smiled and laughed were much more numerous.
"I'm good," Delgado said at the outset. "Mentally I feel like I've done a better job than I thought I was going to do."
Her teammates are of two minds about the recovery Delgado has made since that fateful night in Tucson. On one hand, they're blown away she's already back around the team, and was on hand for last weekend's series win over Oregon State.
And yet, on the other hand, they're not surprised that, if anyone was going to be able to recover from serious surgery so quickly, and demonstrate such an indomitable spirit while doing to, it would be Delgado.
"Hanna's got it going on," UO coach Melyssa Lombardi said. "She understands the big picture, the little picture. She also understands that God is really, really good. And I think that her faith — all of us with our faith —is what's allowed her to continue to push forward and to understand how she can help this team and to keep her spirits alive and positive. …
"I'm telling you, what I saw when she was going through it and what I'm seeing now after, things have not changed. I don't even know, I don't even know how to describe how she's handled it. This has just been — it's just been amazing."
In high school, Delgado posted a career on-base percentage of .472. Every time she came to the plate, there was nearly a 50-50 chance she'd end up at first base.
As a recruit she was all set to attend Tennessee, before a family member convinced her to take other visits. After a trip to Eugene, Delgado was immediately all about Oregon.
Her freshman year was in 2021, and Delgado hit .302. That average jumped to .364 as a sophomore, then dipped to .321 as a junior. The roller coaster ride of competitive athletics was playing out as it does for any player. Now, Delgado views the anxiety those ups and downs caused through a different lens.
"I am a little mad at myself ever since it's happened," Delgado said Wednesday. "Like, why was I stressing about little things? Why was I stressing about an at-bat, that wasn't even a bad at-bat? Like I hit a shot to someone but I just still got out. Why was I stressing about those things, or getting on myself for that?"
Her college career cut short by the neck injury, Delgado would give anything to sting one more line drive right at a fielder. Heck, she was telling teammate Tehya Bird the other night, she'd take even less than that.
"I told her I would give anything to feel that feeling again, just to be out there with the girls," Delgado related. "I would do anything to miss a ball under my glove, and have to run all the way back to the wall for it, or to have a 1-2-3, sit-my-butt-down-in-the-dugout strikeout, than do this."
As a senior this spring, there weren't too many ignominious moments such as that for Delgado. She was hitting .374, with an OPS of 1.066. On the night she was hurt, Delgado had doubled and scored on a home run by her close friend and fellow outfielder Ariel Carlson; the double extended Delgado's hitting streak to eight games.
It was beginning to seem possible that, were Delgado to sustain that trajectory, an all-America honor could be in her future.
"I definitely think I was in a position for those things," she said. "And it was what I wanted. That's what I've dreamed of growing up. But, you know, things happen. God has a different plan for me. I don't know what that is, but I'm just trusting it and I am just going to continue to live every day and be blessed about every day."
What more could Delgado have accomplished this spring? That question will remain unanswered. But it doesn't take away from what she had already accomplished. And it pales in importance to the battle Delgado is now fighting.
"She had an unbelievable career," Lombardi said. "I look at everybody's career, and when that day comes it comes differently; for her it came a little different than what we expected. But at the end of the day, to be honest with you, I don't even care. I care more about her, and the fact that she's going to be okay and that she's going to have a normal life and that she's going to recover."
It was the bottom of the fifth inning at Arizona on April 12 when Delgado ranged toward the outfield wall to make a catch. She gloved the ball, hit the ground and then slammed into the wall.
"As soon as I hit my head on the wall," she said, "I heard my whole neck crack. And I just knew that wasn't good."
Carlson was the first to reach her, from her position in right field. She kept Delgado on the ground and as calm as possible until moments later when UO athletic trainer Kate Pinkerton got out to the outfield, and began the process of stabilizing Delgado until an ambulance arrived.
Delgado's father was in attendance, and ultimately made his way to the field (her mother was watching on television and would fly in the next day). When he reached his daughter, he was hit with a question: Had Delgado been credited with a catch for the out on the play?
"As much as I was hurt," Delgado said, "I just wanted to know if I caught the ball for Reggie (UO pitcher Raegan Breedlove)."
