Some baseball, softball, and players from other sports are famous for some of their habits. They often stick to crazy routines when the games matter most. Some athletes have to eat the same meal before every game, while others refuse to wash a lucky pair of socks. The Texas Longhorns are fighting to defend their national title at the Women’s College World Series. During this playoff run, one star freshman has taken her lucky charm to a crazy new level.

“Texas Longhorns softball star Hannah Wells… kept “a cute and weird superstition” of eating a ladybug every time she saw one since she was a child,” reported ESPN’s Holly Rowe.

Everybody has heard stories about athletes and their superstitions. But Texas softball star Hannah Wells has a superstition that immediately grabbed attention because it is not every day that a player reveals she eats ladybugs for good luck.

During Texas’ 5-2 semifinal win over Tennessee, Rowe shared details about this superstition. “She has a superstition dating back to childhood that if she sees a ladybug, she eats it for good luck. Swallows it whole,” reported Howe.

Many people doubted it, but Wells shut it down when she confirmed the story after Texas’s victory.

“Yeah, I’ve done that since I was a little girl,” she said.

The belief that ladybugs bring luck comes from old farming folklore. Farmers loved them for eating crop pests. This sparked the myth that killing one brings a curse, while having one land on you brings years of good fortune.

But most superstitions start because people experience something good or achieve success right after. And it might be the same reason why Wells has continued this superstition of hers through college. And guess what? It seems to be working.

It was reported that Wells did the same before the SEC Tournament.

Rowe reported saying, “I was told that at the SEC tournament in Kentucky, she had a nice home run, and she had ingested a ladybug before that. So, this is a superstition. I have this on two different sources in that Texas dugout.”

Whether it’s a coincidence or not, that experience has made a case for Wells to continue her tradition. Against Tennessee, she stepped up again. She hit a huge two-run single in the fifth inning to secure the win. She then followed up with another two-hit game to beat the Lady Vols, helping Texas reach its third straight WCWS Finals.

The one thing that Texas will be happy about is the fact that Hannah doesn’t need ladybugs to hit a softball, but her talent is enough.

While actually eating the bug is extreme, Wells’ habit shows how athletes use mental tricks to handle pressure. Former Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster always ordered from the same Italian restaurant before every start to feel right on the mound.

But still, the connection between past success and present results remains easy to understand. And if you think this was weird, you haven’t heard the half of it.

Some of baseball’s weirdest superstitions

Baseball is all about routine. The season is 162 games long, and players just want to stay consistent. Because of this, they rely on some really weird habits. Some are simple, while others become famous stories.

Jason Giambi’s “Slump Buster” might be the craziest one. Whenever his hitting went cold, Giambi put on a gold thong. It sounds wild, but it became legendary. His Yankees teammates even started borrowing it when they needed a hit.

Whether it worked or not was actually not impossible to prove, because in 2005 Giambi was named the AL Comeback Player of the Year. But there have been many superstitions that have been related to food.

Matt Garza made Popeyes chicken a mandatory stop before every start, and I guess it worked for him because back in 2010, he pitched a no-hitter against the Tigers. Wade Boggs also ate fried chicken before every game, and that has landed him as a Hall of Famer with the Red Sox and the Rays.

Derek Holland took things even further, spending about $30 at Wendy’s every night before taking the mound. Then there were players whose rituals happened on the field. Meanwhile, Dick Stuart walked to the plate every time, chewing gum, only to toss it away before stepping into the box. It was a small act, but it was something he did throughout his career.

From Giambi’s gold thong to Stuart’s gum toss, baseball’s strangest superstitions have survived because players kept trusting them when pressure was highest.