{"id":71579,"date":"2024-10-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/eli-jerzembeck-set-to-return-from-tommy-john-surgery-in-fall-preseason-action\/"},"modified":"2024-10-02T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T12:00:00","slug":"eli-jerzembeck-set-to-return-from-tommy-john-surgery-in-fall-preseason-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/eli-jerzembeck-set-to-return-from-tommy-john-surgery-in-fall-preseason-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Eli Jerzembeck set to return from Tommy John surgery in fall preseason action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of the 2023 campaign, South Carolina starting pitcher Eli Jerzembeck<\/strong> heard three of the most harrowing words in baseball: Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

Jerzembeck, then a true freshman, had never dealt with a serious injury, dating back to his high school days. But as the season went along, his arm started to feel \u201ctight\u201d and \u201cdead\u201d as he continued throwing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI kind of just knew in the back of my head something was up. But with this type of injury, you can\u2019t really go in and get it checked out until the wheels fall off,\u201d Jerzembeck said on an episode of 107.5 The Game\u2019s \u201cThe Extra Point\u201d on Sept. 26. \u201cI kind of was just keeping it to myself and was trying to get the numbers I could do and help the team any way I could before that all happened. But it ended up happening against Kentucky, and yeah, (my) season came to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 16 months since his injury and subsequent surgery, Jerzembeck has been working to rehabilitate his arm and elbow in the hopes of returning to full action. And in his first media availability of the fall, head coach Paul Manieri<\/strong> said that return is not far away.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept for a couple little nagging non-baseball related issues that he\u2019s had to deal with that, hopefully, aren\u2019t long-term type things, he should be good to go,\u201d Mainieri said.<\/p>\n

Jerzembeck is expected to take the mound on Wednesday in South Carolina\u2019s third preseason scrimmage of the fall. He will pitch one frame in the three-inning scrimmage, Mainieri said.<\/p>\n

Mainieri added that the team will continue building his arm as the fall season continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a priority for us because, obviously, he missed all of last year, and there\u2019s such great potential there. There\u2019s such great talent,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cI\u2019m certain that, if everything\u2019s going according to plan, that he\u2019ll probably pitch in both those scrimmage games against other teams just to get him out there and get the experience of facing players from another team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jerzembeck\u2019s first outing back will come 514 days after he last pitched in a regular season game on May 7, 2023. At the time of his injury, he had appeared in 16 games, including three starts. Jerzembeck pitched to a 2.84 earned run average and struck out 36 batters across 23.1 innings.<\/p>\n

But undergoing Tommy John surgery, it forced him to miss the South Carolina\u2019s entire 2024 campaign. During that time, Jerzembeck took part in a \u201cday-by-day\u201d rehabilitation process that involved both lifting and throwing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to toss the ball after six months. Every day, you\u2019re going out there throwing a little through soreness trying to loosen out that arm. And once you finally get to month 12, you, you feel really loose and you feel good,\u201d Jerzembeck said. \u201cNow that I\u2019m at month 15, 16, I\u2019m beyond ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerzembeck said, looking back on his injury, that \u201cit only happened for the better pupose.\u201d He added that he took advantage of the lost time by continuing to grow physically and mentally.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back at it, being able to get that full year to develop myself, develop my body and develop my mind, I couldn\u2019t be more grateful for the game I play and be able to take that time and be able to basically just develop myself and better myself for this year to come,\u201d Jerzembeck said. \u201cNow that the time is here, I\u2019m beyond ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If his bullpen sessions are any indication, Jerzembeck is more than ready, Mainieri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got electric stuff,\u201d Mainieri said. \u201cWhen you watch him throw a bullpen, you think, \u2018Friday night starter.\u2019 There\u2019s no question about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n

The post Eli Jerzembeck set to return from Tommy John surgery in fall preseason action<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of the 2023 campaign, South Carolina starting pitcher Eli Jerzembeck heard three…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}