Out of Retirement: Former Arkansas pitcher makes comeback as DII outfielder

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When he dug into the box for his first at bat in a game earlier this month, Harrison Heffley had quite the challenge as he continued to figure things out on his comeback journey.

Playing in front of a smattering of family and friends at the Tyson Complex in Springdale, the former Arkansas signee was facing a Tulsa team throwing a pitcher whose fastball touched 90 miles per hour.

It was a step up in competition compared to the mostly Division II, Division III and JUCO players Heffley was used to seeing in the Perfect Timing College League and it proved to be a turning point - even though he didn’t reach base.

“I actually got out in the at bat, but I got some really good swings off on high-level fastballs and it kind of clicked for me,” Heffley said. “I felt like I had my timing back down and went on to hit a couple of doubles that game and I’ve kind of felt comfortable since then.”

For the first time since resuming his career, the Rogers native didn’t feel lucky when he made solid contact. Finally confident in his swing, Heffley stayed hot over the final week and a half of the summer and made the league’s all-star game.

Four years after signing with Arkansas as a left-handed pitcher, he appears primed to make his collegiate debut as an outfielder at Harding University, a Division II program in Searcy.

The 2021 season will be Heffley’s swan song in a career derailed by injury. Instead of playing, he watched from the dugout as a student assistant while the Razorbacks made consecutive trips to the College World Series.

Following that second trip to Omaha, Heffley decided to scratch his baseball itch by pursuing the comeback that had always been in the back of his mind.

Heffley played multiple sports at Rogers High, but he stood out the most on the baseball diamond.

A self-described “late-bloomer,” he threw a one-hitter against Siloam Springs in his first varsity start back in 2015. Heffley posted a 2.50 ERA that season and then had 67 strikeouts in 55 innings as a senior, when he was named the Perfect Game/Rawlings Player of the Year for Arkansas.

With a projectable 6-foot-3 frame as a left-hander, Heffley caught the attention of Dave Jorn, the Razorbacks’ former longtime pitching coach. When Jorn started recruiting him, it was an easy choice where Heffley wanted to play at the next level.

“When Arkansas calls and you’re an Arkansas kid, in my eyes there’s no other option,” Heffley said.

It was a dream come true for Heffley, who was able to pitch in the Razorbacks’ practices during the fall of 2016. Unfortunately, it was cut short in November of that year when it was revealed he had a torn labrum in his left shoulder.

The injury - which Heffley speculated was from wear and tear that started in high school and not a single incident - required season-ending surgery and forced him to redshirt in 2017. Despite not having any hiccups in rehab and fully recovering, he wasn’t the same when he returned to the mound the next fall.

Admittedly not a flamethrower before the injury, Heffley’s fastball went from sitting 86-88 and occasionally touching 90 mph to not even hitting 80 mph some days.

“The thing is, with labrums, it’s kind of a part of your body that you’ve loosened up your whole life and then all of a sudden you have it completely tightened back down,” Heffley said. “The way I always say it, there’s a big difference between being healthy and being able to throw a 90 mph fastball. I was somewhere in between the two.”

It was pretty clear to Heffley early in the fall of 2017 that pitching wasn’t in his future.

Having also hit .452 his senior year of high school, he approached Wes Johnson about transferring to a junior college to be a hitter. The new pitching coach said that was fine, but he had another idea: Why not stick around as a student assistant?

“I kind of thought about it for a little bit and staying close to home and being a part of the Arkansas program,” Heffley said. “Again, as an Arkansas kid, any time to be around the Razorbacks, it’s kind of a dream come true.”

That began a three-year run on Arkansas’ coaching staff, during which he was part of the first back-to-back College World Series teams in school history.

In Heffley’s first season as an assistant, the Razorbacks came within an out of winning a national title. The following year, he helped a reloaded team make it back to Omaha. His third season was cut short because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even though Heffley wasn’t part of that on-field success, graduate manager Phil Cebuhar said he witnessed first hand the impact he had on the team from a leadership standpoint.

“He was able to talk guys through their failures because of his injuries and adversity he faced as a young player,” Cebuhar said. “He was able to take a lot of those young guys under his wing, adjust them to the college life and help overcome adversity.”

From a coaching perspective, Heffley spent time working with the pitchers and hitters his first two seasons before focusing exclusively on the offensive side of things this past year.

As a former left-handed pitcher, he was a critical part of the team for batting practice purposes, plus he helped with analytics and other aspects of the game. It was a perfect opportunity to be a sponge and soak up knowledge from Arkansas’ coaches and players.

“In hindsight, every day I showed up and was supposed to be one of the ‘coaches,’ in reality I was just learning,” Heffley said. “I was learning as a player from these incredible coaches like Dave Van Horn, Matt Hobbs, Nate Thompson. What I learned a lot was from the players. Guys like Heston Kjerstad, you can watch that guy’s approach and learn from it.“

The Razorbacks had another student assistant with a similar story just before Heffley’s arrival in Fayetteville. Max Hogan played on Arkansas’ 2015 College World Series team, but concussions forced him to retire and serve as a first base coach in 2016.

About the time Heffley got on campus, Hogan was cleared by doctors, went through the process of un-retiring with the NCAA and landed at Missouri Southern, where he dominated in his lone season. He hit .390 with 15 home runs and 59 RBIs in 55 games at the DII school, leading to him getting taken in the 32nd round of the MLB Draft.

Hogan’s comeback unfolded as Heffley was working his way back from shoulder surgery. The pair were good friends during their brief time together at Arkansas, so it was only natural for Heffley to give him a call when he was kicking around the idea himself last summer.

