N.C. State’s depth has been put to the test so far in the 2007 baseball season with an injury report coach Elliot Avent said has been multiple pages at times this fall and preseason.
With nine games under the Wolfpack’s belt, all but one of which are wins, Avent said he’s relieved to have the injury report down to a single page.
Among those inflicted so far this season are freshman pitcher Jimmy Gillheeney (ankle sprain), freshman pitcher Nate Karns (back strain), senior catcher Caleb Mangum (stress fracture to his right shin), sophomore infielder Drew Martin (dislocated left shoulder), junior transfer Mike Roskopf (hip flexor) and sophomore pitcher Andrew Taylor (ankle sprain).
Martin has dislocated his left shoulder three times. In the fall, Martin dove for a ball on defense and dislocated his shoulder the first time. After rehabbing the shoulder for approximately six weeks, the team decided he was well enough to play.
In practice two weeks before the season started, Martin dove for a ball in left field and dislocated the same shoulder again. Early in the season, Martin attempted to field a ground ball when it took a funny hop during a game.
“I jerked my shoulder up to catch it, and [my shoulder] came out a little bit again,” he said.
Avent said once a shoulder pops out of the socket, the ligaments around the socket don’t hold the shoulder in as much, which makes it more likely to keep popping out.
“The more it pops out, the closer you get to surgery,” he said.
Martin got an MRI on the shoulder Feb. 19 to survey how much damage had been done. During the Pack’s game against North Carolina A&T on Feb. 21, Martin met with a doctor to discuss his options. Avent said the MRI showed the damage not to be more serious than they thought, which means surgery can be postponed.
“He may very well, at some point, need surgery,” Avent said. “It’s just if it needs to be immediate or down the road. Both he and I were pulling for down the road.”
Martin and Avent met on Feb. 26 to discuss Martin’s options for the rest of the season. After the meeting, the team cleared Martin to play. He played two innings in Feb. 27’s win over Wilmington, but he did not get to bat.
Of Gillheeney, Karns, Mangum, Martin and Roskopf, Martin’s injury was the most serious.
Mangum did not start Feb. 21’s 5-3 win against North Carolina A&T, but he came off the bench in the fifth inning, hit a home run and had two RBIs. Since then, Mangum has started all of State’s contests.
Mangum said he doesn’t know how he was injured. He went to the trainer complaining of soreness in his right shin, which, he said, felt like a deep bruise — except it wasn’t getting better. It was getting progressively worse.
“I was just going to get some Advil, really,” Mangum said. “I just wanted to feel better. The trainer said it was probably just a shin splint, but he wanted me to get checked out in case it’s a stress fracture. Luckily, we caught it early.”
If the fracture had not been caught as early as it was, it could have forced Mangum to miss six weeks before starting rehabilitation, which, he said, would have translated to a 10-week process.
But the team caught the fracture early enough.
“My first game back was two and a half weeks after we caught it,” he said.
Avent said he wanted to be cautious with Mangum because, like a hamstring injury, a stress fracture is a tough injury to gauge. He said the status or health of a stress fracture can’t be checked with a bone scan, X-ray or MRI.
“You can only go by touch and feel,” Avent said. “He feels great now, which is a good sign, but it’s a stress fracture, and it’s either healed or it’s not. And if you put him out there even a little too early, it could put him out another three or four weeks.”
Mangum was concerned about being behind in preparations for the ACC schedule if he misses too much playing time. But, Avent said, Mangum is always ready to play.
“He’s one of those guys that can fall out of bed and hit,” Avent said. “Preparation matters for everyone, but Caleb’s always had the unique ability to be ready to play no matter what.”
Roskopf started the Feb. 21 win at designated hitter; Gillheeney threw 23 pitches over two innings in the same game; and Karns and Taylor were in the bullpen, available to pitch.
In the Pack’s four games since, Roskopf started three at designated hitter and pinch hit in one; Gillheeney started Feb. 27’s win over Wilmington, throwing 84 pitches over five innings, including one strikeout, five hits allowed and one run allowed. Taylor came out of the bullpen to pitch one inning in Feb. 25’s loss to TCU and an inning and a third in State’s win over Wilmington.
“It’s a team sport,” Avent said. “It’s not about individuals. We all prepare, and we all do the things it takes to win. Right now, for N.C. State, we have to keep relying on what guys are doing as a whole. We know a couple of individuals are down, but a couple will step up.”