In a season that has featured what feels like too many injuries to count for the No. 7 Arkansas Razorbacks, Friday’s 10-4 win over Texas A&M featured a successful return from injury for sophomore right-hander Brady Tygart.
After missing just over eight weeks with a sprained UCL that he suffered on March 1, Tygart was back on the mound Friday to make his first career start for the Diamond Hogs. The plan all along was for him to be on a very limited pitch count, and that’s how things worked out.
Tygart threw a 20-pitch first inning and the only batter to reach base was via a two-out walk. The preseason All-American pitcher sat at 93-95 miles an hour on his fastball and his patented curveball seemed to be as good as remembered.
“I felt great,” Tygart said. “I felt like I still didn't have my best stuff today, definitely have stuff to work on but it felt good getting back on the field.”
Returning from an elbow injury prematurely has backfired for a lot of pitchers in baseball, so Arkansas has been very cautious with Tygart. Though it was just one inning of work, the native of Hernando, Mississippi, provided a gleam of hope for a team that needed it after entering the series with a four-game losing streak and a slew of injuries to significant contributors.
“He’s got a good change-up now,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “He has a two-seamer that takes off. Just wanted to see him go out and compete and kind of get his feet wet again. Kind of give us a little bit of hope, honestly.”
Working back from the injury has not been easy for Tygart. The original timeline provided for his return was five-to-six weeks, and it took just over eight. While it might’ve taken longer than expected, it’s still nice to enjoy the fruits of his labor.
“It's been tough,” Tygart said. “I was telling people in the dugout that that felt longer than the offseason was but I’m just very grateful for you know our staff, everybody, working hard to get me back and it felt really good to be back out there.”
When the injury first happened during the Illinois State game on March 1, Tygart said he was scared to death.
“I’ve never felt anything like that in that part of my arm before,” Tygart said. “So I mean, like I said, our staff, our trainer Corey [Wood], everybody worked really hard to get me back, and I’m very appreciative of them. It was very rewarding to get back tonight.”
As far as the role moving forward for Tygart, the Hogs are going to continue to be conservative. Starting him and keeping his pitch count monitored will be the likely scenario.
“Next week, maybe he’ll go two [innings],” Van Horn said. “Maybe he’ll go three. Maybe he’ll go 35 pitches or something. We’ll see how it goes. Any time we have an opportunity to get him out there, we’re going to, but tonight we just did not want him coming in in relief, to get up and get down. He needed to know he was pitching. Come in and get his 20 pitches and get out of there.”
That move seemed to work out just fine on Friday. Veteran right Will McEntire came on in the second inning and threw 5 2/3 innings of relief while earning a season-high eight strikeouts. After freshman Christian Foutch didn’t have it, right-handed Gage Wood came on to close things down with 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Tygart said he’s even talked with pitching coach Matt Hobbs about being a starter.
“I would love to do it,” Tygart said. “I’ve kind of talked to Coach Hobbs about it. It could be in my future, but we’re not looking too far ahead, just taking it week by week, seeing how I feel.”
Arkansas will go for the sweep against Texas A&M at 11 a.m. CT at Baum-Walked Stadium in Fayetteville. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