“He was a huge influence because if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have known that this path was even possible,” Heffley said. “When I was thinking about doing it, I reached out to him and he was super encouraging and kind of helped me with how to go about the process and how to even make it possible eligibility wise.”

When the fall rolled around, he was all-in on the comeback attempt. Heffley still handled his coaching duties during practice, but was allowed to stay late and use Arkansas’ facilities to train.

Although players would occasionally stick around afterward and let him workout with them, Heffley needed a personal coach of sorts. That’s where Cebuhar, the graduate manager, stepped in.

Only a couple of years older than Heffley, Cebuhar remembers facing the former Rogers standout when he was at Springdale Har-Ber. When he joined Arkansas’ staff following his playing career at UAFS, the pair became quick friends, so he didn’t hesitate when Heffley asked him to help out.

There were days they were at the Razorbacks’ facilities until 9 p.m. - lifting weights, running, throwing, taking ground balls, hitting off a machine and doing anything they could to get Heffley ready to play again.

“We knew it was going to be a long road ahead and we were there every day,” Cebuhar said. “It felt like I was playing again because I was there with him and we went every single day we could.”

It had been more than three years since the last time Heffley swung a bat, so he was pretty rusty, but it didn’t take long for Cebuhar to recognize his raw talent.

“The first ball I threw at him, he hit a ball about 100 mph right at my feet,” Cebuhar said. “I kind of flinched out of the way and was like, ‘Wow. He’s still got a little thunder in his bat.’”

After countless hours of work, Heffley eventually got to the point where he could take some live at bats. His first opportunity to do so in an actual game came this summer in the Perfect Timing College League.

In his first at bat of the summer, he was facing a high school pitcher committed to a junior college who topped out around 82 mph, but “it looked like he was throwing 90,” Heffley said. Even though he struck out and went 0 for 2 at the plate, he enjoyed being back on the field.

“It wasn’t really jitters; it was kind of this really cool feeling of, I never thought I would play baseball again,” Heffley said. “I told my brother after the game I have never had so much fun sucking at something in my life.”

As a coach in the league, Cebuhar watched Heffley’s progress from a distance. He could see his confidence growing with each at bat and then he got a taste of it himself in the final week of the season.

“We played each other…and he went 3 for 3 with two doubles and a screaming line drive right to our left fielder,” Cebuhar said. “I just stood there shaking my head like, ‘Man, he’s here. He’s got it now. He’s right where he needs to be.’”

After filing the paperwork with the NCAA to un-retire, Heffley’s next step was entering the transfer portal. Even though he listed outfielder as his position, he said plenty of schools still inquired about him pitching because they noticed he was a former pitcher in the SEC.

Heffley had to send a lot of emails that said, I’m not a pitcher any more. I promise you don’t want me to pitch for you guys. A few programs recruited him as an outfielder, but he really had his eyes set on one school in particular.

“It was Harding all the way,” Heffley said. “I entertained other schools just in case Harding didn’t work out, but I even told those schools during the process, ‘I’m set on Harding. If something doesn’t work out there, I’ll contact you again.’”

Both of his siblings attended the Division II school and one of his former teammates at Rogers, Sage White, was already on the team, so he had an idea of what the program was all about. More importantly, though, Searcy is less than an hour away from Little Rock. That means he’ll be able to frequently visit his grandfather, Billy Frank Heffley, with whom he is very close.

Harding checked all of the boxes for Heffley and luckily for him, he checked all of the boxes for head coach Patrick McGaha during his visit.

“He was able to come in and we saw enough bat speed and we saw his athleticism and just felt like he’s a great fit from the type of young man we look for here, from a character standpoint,” McGaha said. “Culture is extremely important for us, so we felt like he would be the right kind of guy in the clubhouse.”

With one year of eligibility remaining, Heffley projects as a left fielder for the Bisons, but he won’t just be handed a starting job. He’ll have to compete with Harding’s top four outfielders from last season, all of which will be back in 2021.

At 6-foot-3, McGaha said he’ll also get a look at first base and they aren’t completely ruling out the possibility of him pitching some. Heffley threw a bullpen for the staff during his visit and there’s a chance he throws some more this fall.

“As he throws some more pens, he may start to feel more comfortable throwing,” McGaha said. “I’m sure there’s a little hesitation on his part, a little bit of worry, but felt great enough to throw in the pen, so we’ll see.”

Heffley admitted that being a two-way player would be fun, almost like he was a kid again, but he and McGaha agreed that where he’s most likely to contribute is with the bat.

With the goal of being a high school teacher and coach, Heffley graduated from Arkansas with a history degree. At Harding, he’ll do an online MBA program that usually takes two years, so McGaha said he’s thought about keeping him around an extra year as a graduate assistant.

But for now, the focus is helping Heffley have the best possible final - and first - collegiate season as a player, capping what has been a winding road from Rogers to Fayetteville to Searcy. The experiences he’s had along the way will only help as he attempts to complete a pitcher-to-hitter comeback with the Bisons.

“To be able to have been at that level of college baseball and experience those things is invaluable,” McGaha said. “A lot of times, you aren’t going to be able to bring a young man into the program who has that kind of knowledge and is still playing.

“We just felt like from a standpoint of being able to kind of be a coach on the field and a coach in the dugout and clubhouse, he would also bring that aspect along with the tools he brought. Obviously that was something we felt would allow him to help the program even more than what he can do on the field.”