{"id":483860,"date":"2026-02-22T13:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483860\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T13:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T13:11:07","slug":"how-hudson-lee-is-continuing-to-pitch-for-south-carolina-despite-breaking-his-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483860\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hudson Lee is continuing to pitch for South Carolina despite breaking his foot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything looked normal in Hudson Lee\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

If Paul Mainieri hadn\u2019t said anything after the game, you probably wouldn\u2019t have noticed something was wrong. However, Mainieri isn\u2019t one to shy away from saying what\u2019s on his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate to say this, but he pitched with a broken foot,\u201d Mainieri said of Lee after the Gamecocks\u2019 12-2 win over Gardner-Webb. <\/p>\n

Mainieri shared that detail to highlight the toughness it took for the left-handed reliever to take the mound under those circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows the passion that he has for our program, for our team,\u201d he said the day afterwards, \u201cand for him wanting to go out there and compete, to go out there with a broken foot and pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your GamecockCentral membership starts at just $1 \u2013 and we\u2019ll throw in a complimentary year of access to The Athletic.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019ve likely ended his season before it ever started.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked them if it was possible to just tape it up and let me go out there and just try to throw on it,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThey said it was up to me, so I just decided to give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The most interesting part of all this is that Lee hasn\u2019t felt any pain. When he isn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a cortisone shot, and it\u2019s feeling 10 times better since I\u2019ve gotten that, and it\u2019s made me be able to go out there and play,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know exactly how long it lasts, but usually it\u2019ll last a couple of months and help me get through it kind of pain-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t bothered him yet as he\u2019s now struck out all five batters he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m still having no pain like it is right now, going into the summer, I\u2019ll probably try and play summer ball on it,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAnd then after that, I\u2019ll get the surgery and just get the bone taken out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything looked normal in Hudson Lee\u2019s first outing of the season on Wednesday. Entering with one out in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-483860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}