That doesn't matter right now, her dad responded. There are bigger concerns at hand. How big, Delgado would come to realize once she was hospitalized and underwent X-rays.
One of her vertebrae had been dislocated. Another suffered multiple fractures. Delgado did experience some nerve damage that already is improving thanks to physical therapy. But significant paralysis had been only barely avoided.
"They basically said that, a little bit more of a slip, and the dislocation would have hit my spinal cord and I would have lost pretty much all of my function," Delgado said. "So it was more of like a miracle, me walking out of there with all my function — which is crazy to think about."
After a long delay, play continued at Hillenbrand Stadium that night. The Ducks trailed 7-2 upon the completion of the fifth inning, and got back within 7-5 on a three-run homer by Delgado's close friend Bird, in the sixth inning. That ended up being the final score.
Delgado burst into tears when she heard about Bird's home run. She asked if her friend could visit her that same evening. When Bird arrived late Friday night, the tears came again. But soon, that indomitable spirit of Delgado's emerged as well.
"At first I started crying a little bit; it was just nice to see her there and have my best friend with me," she recalled. "And then instantly we just started, like, cracking jokes and things like that. Just because I'm someone, if I'm gonna get through something like this, I need light-heartedness."
The next morning, Delgado held a video chat with all her teammates. Unbeknownst to her, they weren't sure about taking the field again for game two of the series at Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats graciously agreed to delay the start time while the Ducks regrouped. And after talking with Delgado, they decided to play.
"We were all just very thankful for how Arizona handled this situation, and gave us the time to process and cope with what was happening — because a lot of it was still up in the air," Kauf said. "And so I think the way the situation was handled also helped us manage our emotions and our feelings a little bit."
After Saturday's game, several of the Ducks visited Delgado in the hospital, before playing the series finale Sunday and then flying back to Eugene without their injured teammate.
On Monday of last week, Delgado had surgery. Soon after, she was up on her feet walking, with the encouragement and under the supervision of medical staff. The next evening she was on her way back to Eugene, the team's athletic trainer Pinkerton by her side, as she had been nearly constantly since the injury.
Just three days later, Delgado was in the dugout for the first game of the Oregon State series. Two days after that came her unforgettable Senior Day moment, when at Lombardi's suggestion Delgado was announced as a starter in center field, took the field in uniform and then was subbed out before the first pitch.
"I just wanted to be able to have my entire team walk me off the field, and that's what they did," she said. "And the standing ovation I got from the crowd, like, there was just so much joy and happiness in that moment. It's probably one of the greatest things I've experienced in my life. And I was just so happy that I ended up doing that."
Less than two weeks removed from the injury, Delgado is already well on her way to what's expected to be a full recovery. She had been hoping to play professionally this summer, and while that won't be in the cards, she has a new perspective on softball, and life.
Throughout Wednesday's press conference, smiles and laughter came easy to Delgado. Including when she talked about the amazing coincidence that, because she happens to be a human physiology major, she understands better than most the intricacies of her injury.
"I'm thinking I'm going to turn my case in to my anatomy teacher, so that way he could use it for upcoming terms to teach — because I've just seen so many similar ones," Delgado said. "So yeah, I think the knowledge that I had helped me kind of relax a little bit, knowing that it could have been way worse than it actually was."
As a sophomore in 2022, Delgado was a regional all-academic honoree. Over the course of the past year she took several courses with teammates Kauf and Paige Sinicki, who are in the same program.
"She just really exemplifies what a student-athlete is, what a leader is to our team," Lombardi said. "I mean, I could keep going about how she's handled the situation. It's just — wow, I'm blown away. I'm so proud of her. … There's a journey for her, and it's going to be really, really good."
It just won't look quite like Delgado might have imagined two weeks ago. But she's adapting.
"The girls know that, like, I'm here for support and things like that — broken neck or not, I'm still here for support," Delgado said. "I was still talking to Kai (Luschar) about slapping and things like that. So it's just, yeah, I feel like I'm just here for the moral support. And as the weeks come and hopefully I get to travel with the team, I can start maybe opening my voice up a little bit more."
Whatever Delgado can provide, her teammates will soak it in.
