Halie Pappion pitched the entire 2024 season in pain as stress reactions in her throwing arm, a problem she faced since her freshman year at Boston College, kept coming back.

Nevertheless, Pappion decided to keep pitching until the season was over. 

“I was in pain the whole season, but we were really close to making the [ACC] tournament, and we did,” Pappion said. “It was worth it. But, yeah, I basically waited all my sophomore year to get an MRI because I kind of knew.”

Pappion made 18 starts with a 2.88 ERA in 2024, helping BC to its first postseason appearance in six years. BC shut out Syracuse in the first round, then lost to Duke on a walk-off home run. Pappion had the offseason to rest her arm. 

“I didn’t throw, like, at all during the summer, and the plan was for me to just take the summer off, and hopefully, it would be fully healed,” Pappion said. “And then I tried to throw again whenever I came back my junior year, and it was still hurting. And that’s [when] we scheduled the surgery.”

Pappion underwent surgery to reinforce her forearm with a plate and screws in March—a surgery that would keep her out for the entire 2025 season. The first step in her return was regaining arm strength.

“It wasn’t stuff with weights at first,” Pappion said. “It would just be, like, movements [to] get function back in my arm, so I was just constantly trying to move my arm, trying to strengthen it.”

The post-surgery pain affected more than Pappion’s life on the field, though.

“It was really difficult because I missed a lot of class at first, or I would just be in pain,” Pappion said. “So it made it hard for me to be kind of motivated.”

Pappion charted pitches and cheered on her teammates when BC had home games, but stayed behind when the team played on the road. She could watch those games on screen, but there was no replacement for time with her teammates. 

“It’s way more than that, you know, it’s, like, the experiences—it’s what y’all do together, it’s the conversations that they have that I would miss out on,” Pappion said. “Honestly, that kind of sucked.”

Pappion began underhand throwing last summer. By the time fall ball came around, she was ready to pitch in a live game.

“It was so fun,” Pappion said. “Honestly, it was kind of scary coming back, obviously, because I hadn’t done it in a while. But I was just so happy to be [back], it didn’t matter to me where I was throwing the ball. I was honestly just so happy to be on the field with my friends again.”

Pappion has been working on her favorite pitch, the changeup, this year.

“I mean, in the beginning, I was struggling to get the right spin back,” Pappion said. “Coach [Garrett Nickel], my pitching coach, has been, like, super awesome with me, and he focuses a lot on the little things and drills … I feel like I’ve definitely been able to enhance my spin, and the way my ball breaks due to how we work in the bullpen.”

Now a senior and finally back on the field, Pappion says she has a bigger responsibility in setting the team’s culture. 

“[When] you’re younger, it’s very easy to get caught up in numbers and how you’re doing [on the field],” Pappion said. “It really is about the relationships that you get through the program, and how we’re being raised as women, or being developed, not only as softball players but as people.”