Collegiate Times

A shot from the press box above English Field.

Stepping up to the plate in February 2009, Luke Padgett knew he had been through a lot.

It has been nearly two years since the last time he played baseball in a Virginia Tech uniform. It was all behind him — almost. A scar constantly reminds him of the accident every time he opens his eyes. Thoughts of leaving baseball had been going, going, gone.

Staring at the pitcher and waiting for the delivery, Padgett dug in and took a swing.

Solid contact. The ball traveled in the air, and Padgett ran for first base – it wasn’t good enough. The ball found its way into the center fielder’s baseball mitt: one out.

“He threw me a curveball,” Padgett said, “and I hit it and it made me feel good about myself. It was good. I enjoyed it.”

Trotting back to the dugout, Padgett, a redshirt junior at the time, was greeted by his teammates and congratulated.

He wasn’t supposed to play baseball again.

“Keep your eye on the ball” resonates as the most important rule in the game, and while Padgett can certainly keep his left eye on that rubber, cork and leather sphere, it’s a bit more difficult with his right eye.

A year prior to his fly-out to center field, Padgett suffered a major injury that few baseball players ever suffer.

“It was Feb. 2, 2008,” Padgett said. “It was the first practice we had on the field and was probably 50 or 60 degrees — not usual Blacksburg weather. It was so nice, and I just wanted to get out there. I was in the first batting practice group. I wasn’t even supposed to be swinging. I always hit last in my batting practice group for some reason. It was me, Sean O’Brien and two freshmen in our group. They didn’t jump in to hit, so I jumped in behind Sean. I fouled the ball up, and it hit me in the eye.”

The pitch headed toward Padgett’s thigh, but instead of dodging the ball, he attempted to take a swing. Baseball would never be the same for him.

“I fell to the ground, and was just holding my face,” he said. “I had tears pouring out of my eye because it hit me directly in the eye. I thought it was blood so of course I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m bleeding. I cut my eye open.’ The trainer took me to the dugout and was like, ‘Can you see anything?’ I remember the last thing I saw was the bottom of his feet probably a minute or two after it happened.”

“I’ve never coached a kid who’s lost vision through baseball,” said head coach Pete Hughes, “so I thought maybe he had a black eye or a little fracture in the orbital bone. Unfortunately it was a lot worse.”

The trainer couldn’t do much, and the school doctors were not present at the time. Padgett waited, all the while his situation deteriorated.

“At that point, I couldn’t see anything at all — not a flashlight, not a hand in front of my face, not anything,” Padgett said. “I was completely blind.”

When doctors finally reached Padgett, they drove him to the emergency room. On the way, doctors told him that he might not see out of his eye again. Tests were done to analyze the damage, but without a broken orbital bone, Padgett was sent to an eye specialist in Roanoke.

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A version of this article appeared in the Apr 14 issue of the Collegiate Times.