In return from injury, Zoe Jones hits home run on her Wichita State softball senior day
When Zoe Jones suffered an arm injury earlier this month, the senior was uncertain if the best and final year of her career on the Wichita State softball team had just been cut short.
The initial prognosis was she would be sidelined indefinitely, a massive loss for the Shockers from their three-hole hitter who was leading the team in home runs and RBIs. But as the days passed by, Jones began to feel less and less pain in her right wrist.
At her latest doctor’s appointment this past Friday, Jones was cleared — just in time for the senior festivities planned for Wichita State’s final American Athletic Conference series at Wilkins Stadium this season. Since the team has three seniors — Sydney McKinney, Jones and Lauren Mills — each one was designated a game for their “senior day.”
In her first game back, on the day WSU picked to celebrate her career, Jones hit a home run in what she described as a “storybook” moment on Saturday.
“It felt amazing to be able to hit again,” said Jones, who only missed two weeks. “I didn’t know what to expect because I hadn’t seen live pitching in two weeks, so it was really cool how it all played out.”
Following a three-game sweep of East Carolina this past weekend, the Shockers improved to 40-8 overall and 13-2 in AAC play. It is just the third 40-win season in program history, while WSU remains in first place in the conference standings and in contention to potentially host an NCAA Regional.
Jones, who is in her second year with the Shockers, has helped propel WSU to its success with a career-best season. After hitting just 14 home runs in 123 career games at Texas Tech, Jones has crushed a team-high 13 home runs this season alone for WSU to go along with a .347 batting average and 48 RBIs.
After missing WSU’s 5-1 win on Friday, Jones hit a home run to highlight a 4-0 win on Saturday then collected two more hits in her second game back on Sunday in a 7-1 victory in the series finale.
“I’m definitely indebted to coach (Kristi Bredbenner) and this program for the rest of time,” Jones said. “I have had nothing short of an amazing time here and it’s been incredible. Everybody has welcomed me with open arms from teammates to coaches to the fans. It’s been everything I wanted and more.”
Bredbenner had nothing but gratitude for the three seniors, who have all made their impact on the program in their own way.
McKinney is the table-setter at the top of the lineup, a defensive whiz at shortstop and a multi-time All-American who has cemented her spot as the program’s best player of all-time, while Mills (.380 average, nine home runs, 39 RBIs) and Jones have been the big bats in the lineup for WSU the past two seasons. Mills, a fifth-year senior, is a Topeka native who is third all-time in program history with 41 career home runs.
“They’ve made some of the biggest impact our program has ever seen,” Bredbenner said. “They’ve been a part of the most successful time in our program and a big part is because of them. They’ve been a huge reason that we’ve had that success. It will be hard for us to let them go at the end of the season, but we hope to keep using and abusing them for many more games the rest of this season.”
WSU’s final regular-season home game, on Tuesday against No. 1 Oklahoma, currently is in doubt due to a rainy forecast, while the Shockers will have a chance to clinch an outright AAC championship with three wins at Tulsa this coming weekend. WSU’s final regular-season game is May 3 at Kansas.
With so much at stake in the coming weeks, it was a little difficult for Jones to reflect on her career with the Shockers. She hopes there’s still many weeks yet to come.
“You walk into our locker room right now and you can feel how excited everybody is,” Jones said. “We are very externally and internally motivated. This week is going to be huge for us. We’re going to be an underdog again on Tuesday, then the weekend is going to be huge for us. It’s a great opportunity if we just take advantage of what’s in front of us and keep our heads down and keep working like we’ve done all year long.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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