PANAMA CITY — For Austin Howze, the first week of baseball practice is about survival.
The same can be said of his teammates.
The Gulf Coast diamond teams opened practice a week ago and have fought the usual chilly and sometimes rainy days in workouts leading up to season openers on Jan. 31. The baseball and softball teams already have thin rosters with each at 22 or fewer players. Early injuries offer a more challenging configuration for the lineup.
Howze was among a few key injuries prior to last season. The Port St. Joe native was within five days of the opener before he broke his elbow tossing what was one of thousands of pitches in his young career.
“I was throwing in a scrimmage and then on one pitch I felt a pop,” Howze said. “Basically my elbow snapped in half. All the hard work I put into the fall went away from me.”
Howze spent most of last season operating the scoreboard at Bill Frazier Field. He was often joined by another injured pitcher, Austin Carpenter, who has since moved on to North Alabama. Carpenter, a closer his freshman season, was set for increased work in 2013, but also was lost in preseason practices to an elbow injury.
“I’d like to think we would have won a few more games with Carpenter and Howze,” GC baseball coach Mike Kandler said.
GC is already without three players in preseason practices this season. Utility player and pitcher Dalton Kelley injured his shoulder earlier this week with what Kandler said might be a torn labrum. Pitcher Joey McCarthy is likely out for the season after an elbow injury suffered on the last day of fall practice and infielder/outfielder Trevor Davis incurred a knee injury late last year.
“With this size roster you have little margin for injuries,” Kandler said. “You try to be optimistic and I’m not writing off the season or anything.”
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Howze has a bright outlook and reported no problems in his return to the lineup. Kandler expects Howze to be a solid contributor on a pitching staff that will require more production with two hurlers on the mend.
Howze didn’t pitch to live batting in the fall as part of his rehabilitation regimen. He threw to hitters for the first time on Wednesday and he said he will be nervous in his first game in more than a year and a half since leaving Port St. Joe. His disappointment last season has been replaced by excitement, as he nears a return rather than a chair in the press box pushing numbers on a keypad.
“I’ll be ready to go,” Howze said. “It feels great now. It feels like new.”
Howze and however many of his healthy GC teammates will open the season with the annual First Pitch Classic at Frazier Field from Jan. 31-Feb. 1. GC softball also opens Jan. 31 in a four-day tournament in Henderson, Nev.