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| Spotlight
Player of the Week
Arik Hempy
South Carolina |
The outlook was brilliant for South Carolina’s Arik
Hempy in 2006. As a sophomore the year before, he put solid
numbers, pitching 27.1 innings with a 2-1 record, 18 strikeouts
and a 2.63 ERA. Despite hurting his throwing arm late in the
season, the Baltimore Orioles liked what they saw in the big
6’4”, 240 pound lefty from Raleigh, N.C. and selected
him the 31st round of the MLB Draft. But Hempy decided against
both off-season surgery and a professional contract, and returned
to Columbia with his arm purportedly back in shape. To start
'07 Hempy had six injury-free starts, matching his 2-1 record
with a nearly identical 2.65 ERA from the year before, but
his other numbers were jaw dropping impressive: 34 innings
pitched with a whopping 47 strikeouts and yielding only 22
hits and 11 walks. Hempy was establishing himself to be one
of the most dominating pitchers in the country when tragically,
he felt a pop in the elbow while pitching against LSU on March
31st. This time Hempy didn’t have a choice. His injury
required season ending surgery; a “Tommy John”
operation in which a ligament from his left elbow was replaced
by a tendon from his right arm.
“Emotionally, it’s probably one of the biggest
things I’ve overcome in my life,” Hempy stated,
“It’s a new part of me in my elbow that has only
been there for a year. My body hasn’t adjusted to it
being there yet. So it still feels new. It kind of feels like
a separate part of my body.”
Hempy remained on the sidelines for the first part of the
2007 season before finally returning to the mound on March
11 against Brown. Limited by a pitch count, he tossed 2.2
innings, giving up just 3 hits and a single run while striking
out four Bears. In his next appearance against an upstart
Wofford Terrier team looking for an upset, Hempy earned the
win throwing three innings of one hit, no run ball. Not to
slight Wofford, Brown and Furman (who he would earn his second
win against in n his next appearance), but those teams weren’t
quite the caliber of completion Hempy would face in the Southeastern
Conference. On April 14th Hempy faced Auburn in his first
SEC matchup of the season. Hempy shut the Tigers out and limited
them to just two hits in a then season-high 6.2 innings of
work with five strikeouts and four walks. After a leadoff
single, he did not allow a hit until with two outs in the
sixth inning to earn SEC Pitcher of the Week honors.
In his most recent outing last Saturday, April 28th, Hempy
had his longest stint of the season in the leading the Gamecocks
to a 4-1 win over Alabama. He limited the Crimson Tide to
one run on seven hits with his seven strikeouts and two walks
allowed.
This season, Hempy appears to be where he was last year before
his derailing injury. His record stands at 4-1 with a 1.87
ERA. He has started seven games, tallying 33.2 innings. He
has only given up 24 hits in those frames, walking 12 and
is just a single K'd batsman short of a strikeout per inning
with 32.
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