Hunter D’Armond has gotten more hits than any baseball player in Spring Hill College (Mobile) history.
A right-handed pitcher, D’Armond hit 16 batters during the 2017 season, including six in one game against the University of Alabama, Huntsville, both school records.
In that UAH game, D’Armond pitched four innings in relief. He hit six batters and walked two more — but he also struck out three and did not allow a hit or a run.
“The stat line for that day is one of my favorite statistics of all time,” said D’Armond, a Louisiana native who was named Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week for the win against UAH.
Unselfish and caring
Conner Harrison, who played outfield at Spring Hill and was his roommate, said one of D’Armond’s greatest strengths is his unselfishness and how much he cares about the people around him.
“Through his actions, whether we were on the field or hanging out, he was living his faith. You could see the love he spread. He talks about praying and faith.”
Harrison, who graduated from Spring Hill in 2018, noted D’Armond “always brought out the best of people. People looked up to him as a leader, especially a lot of the younger players. He was always open and welcoming to new guys on the team. He tried to make a positive impact.”
Of D’Armond’s baseball skills, Harrison said he had “a really good glove, was a solid fielder and athletic. When he was in a situation at the plate, on the mound, a ball hit to him in the field, you trusted that he was going to make whatever play was in front of him. He didn’t have a shortcoming in his game.”
“He brought a ton of energy. He always brought a certain intensity that not everybody could bring.”
While 2017 was his only season to pitch at Spring Hill, D’Armond said of his school record, “I am very proud of it. I did not have enough time to build a reputation for hitting people. The funny part — I was a closing pitcher. I had only 30 innings pitched that season.”
He said his “dream” after college graduation was to return to his high school to teach theology and coach baseball — but God changed those plans when D’Armond felt led to become a Jesuit priest.
After leaving Spring Hill his junior year, he spent two years in the Novitiate in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where he took “time to develop a relationship with Jesus.”
Chaplain ministry
D’Armond graduated from Loyola University in Chicago in May 2020 and this year will earn a master’s degree in theology. He also is chaplain for the women’s basketball team.
“It’s beautiful being chaplain,” D’Armond said. “I missed playing baseball and competing [but] I am able to use my experience as a college athlete to walk with them and hopefully lead them toward God.”
D’Armond’s best friend Eric Couto, whom he met at Novitiate, is a former manager of the men’s basketball team at Clemson University, where he graduated in 2017.
“Hunter’s passion to love other people and to bring God to other people is exactly what Jesus did on Earth,” Couto said. “Hunter does that in many ways, mostly by being his authentic self. He uses his gifts and talents to love people so they are loved by God. His fidelity and faithfulness as a friend remind me of Jesus’ fidelity to each of us.”
Calling and mission
D’Armond was a junior in high school when he said he first “started to fall in love with the teaching of Jesus, the morality of Jesus, the care for one’s neighbors. Not until my sophomore year of college did I begin to fall in love, not just with the teaching of Jesus but with Jesus Christ Himself.”
A Spring Hill theology teacher, Matthew Baugh, now a Jesuit priest, pointed out Christ in a way he had not seen before, D’Armond said. Now he wants others to see his joy.
“We are all given gifts in individual and practical ways. God has blessed me and given me a calling and a mission to spread the joy of the gospel, and that this Christian life we live is one full of joy, one that is full of laughter, full of hope,” he said.
“I realized that my life and the value of my life would be found in service of others,” he added, quoting Matthew 16:25: “For whoever seeks to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.”
“I found that to be true, whenever I lost my life for Christ, Christ gave me back my life. That is when I truly found my meaning and self-worth.”
D’Armond found baseball to be “a great invitation to bring Jesus right in that space.”
“I have given up a lot,” D’Armond admitted. “My vows are essentially [that] I have given up a family. I have given up having any material possession. I don’t own anything and won’t the rest of my life. Even where I go on mission I have given up. It is part of obedience, but I have given that up joyfully. I want to praise, reverence and serve Him. That is why I was created.”
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