- November 26, 2024
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After watching her knock two balls out the park in one game, lead the Lady Bulldogs in RBIs, home runs, doubles and hits, as a freshman, you would never know that Tiana Hernandez once suffered from an inoperable, undetected AVM in her brain.
Just a few months after she, then 8 years old, fell in love with the game in 2009, Hernandez collapsed and nearly died. It was discovered that she had an Arteriovenous Malformation, causing her to experience complications similar to a stroke victim, suffering the loss of vision, partial paralysis, losing her memory and some of her motor skills. During this period, Hernandez had regressed mentally to a 6-year-old.
“She woke up different kid, and our world was shaken,” said Rena Hernandez, her mom. “A week before all of this, it seemed like she was a normal little girl. All of a sudden, she was asking for ‘Chocky-milk’ like a baby. She wanted to watch the Mickey Mouse Club, and I was thinking, ‘She normally watches Selena Gomez. Like, what’s going on?’”
“I didn’t understand it,” Tiana Hernandez added. “I would just wake up and fall right back asleep; I couldn’t do anything. It was stressful and aggravating. You want to move, but you can’t.”
“There would be days where it’s just pouring rain, and I would get home and expect my kids to be on the couch watching TV, and I would look out the window and see Tiana pitching into a net a net, all by herself. There was never an excuse. If it wasn’t thundering and lightning, she was working.”
Rena Hernandez, Tiana’s mother, on her work ethic
After she regained enough strength to receive the type of surgery necessary for her condition, which had only been performed three other times on patients a lot older than she, the Hernandez family had to wait two years to see if the surgery would be effective. After two years had gone by, the doctors cleared her, declaring her a “miracle kid,” and they assured the family that Hernandez’s condition would never return.
“The first reaction I can remember was Tiana saying, ‘I want to be a pitcher, the best pitcher,” Rena Hernandez said.
She made a full recovery and returned to softball, and she’s been an unstoppable force at her pursuit to be the best.
In 2010, she started playing competitive travel softball across the state and pitching in age groups above her years. This past year alone, she has played in multiple ASA 18U Gold tournaments and showcase events. This past summer, she played in Puerto Rico, Georgia, Colorado and California and in the Under Armour game, where she was selected to the All American team.
In June, Hernandez tried out as the youngest player and made the Puerto Rican Junior Women's Olympic National Team, which includes Division I players from University of Florida, Florida State, LSU, Marshall and Santa Fe.
“You just learn not to take things for granted and to be thankful,” Hernandez said. “And, it makes you want to go all out.” That’s exactly what her parents have seen from her.
“There would be days where it’s just pouring rain, and I would get home and expect my kids to be on the couch watching TV,” Rena Hernandez said, “and I would look out the window and see Tiana pitching into a net a net, all by herself. There was never an excuse. If it wasn’t thundering and lightning, she was working.”
“At times when I think she’s inside the house and I hear something, I’d go in the back yard and see her hitting off the tee into the net, and it would be pitch black,” her father, Felix added. “I’ll be like, ‘Girl, get inside!’ Mosquitos would be all over her head, and she would still be out there.”
On her first plate appearance with Flagler Palm Coast, Hernandez politely introduced herself to high school softball with an over-the-fence home run.
“I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is great; this is going to be a good season,’” she said. And indeed, it has.