"We are there to give strength for Hanna, but also Hanna, the way that she handled it, she gave us so much strength through the rest of that weekend and going through the rest of the season," Kauf said. "Honestly, just knowing that your season can end so quickly without even knowing it, I think it just reminds us all to be very grateful for the games that we do have left for the rest of this year. …
"Her presence is something that we all really, really enjoy right now. It gave us a lot of peace and happiness and excitement just to see her back in the dugout this weekend."
The three-game series with Oregon State included a loss Saturday night, in which the Ducks were trying to make a late rally. There in the dugout was Delgado, having fashioned herself a rally cap of sorts — an empty bucket of bubble gum.
The next day, Delgado walked in the postgame senior ceremony, after which a highlight video from her career played on the video board at Jane Sanders Stadium. The video was accompanied by music, a song Delgado had selected with her boyfriend prior the injury.
The song? It was "Halo," by Beyonce, and the irony wasn't lost on Delgado after she'd been forced to wear a halo around her head and neck in the hospital, because of the spinal dislocation.
"I was like, you guys better not be crying; you guys better be laughing during my senior video now," Delgado said.
Someone not as tough might not have been able to summon a joke in that moment. But Delgado is tough, and she is talented, and she is beloved, all of which has been made clear since her injury.
"They're happy I'm here; I'm happy I'm here," Delgado said. "Like, I'm living and walking. What else is there to be mad about?"
Still evident though, is her competitive spirit. Her sense of humor. And, most of all, the huge heart that made her such a vital member of the UO softball program the last four years, endearing her to teammates, coaches and fans who are now rooting Delgado on through a different battle — a return to normalcy in her life following a terrifying injury suffered nearly two weeks ago.
It was Friday night, April 12, the Ducks playing at Arizona, when Delgado dove and contacted the outfield wall. She suffered fractures and a dislocation to vertebrae, avoiding paralysis by the thinnest of margins. But a week later, she was back in the UO dugout for the first game of Oregon's final home weekend of the season. And this past Sunday there was Delgado, in uniform and announced as part of the starting lineup on her Senior Day at Jane Sanders Stadium.
"Seeing her back at home this weekend gave us a lot of joy, and just motivation for the rest of the season," fellow senior Emma Kauf said. "Like, it can be taken away from you so quickly. And so it just reminds us all to be very grateful for what we have left."
What's left for the Ducks is one more home game at The Jane, this Sunday against Northern Colorado at 11 a.m. Then, there's the final regular-season series of the spring, at Stanford, where Oregon will stay into the following week because the Cardinal also hosts the Pac-12 Tournament.
Assuming she can get caught up on schoolwork she missed last week following her injury, Delgado intends to be with the team every step of that journey, and however long into the postseason it lasts. On Wednesday afternoon, she met with media for the first time since being hurt. Her eyes appeared to well up a few times during the interview. The number of times she smiled and laughed were much more numerous.
"I'm good," Delgado said at the outset. "Mentally I feel like I've done a better job than I thought I was going to do."
Her teammates are of two minds about the recovery Delgado has made since that fateful night in Tucson. On one hand, they're blown away she's already back around the team, and was on hand for last weekend's series win over Oregon State.
And yet, on the other hand, they're not surprised that, if anyone was going to be able to recover from serious surgery so quickly, and demonstrate such an indomitable spirit while doing to, it would be Delgado.
"Hanna's got it going on," UO coach Melyssa Lombardi said. "She understands the big picture, the little picture. She also understands that God is really, really good. And I think that her faith — all of us with our faith —is what's allowed her to continue to push forward and to understand how she can help this team and to keep her spirits alive and positive. …
"I'm telling you, what I saw when she was going through it and what I'm seeing now after, things have not changed. I don't even know, I don't even know how to describe how she's handled it. This has just been — it's just been amazing."
In high school, Delgado posted a career on-base percentage of .472. Every time she came to the plate, there was nearly a 50-50 chance she'd end up at first base.
As a recruit she was all set to attend Tennessee, before a family member convinced her to take other visits. After a trip to Eugene, Delgado was immediately all about Oregon.
Her freshman year was in 2021, and Delgado hit .302. That average jumped to .364 as a sophomore, then dipped to .321 as a junior. The roller coaster ride of competitive athletics was playing out as it does for any player. Now, Delgado views the anxiety those ups and downs caused through a different lens.
