Things were looking up as Parker Scott entered the fall of 2017.

After missing most of his freshman season with ulnar nerve damage in his throwing arm, the left-handed pitcher was happy to be back on the mound.

He had a healthy fall and threw the ball well. He began to feel comfortable as he did before the injury. He even worked hard enough to earn the start in the only fall exhibition game versus Northeastern State.

But the start put him back at phase one.

Scott would start the game. Everything was feeling right and began to regain his mound presence. That soon changed.

“After getting through the first few batters that inning, I felt my arm begin to tighten up,” Scott said. “I threw my last pitch and felt a pop. I knew something had happened and I was done.”

Scott tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) and would need to undergo surgery, infamously known as Tommy John surgery. The rehabilitation was slated to take 12-18 months, taking Scott away from the game once again.

Going through the strenuous rehabilitation process of Tommy John, Scott knew it was going to take a toll on his mental and physical health. At times, he thought the best solution was to walk away from the game.

“I went through a really tough time,” Scott said. “After coming back from my first surgery freshman year and beginning to throw and feel good and be back to normal, I get Tommy John. I was afraid to reinjure it after the second one and was really hesitant to throw after having the second surgery. I thought about giving it up because I kept getting hurt and thought baseball wasn’t for me.”

As he struggled with the idea of whether he would be able to play at a high level again, Scott turned to his support group. This time, he was not looking for advice from his family or a doctor, but found his teammates as his support group in this time.

Of the 35 members of the 2018 OSU Cowboy baseball team, five had undergone Tommy John surgery. They knew the pain and the struggles this injury presented and looked to use their experiences to help a teammate who was going through the exact process.

***

            In 2014 at Southlake Carroll High School in Dallas, Texas, Ben Leeper was developing into a promising young pitcher.

            The junior had put up an 11-1 record with a 0.90 earned run average. He had committed to Stanford University.

            His future went into jeopardy with one pop.

            Leeper was throwing in the state playoffs and had gotten deep into the game. In the sixth inning, his arm began to tighten up. He threw a fastball and felt an instant pop. With adrenaline rushing, he took six steps off the mound and collapsed. His arm was done.

            Rather than tearing his ulnar collateral ligament, Leeper had pulled it off of the bone. He would undergo Tommy John surgery to reattach his ligament to his elbow and also had a graph pulled from his left wrist to reinforce the ligament.

            After undergoing this surgery. Leeper missed his senior year of high school baseball. Stanford lost interest in him and he eventually committed to Oklahoma State.

            Coming into his freshman year, Leeper was fully recovered and looked help the Cowboys’ pitching staff. He started twice for the Cowboys in the 2016 season but every time he pitched, Leeper felt a sharp pain. After a MRI, it showed he had a calcification in the ligament, causing a microtear every time he threw. Leeper needed a second reconstructive surgery to his throwing arm. Although he knew what to expect, Leeper did not have a positive outlook towards his baseball future.

            “I thought about quitting multiple times,” Leeper said. “After my first surgery, I came back and felt great. And then I get hit with another surgery. It really put things into perspective. Is baseball something that I was meant to do or do I find something else.”

            Deciding to stick with it, Leeper used it as a learning process. He had surgery in April 2016 and missed all of the 2017 spring season until he finally began to pitch that fall. He went 21 months with no in-game action.

            As he returned to the mound in fall 2017, Leeper doubted himself at first. Once he began a routine, he felt more relieved.

            “After the second surgery, I would feel pain and doubted my strength,” Leeper said. “As I kept throwing, I wondered if it was really fixed. I would keep going to doctors and they said it was fine. I felt like I was holding myself back but once I let myself go, I began to feel normal again.”

            As he began to regain his mound presence that fall, Leeper began to step into a leadership role among the pitching staff. At this time, the Cowboys had three players in the process of recovering from Tommy John: redshirt sophomore Jensen Elliott, redshirt freshman Parker Scott and Tanner Sparks, who entered the program fresh off of Tommy John in high school.

