By Josh Owsley, Contributing Writer
April 6, 2018. The Asbury baseball team was in the meat of its season. The sun was shining down on Cecil Zweifel Field, and the Eagles were looking to win a series against ranked conference opponent Indiana University Southeast. Junior pitcher Logan Reitter was on the mound after a short three-day rest. He was already dealing with a nagging back injury suffered during his sophomore season.
As he got the last out of an inning, Reitter saw his baseball career flash before his eyes. Something had popped in his left shoulder. He sat in the dugout with his face in his hands, all alone in a corner. He knew something was not right.
After an MRI the following week, Reitter found he had torn his labrum — an injury due to years of wear and tear on his shoulder.
The labrum is the cup-shaped rim of cartilage that lines and reinforces the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder. It is the attachment site for the ligaments and provides shoulder stability. A torn labrum is an unfortunate but frequent injury for baseball players, as the kinetic forces required to throw a pitch routinely rip apart the structures designed to keep the shoulder together.
Reitter knew an injury like this would involve a long, hard recovery. “I would be lying to you if I told you I thought I would ever throw a baseball again after my junior season,” he said. “I put all this work into bouncing back from my back injury, only to pick up a tear in my arm.”
Physically, the pain started to take a toll on him, but the mental strain was much worse. He could not throw, practice or participate with his team at all. “Coming home after each day of practice/games knowing sleep would be hard to get because of the pain really affects your mind,” Reitter said.
He spent the summer following his junior year in a back brace and doing painful rehab on his shoulder. He decided to forego surgery and only do rehab to try and get back to full strength. Reitter knew surgery would mean an eight-month recovery and missing the start of his senior year. He rehabbed hard all of summer, going five days a week for multiple hours. Now, back at school, he normally tries to do some form of rehab every day for at least 20 minutes.
Throughout this process, Reitter kept telling himself to trust God and leave it all at His feet — to trust whatever decision He was pushing him to make. “God was everything to me through this process,” he said. “He kept telling me that my story had not yet been completed and that with hard work I could be back, and the reward would be worth it.”
Many athletes would consider quitting after back-to-back injuries, especially if they had no aspirations of pursuing the sport professionally after college. However, Reitter did not want to back out on his four-year commitment to his university with hopes for a great final season with his teammates.
“The team we have on paper this year will easily be the most talented team I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.
Reitter returned to campus in August and reported to practice with the rest of the team. He started throwing a whiffle ball by mid-September. He was throwing off an actual mound with a baseball in December. Even though he is pitching now, Reitter says that there is a lot of pain that goes into each pitch. But he does not like to make excuses, and each time he takes the mound, he believes he is at full strength.
“Once the lights go on and you take the ball, the excuses go out the window,” he said. “There’s no injuries, no excuses — nothing else is on your mind besides doing your job for your team.”
Asbury kicked off its baseball season Feb. 2. Reitter pitched the second game of a two-game series against the University of Saint Francis. With all eyes on him, he delivered for his team, throwing 7 1/3 innings and giving up eight hits and three runs while striking out five. Asbury won the game 4-3.
After the game, the relief on his face was noticeable. The hours of rehab and coming back for one last chance at a championship paid off. Now, he’s almost thankful for the injury.
“This injury taught me that I am a lot stronger than I thought I was, which was a lesson I believe God wanted me to learn at this time in my life,” said Reitter.