"I am a little mad at myself ever since it's happened," Delgado said Wednesday. "Like, why was I stressing about little things? Why was I stressing about an at-bat, that wasn't even a bad at-bat? Like I hit a shot to someone but I just still got out. Why was I stressing about those things, or getting on myself for that?"
Her college career cut short by the neck injury, Delgado would give anything to sting one more line drive right at a fielder. Heck, she was telling teammate Tehya Bird the other night, she'd take even less than that.
"I told her I would give anything to feel that feeling again, just to be out there with the girls," Delgado related. "I would do anything to miss a ball under my glove, and have to run all the way back to the wall for it, or to have a 1-2-3, sit-my-butt-down-in-the-dugout strikeout, than do this."
As a senior this spring, there weren't too many ignominious moments such as that for Delgado. She was hitting .374, with an OPS of 1.066. On the night she was hurt, Delgado had doubled and scored on a home run by her close friend and fellow outfielder Ariel Carlson; the double extended Delgado's hitting streak to eight games.
It was beginning to seem possible that, were Delgado to sustain that trajectory, an all-America honor could be in her future.
"I definitely think I was in a position for those things," she said. "And it was what I wanted. That's what I've dreamed of growing up. But, you know, things happen. God has a different plan for me. I don't know what that is, but I'm just trusting it and I am just going to continue to live every day and be blessed about every day."
What more could Delgado have accomplished this spring? That question will remain unanswered. But it doesn't take away from what she had already accomplished. And it pales in importance to the battle Delgado is now fighting.
"She had an unbelievable career," Lombardi said. "I look at everybody's career, and when that day comes it comes differently; for her it came a little different than what we expected. But at the end of the day, to be honest with you, I don't even care. I care more about her, and the fact that she's going to be okay and that she's going to have a normal life and that she's going to recover."
It was the bottom of the fifth inning at Arizona on April 12 when Delgado ranged toward the outfield wall to make a catch. She gloved the ball, hit the ground and then slammed into the wall.
"As soon as I hit my head on the wall," she said, "I heard my whole neck crack. And I just knew that wasn't good."
Carlson was the first to reach her, from her position in right field. She kept Delgado on the ground and as calm as possible until moments later when UO athletic trainer Kate Pinkerton got out to the outfield, and began the process of stabilizing Delgado until an ambulance arrived.
Delgado's father was in attendance, and ultimately made his way to the field (her mother was watching on television and would fly in the next day). When he reached his daughter, he was hit with a question: Had Delgado been credited with a catch for the out on the play?
"As much as I was hurt," Delgado said, "I just wanted to know if I caught the ball for Reggie (UO pitcher Raegan Breedlove)."
That doesn't matter right now, her dad responded. There are bigger concerns at hand. How big, Delgado would come to realize once she was hospitalized and underwent X-rays.
One of her vertebrae had been dislocated. Another suffered multiple fractures. Delgado did experience some nerve damage that already is improving thanks to physical therapy. But significant paralysis had been only barely avoided.
"They basically said that, a little bit more of a slip, and the dislocation would have hit my spinal cord and I would have lost pretty much all of my function," Delgado said. "So it was more of like a miracle, me walking out of there with all my function — which is crazy to think about."
After a long delay, play continued at Hillenbrand Stadium that night. The Ducks trailed 7-2 upon the completion of the fifth inning, and got back within 7-5 on a three-run homer by Delgado's close friend Bird, in the sixth inning. That ended up being the final score.
Delgado burst into tears when she heard about Bird's home run. She asked if her friend could visit her that same evening. When Bird arrived late Friday night, the tears came again. But soon, that indomitable spirit of Delgado's emerged as well.
"At first I started crying a little bit; it was just nice to see her there and have my best friend with me," she recalled. "And then instantly we just started, like, cracking jokes and things like that. Just because I'm someone, if I'm gonna get through something like this, I need light-heartedness."
The next morning, Delgado held a video chat with all her teammates. Unbeknownst to her, they weren't sure about taking the field again for game two of the series at Arizona on Saturday. The Wildcats graciously agreed to delay the start time while the Ducks regrouped. And after talking with Delgado, they decided to play.
