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Zack Hale has hit 13 home runs so far this season, trailing the nation's leader by just 2 homers. What makes Hale's achievement remarkable is that he's accomplished this in significantly fewer at-bats and games compared to the players ahead of him.
"It's so cool to finally see all of the work payoff. I've given up a lot of my time over the summers and a lot of hangout time with the friends to go play baseball all over the nation. The hardworking is finally paying off and it's very surreal to see," Hale said.
Hale has shown consistent improvement throughout his high school career, progressing from second team all-league as a sophomore to second team all-state as a junior. But even he couldn't predict the remarkable season he's currently having.
"Coming into this year I actually wanted to hit 8 home runs. That was my goal. I beat that within the first 10 games I believe," Hale said.
The previous record for home runs in a season at TCA was just three. In the Titans' game against Sierra, Hale transformed a season record to setting a single-game record by hitting three home runs in one contest.
"It was Peter Troupe. I've seen his name on the record banner every single day since my freshman year and he hold like 80% of the records. I was like one day I'm going to beat this guy. So being able to hit three in a game was one of the coolest experiences for me my life," Hale said.
After all his achievements so far in his career, Hale reflected on the feeling of setting a goal and seeing it come to fruition.
"It's so amazing. It's one of the best feelings in the world. Especially in a sport where you deal with so much failure like we talked about out earlier. When you finally set these big goals and these big aspirations and you finally get to achieve them it's one of the best feelings in the world," Hale said.
Following his senior year, Hale will attend Trinidad State. He chose the junior college route to give himself more time to develop while maintaining his four years of NCAA eligibility.
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