Everything looked normal in Hudson Lee’s first outing of the season on Wednesday. Entering with one out in the seventh inning, he struck out both batters he faced, throwing nine pitches, six for strikes.
If Paul Mainieri hadn’t said anything after the game, you probably wouldn’t have noticed something was wrong. However, Mainieri isn’t one to shy away from saying what’s on his mind.
“I hate to say this, but he pitched with a broken foot,” Mainieri said of Lee after the Gamecocks’ 12-2 win over Gardner-Webb.
Mainieri shared that detail to highlight the toughness it took for the left-handed reliever to take the mound under those circumstances.
“It shows the passion that he has for our program, for our team,” he said the day afterwards, “and for him wanting to go out there and compete, to go out there with a broken foot and pitch.”
It was a freak injury that happened about two weeks ago when Lee went to field a groundball and awkwardly planted his right foot. He ended up fracturing his heel bone, which in most cases would’ve likely ended his season before it ever started.
Doctors gave him two options: insert screws into his foot to repair the fracture and end his season, or perform surgery to remove the fractured bone, a procedure that would sideline him for seven to eight weeks. Instead, Lee decided to look into a potential third option.
“I asked them if it was possible to just tape it up and let me go out there and just try to throw on it,” Lee said. “They said it was up to me, so I just decided to give it a go.”
Toughing out injuries is nothing new for Lee. He broke his wrist while playing football at Dorman High School but still had it taped up and played defensive end and tight end with a club. He considers it the best year of his football career and is hoping for a similar outcome in baseball this season.
At first, he thought it was just an ankle sprain, but it never swelled up and the pain persisted. A CT scan on Monday revealed the current injury. Later that same day, he was already back throwing off the mound.
The most interesting part of all this is that Lee hasn’t felt any pain. When he isn’t pitching, he wears a boot on his foot. He also has it taped with a heel pad underneath to help absorb the weight he puts on it when he throws and lands.
“I got a cortisone shot, and it’s feeling 10 times better since I’ve gotten that, and it’s made me be able to go out there and play,” Lee said. “They don’t know exactly how long it lasts, but usually it’ll last a couple of months and help me get through it kind of pain-free.”
It hasn’t bothered him yet as he’s now struck out all five batters he’s faced this season. But eventually, the pain will return, along with the inevitability of surgery. For now, he plans to keep pitching in whatever role South Carolina needs.
“If I’m still having no pain like it is right now, going into the summer, I’ll probably try and play summer ball on it,” Lee said. “And then after that, I’ll get the surgery and just get the bone taken out.”