Manitoban Hicks making her mark at baseball world cup

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This article was published 10/08/2023 (786 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you put a bat in Zoe Hicks’ hands, she’ll perform.

Hicks is the sole Manitoban on the Canadian women’s national baseball team roster for the 2023 World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ont. Through Canada’s first two games, Hicks has been more than impressive, in fact she’s been perfect at the plate and on defence. The 25-year-old is batting 1.000 with four hits and four walks and boasts a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. The video game numbers become even more mind boggling when considering her unlikely introduction into women’s baseball.

Softball was Hicks’ first love.

“When I was about five or six I started playing softball and never really looked back,” said Hicks.

The Manitoban wanted to play Division 1 college softball south of the border, but didn’t have any offers. She decided the Junior College route would give her the best chance to draw the attention of D1 coaches.

“My biggest goal was to play Division 1 softball and I didn’t have any offers to do that (out of high school)… so I thought I’d go JUCO for two years, work my butt off and see if I can get an opportunity to play D1 somewhere.”

In the summer of 2018, Hicks had finished two very successful seasons at Iowa Western Community College where she was named the ICCAC Offensive Player of the Year and was named a NJCAA 1st Team All-American during her sophomore year. After she returned from Iowa, Hicks joined the Boissevain Centennials of the Southwest Baseball League for a tournament and caught the eye of Marc Bissonnette, the pitching coach for the women’s provincial baseball team.

“It was actually a fluke situation, I was playing in the Clearwater tournament with the Boissevain Centennials senior ball team and the provincial team pitching coach saw me playing with the men’s team and said, ‘Hey, do you play women’s baseball, and, would you like to play with us,’” said Hicks.

Hicks agreed to join and went to Nationals with the provincial team that summer. She has played baseball in the summer every year since.

Baseball did not take anything away from her softball career. In 2019, Hicks achieved her goal of reaching the D1 level signing on to play at Louisiana Tech where she was a starter for three seasons with the Lady Techsters. After graduating from LA Tech, Hicks took her softball talents to the international stage.

The Boissevain School graduate was selected to the Canadian Senior National team roster for the women’s softball World Cup group stage earlier this summer. Canada placed first in its group to punched its ticket to the final stage of the World Cup that will take place next year in Castions di Strada, Italy.

While she has the 2024 softball World Cup to look forward to, Hicks is focused on the baseball World Cup for the time being. Canada won its first two matches in the tournament in dominant fashion beating Mexico 9-1 and Hong Kong 22-3. Hicks says keeping things simple will be the key for both her individually and for the team to continue to find success.

“I think we’ve just been trying to have good at-bats, regardless of the situation around us,” she said.

“For us, it’s just about doing your job, it doesn’t have to be big and flashy all the time, like we’re not hitting bombs and striking everybody out, but we’re each individually focusing on our job and doing it well.”

The World Cup being on home soil also allows many family members and friends to come out and support the Canadian squad and Hicks does not take that for granted.

“It’s fun to be able to share this with our communities and with our families, it’s been amazing so far.”

The women’s baseball World Cup continues until Aug. 12 in Thunder Bay.

donald.stewart@freepress.mb.ca