Sammy Hackl

Samuel Hackl

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 205 lb.

• School Vanguard University, Arizona Western College

• Born April 7, 1996

Biographical Information

Sammy Hackl has played for the Austrian national team as has brother Moritz Hackl.

Hackl debuted in the Austrian Baseball League with the 2011 Stockerauer Cubs; the 15-year-old hit .213/.355/.277 and he fell to .167/.255/.286 the next year. In the 2012 European U21 Championship, he played two games but did not bat. In 2013, he improved to .348/.429/.783 in 7 games for the Cubs. The next year, he moved to the Vienna Wanderers and batted .254/.354/.388 in more regular action.

He was excellent in the 2014 European U21 Championship, at .526/.571/.895 with 3 triples and 8 RBI in 5 games. He returned to Stockerauer in 2015 but only played ten games (.286/.405/.514). He made his debut for the Austrian senior national team in the 2015 B-Level European Championship; the 19-year-old was their youngest player. He was 3 for 7 with a walk, double and a run, backing up his brother at catcher; his first hit for the national team was off Shlomo Lipetz of Israel.

Sammy was with the Vienna Wanderers in 2016, batting .300/.410/.414. In the 2016 CEB Cup, he hit .261/.292/.391 for Vienna. He suited up for Austria in the 2016 U-23 Baseball World Cup, batting .375/.400/.417 and fielding .900 as a 3B/C. He was Austria's top hitter.

In the 2017 ABL, he produced at a .369/.472/.650 clip for the Vienna Metrostars with 35 RBI in 26 games, scoring 32 runs. He was 6th in the league in slugging, tied for 3rd in runs, 2nd in RBI, 6th in hits (38), 2nd in triples (4, one behind Dominik Talir), tied for 6th in homers (5), tied for 5th in total bases (67) and tied for 9th in walks (20). He starred in the 2017 B-Level European Championship, homering twice in the opening win over Bulgaria and driving in four against Greece (with a 3-run shot off Peter Maestrales). In the round-robin, he hit .316/.435/1.053 with four homers, six runs and eight RBI in five games. He was 3rd in slugging, tied for 5th in runs, tied for 3rd in RBI, tied Takanobu Oshima for the home run lead and 2nd in total bases (one behind Oshima). In the finale, he was 2 for 4 with a walk and two runs as Austria beat Israel. He won the MVP.

He slipped to .208/.296/.333 in the 2017 U23 European Championship. He played for Arizona Western College that spring, part of an internationally flavored team that also included players from Venezuela, the USA, Canada, South Korea, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Curacao and France (Antoine Villard). He thus missed part of the ABL season, batting .310/.444/.451 with 20 runs in 18 games after his return to Vienna. He hit .368/.500/.737 with six runs and a team-high six RBI in the 2018 U23 European Championship Qualifier.

In the 2018 European Championship Playoff, he homered off Lithuania's Marius Balandis and was 4 for 6 with six runs, three walks and five RBI as Austria swept Lithuania in two games to win a spot in the 2019 European Championship. He led the qualifier in average (.096 ahead of Joachim Frick), OBP (.022 ahead of Benjamin Salzmann) and hits (tied with Dominik Talir and Frick). He was 3rd in slugging (after Richard Alzinger and Frick), tied for 3rd in runs, 3rd in RBI, 4th in total bases and tied for 2nd in walks (one behind Salzmann). He then returned to Arizona Western.

Due to his college time in the US, he only played eight games for the 2019 Metrostars but still went deep five times (.294/.442/.824, 10 R, 17 RBI). He managed to tie Frick and Miguelangel Bastidas for 4th in the ABL in dingers despite his limited action. In the 2019 European Championship, he was Austria's starting backstop. He flew out against Belgium's Cédric De Smedt his first at-bat in a European Championship but later singled off him. In Austria's first European Championship win, he hit a 3-run homer off Croatia's Borna Strelec to get things going and later added another hit, a walk and another run. He hit .350/.462/.500 in the first two rounds, with 5 RBI in 6 games, fielding .968. In the 9th/10th place game, he hit 5th and went 3 for 5 with two runs (and two errors) in a loss to Great Britain.

Hackl transferred to Vanguard University and put up a .310/.447/.448 batting line in 2019-2020 before the season ended early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in Austria, the season was also shortened, but he was now able to play a full campaign there due to no college commitment overseas. He hit .382/.490/.671 with 26 runs and 33 RBI in 20 games, and also got to pitch often (2-1, 6.91). He was 6th in the league in average (between Tobias Kiefer and Chris Squires), 4th in slugging (between Heorhii Hvrytishvili and Kiefer), tied for 6th in runs, tied Hvrytishvili for 5th in hits (29), led in RBI, tied for 2nd in homers (four behind Michael Varga), tied for 8th in walks (16) and 5th in total bases.