Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 9 No. 3 | January 2017

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42 Inside Hokie Sports
On March 5, 2014, Virginia Tech was
trailing William & Mary 6-0 at English Field
when Hokie head coach Patrick Mason made
the move. He decided to bring in Andrew
McDonald, a 6-foot-6-inch freshman from
Cincinnati, Ohio, to throw the final two
innings. The freshman walked the first batter,
but then got a strikeout and a double play to
end the inning. In the ninth, he walked a batter
and gave up a run-scoring triple before getting
out of the frame.
McDonald’s collegiate career was officially
underway. Just as most college athletes do, he
remembered his debut.
“I was a little nervous,” he said. “I got hit
that time, too. I took a one-hopper right off
the leg. It was a funny way to release some
tension.”
McDonald earned three varsity letters while
in high school, winning the Ohio High School
Division 1 Player of the Year honor prior to
arriving in Blacksburg. His freshman year at
Tech featured ups and downs, but the future
looked bright.
That all changed in 2015 when he found his
career in jeopardy. During a bullpen session in
the fall, he felt something wrong in his arm and
didn’t pitch for the remainder of the fall. He
tried to come back during the offseason, but
the discomfort came in waves.
Eventually, he went to a doctor, and the
news was every pitcher’s worst nightmare.
The ulnar collateral ligament [UCL] in
McDonald’s elbow had ruptured, leaving holes
in the ligament. That required him to miss the
season and undergo what many know today as
“Tommy John” surgery. He became a statistic
in the rising epidemic of UCL injuries sweeping
across all levels of baseball.
“Everywhere around my arm, I had some
kind of pain,” he said. “There were times that
it was a constant ache. I would throw some
pitches, and as soon as I would release the ball,
it would hurt.”
The surgery usually requires taking a
ligament from the wrist to replace the torn
ligament, but McDonald was born without the
ligament in both wrists. So the surgeons took
a hamstring graft from his left hamstring to
replace his UCL.
“They drill a hole through one of your bones,
tie a knot in the ligament and put it through
and wrap it around everywhere else it needs to
go,” McDonald said.
Anyone around the game knows that
Tommy John surgery serves as the main way
to repair such injuries. Doctors continue to
perfect the procedure to get athletes back on
the field faster. They also look for new ways
to decrease the recovery time without putting
the athlete in danger. Pitchers like McDonald
are sharing their experience and providing
valuable insight into the issue.
After strenuous rehab and conditioning,
McDonald made his return Feb. 23,
2016—about 12 months after the surgery. He
started against East Tennessee State, threw
four shutout innings and earned the win. After
the game, Mason talked about McDonald’s
road back.
“He’s come a long way, worked really hard
to put himself in a position to even be ready to
throw now,” Mason said.
McDonald completed the season in good
health. He made eight appearances, starting
four games.
Nic Enright, another Tech pitcher who
actually was drafted out of high school by the
New York Mets and chose to go to college over
the big leagues, shared a similar experience,
undergoing Tommy John surgery in May
of 2016. In high school, he was a four-year
varsity player and named the Gatorade Player
of the Year in Virginia. The right-handed
ace from Richmond featured a fastball that
topped out in the lower 90s. He made 12
appearances in 2016 and encountered some
early struggles, but seemed to settle in as the
season went along.
In late April in a game against Duke, Enright
tried to pitch through discomfort in his arm.
On May 1, he threw five innings and gave up
four unearned runs against Boston College.
The next day, he couldn’t pick up his backpack.
Yet Enright never felt the “pop” that some
guys feel.
“For me, it was more of a gradual thing,”
he said. “It makes me wonder if it could have
started months before, and finally, over the
course of a 55-game season, it took its last
blow. It started off as a dull pull in my elbow
and eventually progressed into the sharp
stabbing pain.”
He ultimately underwent Tommy John
surgery. Four months later, he started
throwing a baseball and expects to pitch this
upcoming season. Tech pitching coach Jamie
Pinzino is optimistic.
“He’s in the training room a couple hours a
day,” Pinzino said. “We’re certainly hoping to
have him back for the spring.”
Advances made in the medical field over the
past 25 years now make the recovery process
faster. In the early stages following Tommy
John surgery, players more likely faded out
of the league than recovered and prospered.
But Dr. Frank Jobe turned the tables in 1974
when he performed surgery on Tommy John, a
major league pitcher at the time and for whom
the surgery is named.
Using a healthy tendon fromJohn’s forearm,
Jobe replaced the torn ligament. The tendon
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