Leeper and transfer right-handed pitcher, Reza Aleaziz, who underwent Tommy John surgery in junior college, began to relay their experiences to help the young pitchers out.

***

            Right as Leeper was returning from his injury, Scott got injured.

            Leeper and Aleaziz both realized what Scott was going through. They were the only two members on the team who had completed the rehabilitation process. From his previous experience as a freshman, Leeper did not really have a solid person to talk to in regards to his injury. Knowing that he was a veteran player, he knew he needed to pick up his teammate when he was down.

            “When I was a freshman, we had some older guys who had gone through it but they had left,” Leeper said. “It was hard to relate to the other pitchers because they did not know what the struggles I had gone through. Knowing that I had failed to comprehend some stuff early on in my process, I was able to guide Parker (Scott) in the right direction.”

            Seeing Leeper step up, Aleaziz also stepped in. Entering the program as a transfer, Aleaziz was not familiar with the team to begin with. He spent his first month in Stillwater waiting to join the team due transcript problems from his community college. As he joined the team, Aleaziz’s outgoing personality clicked with Scott. The two became friends after he joined the team. A month after he joined the team, Scott got injured. Aleaziz knew he needed to step in and help his new teammate out in this time of need.

            “The biggest thing I had to elaborate to him was the mental side of the surgery,” Aleaziz said. “People forget that it takes a toll on you mentally and it’s something we all struggled with. You look at it and realize you are going to be out for a season so really I stuck by his side and encouraged him to stay strong.”

            The three pitchers began to support each other. Aleaziz said it wasn’t a “pow wow” but they all looked to each other in the time of need because all of them had gone through it.

            ***

            Entering the program last fall, Tanner Sparks came in as a two-way player recovering from Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2018. In the fall, he didn’t spend much time around Aleaziz, Leeper or Scott as he worked with the position player groups. As he began to transition into solely being a pitcher, he was able to begin to learn more from the three veteran pitchers on the process as a whole.

            Sparks wanted to get back as quickly as possible. He wanted to rush through it but Leeper stepped in and told him to take it easy.

            “At first, he said to be positive,” Sparks said. “I think I was worried about being back to 100 percent but after watching Ben (Leeper), I knew I could do it. It was going to take time and I just had to deal with it. “

            As the 2018 season came around in the spring, Leeper was on the travel roster. Scott and Sparks were not as they were still in the process of recovering. Doing so, Sparks spent time on the weekends when the team was away with Scott, learning about the process as a whole but also helping transition into the life of a college baseball player.

            Both were away from the team and missed out on travel and spending time with teammates. It helped them build relationships on a more personal level.

            “We spent a lot of time in the training room,” Sparks said. “On the level of the group as a whole, I didn’t get to build much of a relationship but on an individual level, I was able to bond with Parker because we spent all that time together, creating a good relationship.”

***

            Following the 2018 season, Aleaziz was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Leeper, Scott and Sparks all are returning to the Cowboys pitching staff in 2019.

            As new players joined the team, Sparks began to relate to Logan Gragg, a transfer junior college pitcher. Gragg struggled at first as he began to socialize with his teammates. He wasn’t familiar in his new place, but Sparks learned Gragg had gone through Tommy John surgery previously. The four-inch scar that both had on their throwing elbows helped Gragg transition into the Cowboys’ clubhouse.

            “When I first got here, I didn’t know many people,” Gragg said. “I met Sparky, and he had TJ too so we talked about it and it transitioned into more of a conversation. It created an appreciation because I knew how hard it was to come back from this, so it was cool to see someone who had done the same thing.”

            Teammates spend time a lot of time together, whether it is on the practice field, dugouts, charter buses or in the locker room. Relationships are made, but these guys have a bond most can’t understand; a bond held together by a scar and a surgically repaired ligament.