Patton Building On Dream Career
To say Breanne Patton loves softball is an understatement. As a senior at Hawaii Pacific University, the Ewa Beach native plays virtually every inning of every SeaWarrior game. She’s an outstanding pitcher, excellent first baseman and a very good hitter.
“I love it,” she says. “I like to be involved in so many ways. I want to be in the game all the time.”
The reigning PacWest pitcher of the year has had an incredible run at HPU. A starter as a first baseman since her freshman year, she was part of the SeaWarrior team that won the NCAA Division II National Championship as a sophomore.
“The adrenaline rush of those last two outs was amazing. It was almost surreal to experience it,” she recalls. “It’s hard to live up to something like that.”
But Patton has lived up to excellence her entire softball career. Born in San Diego, she moved to Ewa Beach with her family at the age of 4. Her dad is retired military. She took up softball at the age of 10.
“I think I grew up at the softball park,” she says of her days at Ewa Beach Community Park. She relished in the games, the support of her family and the ohana spirit that revolves around the games. “I still go out there to the park to see everyone.”
Across the street from the park is Campbell High School, where Patton immediately made an impact. She was the league MVP as a sophomore, led her team to a runner-up OIA finish as a junior, and then was all-state as a senior when the Sabers finished second in the OIA and third in the state championships. She received some interest from a few college programs, but “committed to HPU very early,” she says. “I wanted to be close to my family.”
At HPU, her parents saw her as the SeaWarriors’ starting first baseman as a freshman, where she led the team in fielding percentage. After the amazing national title run as a sophomore, Patton was given a tremendous responsibility as a junior she would make the transition to starting pitcher and play first base when she wasn’t pitching.
“I hadn’t pitched my entire college career up to that point. It was hard,” she says.
But Patton trained hard and made an immediate impression. In April of her first pitching season, she was named MVP of the prestigious Tournament of Champions, and then she led HPU to a share of the PacWest title and another trip to the NCAA Regionals. Along the way, she was 23-4 as a pitcher with 11 shutouts, and she hit .331. “I was surprised and happy at how I did.”
Patton started her senior season with five victories in her first six starts, as HPU is once again one of the top teams in the conference and the region.
But she’s also thinking about her post-softball career, as she expects to graduate next fall with a degree in biology.
She’s earned an impressive GPA of 3.3 and been named to several all-academic teams.
“I’m thinking about going into the medical field,” she says. “I’ve been thinking about physical therapy a lot lately. It’s more handson and immediately helps people.”
Breanne Patton sounds like a natural. Just like on the softball field, she’s been hands-on all the way.
