Wil Crowe ready to make good on promise to USC coach Chad Holbrook
South Carolina pitcher Wil Crowe made a promise to Gamecocks baseball coach Chad Holbrook that he would bounce back from Tommy John surgery and return to the mound for the opening weekend of the 2017 season.
Crowe can’t wait to make good on that promise.
After missing last year rehabbing, he’s expected to be in USC’s starting rotation when the Gamecocks open the season in February. He was selected in the 21st round of the MLB draft this past summer, but decisided to return to Columbia.
“When Wil had that surgery, he looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Coach, I’m going to be your Opening Day starter in 2017,’ ” Holbrook recalled. “I kind of smirked at that, because I thought he would be drafted high enough, I was concerned he had thrown his last game at South Carolina when his injury occurred. But he’s held true to his word.”
Crowe said the decision to return was easy.
Following a stellar freshman season, he struggled as a sophomore, going 3-4 with a 4.91 ERA in nine starts. He was shut down for the year with an elbow injury and had Tommy John surgery. He was determined for that to not be his last memory at USC.
“The last time I was playing here in a Carolina uniform, I didn’t do too well. That kind of sticks with you,” Crowe said. “Everywhere I’ve been, I’ve succeeded a little bit, so I wanted to come back for sure and kind of get that bad taste out of my mouth.”
The rehab process was a long one. After pitching his final game of the 2015 season in April, Crowe didn’t appear in a game again until this summer when he made a handful of starts for the Lexington County Blowfish.
While he threw well this summer, he said he has to show he’s back to 100 percent.
“I just want to try to show what I can do again,” he said. “I’ve got to prove myself again and try to make an impact on the team.”
Now back on the mound, Crowe’s next goal is to be the Opening Day starter, a role he’ll battle for with last year’s ace Clarke Schmidt in fall scrimmages and the preseason.
“Me and him, we both know that that’s what we both want,” he said. “We’re just being friends about it. We’re not trying to make it a big deal. We don’t even talk about it.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2016 at 8:07 PM.