"We were all just very thankful for how Arizona handled this situation, and gave us the time to process and cope with what was happening — because a lot of it was still up in the air," Kauf said. "And so I think the way the situation was handled also helped us manage our emotions and our feelings a little bit."
After Saturday's game, several of the Ducks visited Delgado in the hospital, before playing the series finale Sunday and then flying back to Eugene without their injured teammate.
On Monday of last week, Delgado had surgery. Soon after, she was up on her feet walking, with the encouragement and under the supervision of medical staff. The next evening she was on her way back to Eugene, the team's athletic trainer Pinkerton by her side, as she had been nearly constantly since the injury.
Just three days later, Delgado was in the dugout for the first game of the Oregon State series. Two days after that came her unforgettable Senior Day moment, when at Lombardi's suggestion Delgado was announced as a starter in center field, took the field in uniform and then was subbed out before the first pitch.
"I just wanted to be able to have my entire team walk me off the field, and that's what they did," she said. "And the standing ovation I got from the crowd, like, there was just so much joy and happiness in that moment. It's probably one of the greatest things I've experienced in my life. And I was just so happy that I ended up doing that."
Less than two weeks removed from the injury, Delgado is already well on her way to what's expected to be a full recovery. She had been hoping to play professionally this summer, and while that won't be in the cards, she has a new perspective on softball, and life.
Throughout Wednesday's press conference, smiles and laughter came easy to Delgado. Including when she talked about the amazing coincidence that, because she happens to be a human physiology major, she understands better than most the intricacies of her injury.
"I'm thinking I'm going to turn my case in to my anatomy teacher, so that way he could use it for upcoming terms to teach — because I've just seen so many similar ones," Delgado said. "So yeah, I think the knowledge that I had helped me kind of relax a little bit, knowing that it could have been way worse than it actually was."
As a sophomore in 2022, Delgado was a regional all-academic honoree. Over the course of the past year she took several courses with teammates Kauf and Paige Sinicki, who are in the same program.
"She just really exemplifies what a student-athlete is, what a leader is to our team," Lombardi said. "I mean, I could keep going about how she's handled the situation. It's just — wow, I'm blown away. I'm so proud of her. … There's a journey for her, and it's going to be really, really good."
It just won't look quite like Delgado might have imagined two weeks ago. But she's adapting.
"The girls know that, like, I'm here for support and things like that — broken neck or not, I'm still here for support," Delgado said. "I was still talking to Kai (Luschar) about slapping and things like that. So it's just, yeah, I feel like I'm just here for the moral support. And as the weeks come and hopefully I get to travel with the team, I can start maybe opening my voice up a little bit more."
Whatever Delgado can provide, her teammates will soak it in.
"We are there to give strength for Hanna, but also Hanna, the way that she handled it, she gave us so much strength through the rest of that weekend and going through the rest of the season," Kauf said. "Honestly, just knowing that your season can end so quickly without even knowing it, I think it just reminds us all to be very grateful for the games that we do have left for the rest of this year. …
"Her presence is something that we all really, really enjoy right now. It gave us a lot of peace and happiness and excitement just to see her back in the dugout this weekend."
The three-game series with Oregon State included a loss Saturday night, in which the Ducks were trying to make a late rally. There in the dugout was Delgado, having fashioned herself a rally cap of sorts — an empty bucket of bubble gum.
The next day, Delgado walked in the postgame senior ceremony, after which a highlight video from her career played on the video board at Jane Sanders Stadium. The video was accompanied by music, a song Delgado had selected with her boyfriend prior the injury.
The song? It was "Halo," by Beyonce, and the irony wasn't lost on Delgado after she'd been forced to wear a halo around her head and neck in the hospital, because of the spinal dislocation.
"I was like, you guys better not be crying; you guys better be laughing during my senior video now," Delgado said.
Someone not as tough might not have been able to summon a joke in that moment. But Delgado is tough, and she is talented, and she is beloved, all of which has been made clear since her injury.
"They're happy I'm here; I'm happy I'm here," Delgado said. "Like, I'm living and walking. What else is there to be mad about?"
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