This isn’t quite what Zach Diewert had in mind for his first season at the University of Missouri.
The Chemainus baseball product transferred to the Missouri Tigers, known as the Mizzou, from Florida’s Polk State College and was looking forward to big things at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Div. 1 level. Unfortunately, he won’t be playing at the Columbia, Missouri campus just yet after undergoing season-ending surgery Thursday.
“I’m just recovering right now,” said Diewert over the phone from Missouri Sunday. “It’s getting a little better. It’s still a little painful, though.”
He originally injured his shoulder moving furniture a while ago and said “it looked like I’d be able to rehab and come back from it and I did.”
Diewert came into preparations for the spring season and made the first two weeks of practices feeling fine. But then on one of the first practices outside, his left arm started to give him problems - partly from the constant wear and tear of baseball over the years.
“I felt like it popped out of its sockets,” he indicated.
It was determined Diewert required arthroscopic surgery on a partially-torn labrum in his left shoulder.
“It was the incident that led to this,” he said of the furniture-moving, but “I think it was just baseball over the years.”
Diewert will be taking a medical redshirt for the season, but the good news is he retains his two years of eligibility and can come back as a junior again next year. He’ll also still be eligible for the Major League Baseball draft during the next two years.
There was an option to rehab and try to come back, but if he reinjured it later in the year, then he would have jeopardized both seasons.
“Once you play one-third of the year, you lose the option to medical red-shirt,” explained Diewert.
So he’ll be spending the next four weeks with his arm in a sling and abstaining from training. “It’s already bugging me,” Diewert confessed.
He’ll still be around the ballpark, but can’t travel with the team.
“It’ll be a lot of watching for now,” Diewert conceded. “At least I’ve got two more years after this.”
Minor rehab can start after his sling comes off.
It’s expected to be anywhere from three to six months for his recovery time, but could be less than three. He’s hoping for the best.
“The plan is to hopefully be better for summer ball,” Diewert indicated.
For now, he’ll be concentrating on courses toward a major in health sciences.
Diewert had a standout baseball career under head coach Al Corbiel at Polk State College before heading to the University of Missouri. He hit .291 with seven home runs and 34 RBI in 2017 and went .315 with 14 home runs and 78 RBI for his career there.
He arrived at the University of Missouri in mid-August last year.
“We practiced really heavy throughout the fall, five or six days a week,” Diewert said. “It was definitely a step up from my junior college.
“Here, everything’s fast-paced. Everything’s planned down to the second.
“The fall couldn’t have gone better. It’s a cool place, a cool town.”
The team is looking good, Diewert said, and the main spring season just got under way last Friday.
“It would have been a really fun year,” he enthused.