Alex Panteliodis led the Gators with 11 wins, 84 strikeouts and 100 innings pitched last season, and he did it all with a bad hip.
“I had some days where I couldn’t walk,” the left-handed pitcher said. “It just hurt to walk. I took some cortisone shots, had a Toradol shot and basically just muscled it up and went out there.”
Panteliodis felt pain before the start of last season but couldn’t identify the injury or its extent.
As the discomfort got worse, the junior got better on the mound.
He just kept playing through it and applied heat to keep it loose and minimize the pain.
Doctors found a bump growing on his bone that would fray his labrum whenever he rotated his hip.
By season’s end, Panteliodis said his labrum was “mangled,” so he underwent offseason surgery.
The lefty went through a lengthy rehabilitation process that required six weeks on crutches without putting weight on his surgically repaired hip.
Although he couldn’t stand up and throw the ball during rehab, Panteliodis found other ways to improve his game.
The hurler sat on a bucket and worked on his off-speed pitches so he wouldn’t have to rely on his fastball this season as much as he did last year.
Because of the rehab, he missed out on fall workouts and didn’t take the mound until Jan. 29, right after the Gators opened spring practice.
Since Panteliodis went nearly eight months without facing live batters, O’Sullivan is erring on the side of caution when it comes to the left-hander, who will take the mound at 6:30 tonight when UF (3-0) takes on FAU (3-0) in Jupiter.
“He’s been throwing great,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve always taken things on the cautious side of things and let him kind of work his way back into it.”
It will be Panteliodis’ first start since a June 19 outing in Omaha, Neb., when he recorded a loss against UCLA in UF’s College World Series opener.
That day, he retired just 10 UCLA batters and allowed five runs on 60 pitches before being pulled for Anthony DeSclafani.
Because of Panteliodis’ long layoff, the Gators’ skipper wanted the pitcher to get his feet wet in the team’s season-opening sweep of USF.
O’Sullivan used the lefty out of the bullpen during Friday’s 7-2 win, and Panteliodis struggled.
He tossed the ninth inning, throwing 24 pitches and giving up two runs on three hits.
He was the only UF pitcher to give up more than one run on the weekend.
Despite Panteliodis’s struggles against the Bulls, O’Sullivan said he has confidence in the pitcher heading into tonight’s matchup.
“He didn’t throw very well,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s been sharp, but that’s why we wanted to do that.
“He’s going to be a really, really good pitcher for us this year.”
FONTANA NAMED SEC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Florida sophomore shortstop Nolan Fontana was named the season’s first Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday following an impressive opening series at the plate.
Fontana went 9 for 12 in the Gators’ sweep of South Florida in McKethan Stadium, leading UF with a .786 on-base percentage, 10 total bases and five runs scored.
