Thanks to the perennial mainstay power of the Tennessee Lady Vols, orange is a color frequently seen amongst the finalists for the National Player of the Year award each year. But in 2017, a different shade of orange was seen, as well, when Syracuse’s Sydney O’Hara was named a top-ten finalist for the award.
O’Hara, who had enjoyed a solid career in her underclassman years, put together one of the finest seasons in the recent history of college softball in the Northeastern United States. The “hometown kid” from the ‘Cuse suburbs put on a clinic for her hometown crowd in her final campaign in orange, ending the year with a .476 batting average and an .833 slugging percentage. Her batting average was good enough for second-best nationwide, while her slugging percentage ranked in the top fifteen nationally.
It wasn’t just at the plate that the star senior excelled, either: A longtime dual threat at the plate and in the pitching circle, O’Hara recorded a 1.86 earned run average and collected 128 strikeouts in just shy of seventy-two innings pitched in her senior year, averaging nearly two strikeouts per inning.
Though her location outside of the “usual” college softball hotbeds may have limited her notoriety in the midst of such a campaign, O’Hara did her best to change that – At the end of the first month of the regular season, she collected a four-home-run game against North Carolina State in a performance that earned her ESPN highlights and a National Player of the Week award.
We caught up with Sydney recently as she talked about her collegiate career, as well as the possibility of playing professionally and what her future holds.
Justin’s World of Softball: How did you get started playing softball?
Sydney O’Hara: I started playing softball when I was five. Like any other kid, my parents had me play tee ball and basketball. I loved both sports, but my parents knew I was going to be a softball player since I was more aggressive in softball. I took out another little girl when I was rounding first base in one of my tee ball games. I was the last batter (if you’re the last hitter, you get to run around all the bases). Therefore, I got to run around all the bases and the girl was in my way. That moment, my parents knew softball was going to be my sport.
Justin’s World of Softball: Why did you choose to go to Syracuse and make it your “home” for college and playing collegiate ball?
Sydney O’Hara: I chose to go to Syracuse because it was twenty minutes away from my house. I wore Syracuse clothes ever since I was born. I would always go to the basketball, football, and softball games. My family bled orange. Family is very important to me. My parents spent many hours and money on my softball throughout the years, growing up. I thought I could help them out by having them drive only twenty minutes to a home game.
Justin’s World of Softball: How important was it to you to play close to your home through your college years?
Sydney O’Hara: Playing close to home was very important to me. Again, being close to my family was important to me. Most of my relatives live in Syracuse, too. I was very grateful because not just my family, but also my fans didn’t have to travel far from home to come watch me play. A lot of the people that have watched me grow throughout the years got to watch me throughout college, too.
Justin’s World of Softball: Take me through what it was like to be part of the Orange during the coaching change from Ross to Bosch. As someone on the roster at that time, was it tumultuous or a fairly smooth transition?
Sydney O’Hara: I think it was a fairly smooth transition because Bosch was on the coaching staff the year before. It was easy for me to transition because I knew how Bosch liked to coach because I’ve known him for about seven years now. He is one of the reasons I got to go to Syracuse to play softball. I did many camps and clinics with Bosch for pitching. He was the one that recruited me. He also brought in Kristyn Sandberg and Alisa Goler, which helped a lot too. I know many of the players respected them all as a coaching staff because they know so much about the game.
Justin’s World of Softball: Tell me about being both a pitcher and a hitter during much of your career – do you think it benefited you as a pitcher to also be stepping in at the plate, and vice-versa?
Sydney O’Hara: Being a pitcher and a hitter throughout my career was tough. A lot of work and practice went into my success as both. Not many pitchers hit at the collegiate level. I think it benefited me a lot because it made me better at both. Being a pitcher made me a better hitter by being smart in different counts and reading the different pitches better. Being a hitter made me a better pitcher because there is always a weakness to a batter. You have to recognize it.
Justin’s World of Softball: Who is the toughest opponent you’ve faced, either from the circle or at the plate?
Sydney O’Hara: In the ACC, definitely the Jessicas from Florida State. Jessica Burroughs is an amazing pitcher and she knows how to pitch. The way she spins the ball is incredible. You can never get Jessie Warren out at the plate. Some of the pitches that she hit off of me, I’m still trying to figure out how she hit them. Much respect for both of them because they know how to play ball.
Justin’s World of Softball: What changed or “clicked” between your junior and senior seasons that took you from a second-team all-region selection to a Player of the Year finalist and an all-American in your senior year?
Sydney O’Hara: I struggled with pitch selection and outside pitches my whole softball career. After my arm injury my sophomore year, I didn’t have my best batting average my junior year. I knew I was better than that and I was extremely disappointed in myself. My dad and I would go to a local middle school about four times a week to work on my weaknesses. He would sit there and toss front toss to me for about an hour, outside pitch after outside pitch. My last season, my scouting report most likely said “Can’t hit outside pitches.” When I started to hit the outside pitches, pitchers tried to throw me inside. When I started to hit the inside pitches, they started to walk me. It was frustrating because I would get walked a lot, but in my head, I was a base runner for my team.
Justin’s World of Softball: Walk me through your 4-home run game in your senior season. What was going through your mind in each at-bat? Were you conscious of the record-breaking pace that you were on with each new bomb?
Sydney O’Hara: I get this question a lot! I wasn’t really thinking, that’s the thing; I knew I was seeing the ball well. I was in shock, because I wasn’t showing much emotion during the game. The emotion happened after the game when I was checking my phone. I had about 50 texts from family and friends. I had about 20 twitter notifications from people retweeting the post about my 4 homeruns. The next couple of days after that, I was getting follower requests on Instagram from a lot of young softball players. The post on SportsCenter got over a million views on Instagram. To this day, it still hasn’t hit me that I hit four homeruns in a game. I’m hoping someday it will hit me.
Justin’s World of Softball: What went through your mind when you found out you were selected as a top-ten finalist for the National Player of the Year award?
Sydney O’Hara: When I found out I was selected as a top-ten finalist for National Player of the Year, I remember reading it on Twitter in my hotel room at the ACC tournament. I sat on my bed and was in shock. I called up my parents and when I was telling them, I started to tear up. Thinking to myself, I have always idolized the players on that list in the years past. Me being on that list made me feel like now some little girl can look at that list and maybe pick me to be their role model. It still surprises me that I can say that I was one of the top softball players in the 2017 season and an All- American.
Justin’s World of Softball: What would you call the proudest moment of your career?
Sydney O’Hara: One of my proudest moments of my career was finally winning the NYS Championship my senior year of high school. We went to States all three years before my senior year and lost in the finals each year. My senior year was very special and we (the team) knew we had to win the title. It was a special team and winning a state championship with two of my very good friends was amazing.
Justin’s World of Softball: Was playing professionally, either overseas or domestically, an option or something that you considered doing?
Sydney O’Hara: Playing after college was something that came up. I was going to try out for the Scrapyard Dawgs and Texas Charge, but it was all the way in Texas. I got offers to play overseas from six different teams from different countries, but I’m not much of a travel person and it just wasn’t something I was interested in.
Justin’s World of Softball: When your time involved with the game of softball is done, at whatever point in the future that is, what do you hope is the legacy by which you are remembered?
Sydney O’Hara: I want a person to remember me as someone that has a strong passion for the game of softball. All my success throughout my career came from hard work and dedication to the sport. It’s not everyday that you see someone from Syracuse getting recognized for his or her success. I want people to know that they can be the change if you set your goals high. Anything is possible if you set your mind and work hard after it.
