When Delilah Pacheco stepped up to the plate against senior ace Allie Rhodes of No. 24 Notre Dame for her first Division I at-bat, she was ready to be in the spotlight.
“I was just thinking, ‘I got to get on base,'” Pacheco said. “I got to be the table setter that everyone was saying I needed to be.”
All her nerves went away as she hit a single to get on base. She would end up going 4-for-4 with a run in the Utes’ 2-1 loss to Notre Dame.
It’s been a long road for Pacheco, taking her first cut as a Ute. In addition to playing softball in high school, she played basketball, volleyball and ran track, but eventually she honed in on softball in her sophomore year.
“My dad told me to pick which to go into,” Pacheco said. “He said whichever one you pick, we’re going to go full force and travel all the time and practice all the time. I picked softball because I loved it way more.”
Pacheco, who started playing softball when she was three years old, felt good enough to play collegiate ball during that sophomore year.
“My freshman year was when I switched over to play lefty, and so it was a little rough,” Pacheco said. “I started getting in the groove and practicing all the time on it, and I got really good by my sophomore year.”
A standout at Moody High School, Pacheco started all four years and finished her career with a .510 batting average, 192 runs, 236 hits, and 102 RBIs.
In her senior year she hit .623, averaging 1.55 runs and 1.84 hits per game. She had 84 stolen bases, the most in the nation. Pacheco was named an All-American, All-State player, and won the Slugger Award her final year.
She started her collegiate career at Blinn College, a four-hour drive from her high school, and excelled there. As a freshman, she played 47 games for the Buccaneers, batting .372 with 40 runs and 20 stolen bases.
In her sophomore season at Blinn, Pacheco scored 64 times, stole 49 bases and hit a home run while improving her batting average to .405, attracting attention from Division I schools. Pacheco was named a NJCAA All-American and won the Marucci Elite Hitter Award and several schools, most notably Texas, North Texas, Middle Tennessee and Utah, came calling.
It would seem logical that this Texas native would have jumped at the opportunity to play for the Longhorns — a team with a 69.7 overall winning percentage since the softball program started 1997, and 19 straight trips to the NCAA Tournament.
“Texas is home, but I wanted to experience stuff outside of Texas,” Pacheco said. “When I came on my visit, I just fell in love with the school, the coaches, my teammates, and so I picked Utah.”
Although Pacheco played mostly infield during high school and junior college, she made the switch to outfield when she came to Salt Lake. It’s been a smooth transition.
Pacheco has caught all four balls that have come her way in center field this season and is a key player in Utah’s offensive lineup. She leads the team in on-base percentage at 47.7 percent.
“At first [it] was different, and so it took me a good two weeks to actually get the hang of it,” Pacheco said. “It just felt natural to me after that.”
Pacheco leads the Utes with a .429 batting average, and has contributed 10 runs, 15 hits and five RBIs. Head coach Amy Hogue had a lot of faith in her transfer, putting Pacheco in the lead-off position, to start off the season despite her not playing a single game in a Utah uniform.
“She’s the ultimate gamer,” Hogue said. “In the games, she really stands out. She understands the feel and the flow of the game and is really a high intensity competitor. Love that kid.”
With the majority of this season and next season left with the Utes, Pacheco hopes she can leave her mark on Utah.
“I just want to be known as the table setter and the person that got on [base] however she could,” said Pacheco. “I want to leave here as someone that other people can look up to.”
@JoeColesChrony