Chosen One

Karen C. Tully Arizona Daily Wildcat UA senior designated hitter Jeff Gjerde relaxes in the dugout during Tuesday's baseball game against Grand Canyon. Due to a broken hamate bone in his right hand, Gjerde has spent most of the season on the bench.

This season, the gong has collected dust.

Coming off a spectacular junior season, senior Jeff Gjerde was the chosen one.

Gjerde, a third-team preseason All-American, has been forced to spend most of his final campaign as a Wildcat on the bench thanks to a broken hamate bone in his right hand.

The injury occurred against Cal State-Dominguez Hills on February 12, when Gjerde felt a sharp pain in his right hand after he took a cut.

"I really didn't think anything of it, at first," Gjerde said. "Then I had to call time out and get out of the game."

Gjerde tried to play through the injury, thinking that some rest would do the hand some good and not knowing the severity of it. He would play two games, then rest for two, thinking at first it must be some sort of nerve problem.

"It would be okay for a game, and then it would be sore to swing," Arizona head coach Jerry Stitt said. "He did pretty well considering the pain he was in."

Before being sidelined, Gjerde was hitting .309 with two home runs and 16 RBI in 26 games.

The pain became too much and Gjerde had x-rays taken. It was discovered that the hamate bone in his right hand had snapped.

"I was playing with it broken for a couple of weeks," Gjerde said. "I just couldn't play like I could, and it got pretty frustrating not being able to bat like I normally can. It was just causing a lot of problems."

Sitting on the bench with his hand in a cast was not what Gjerde had in mind for his last season at Arizona.

"It's not how I pictured my senior year to be," Gjerde said. "I expected to have a really good year. After my junior year, I felt like I had it in me to put together a really good year. As it turns out, I got injured."

Gjerde plastered his name all over the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division leaders' board last season, finishing third in triples (six), fourth in RBI (65), seventh in hits (82) and ninth in batting (.364) while playing left field, first base and designated hitter for Arizona. He was named honorable mention All-Pac 10 Southern Division. He went undrafted, though, and knew this season would the deciding factor.

"I didn't mind coming back (after not being drafted). I knew we had a chance to be a really good team."

But that team was supposed to include his sweet swing.

"He is one of the best hitters that we have ever had here," Stitt said. "He is a 10 home run, 70 RBI kind of guy. It has been really tough on our offense to be without him."

Missing games doesn't rest easy with Gjerde. Entering this season he had played in 112 consecutive games and he's tied for ninth in Wildcat history for games played (193).

Over that span, Gjerde placed himself in Arizona's all-time top 20 for nearly every offensive category.

"Some people say that hitters are born and not made," Stitt said. "He is a combination of both. He has great hand-eye coordination and has taken millions of swings to make it the way it is."

Yet without their best returning hitter and a starting pitching staff that is filled with 20-year-olds, the Wildcats have played some of their best baseball in years, securing their first winning season since 1993.

For Gjerde, it has been rough having to watch it all from the dugout.

"I didn't get a chance to help as much as I wanted to," said the Billings, Mon. native. "But we are still not out of it."

With the playoffs now in sight, No. 14 is back in the batter's box and the gong has been cleaned off.

To an ovation from the crowd and with the gong in effect, Gjerde got his first at-bat since early March, a pinch-hit appearance in the eighth inning of Arizona's 15-8 win over Grand Canyon on Tuesday night. Although he looked rusty as he struck out, coaches and players know what his return means to the team.

"It is just huge to have him back even if he never gets another at-bat, which he will," Stitt said. "It's just great to see him take (batting practice). Guys learn from Jeff."

"Gjerde is a big lift," junior shortstop Jake Thrower said. "He is our best hitter. He's back off surgery and will be a big lift in the line-up."

Gjerde knows he can't rush things, but thoughts of a perfect ending to his disappointing year have been easy to dream of.

"Not looking past the games ahead of us, I would like more than anything to go to a regional, win a regional, then go to the College World Series and win that."

Hopefully the Gong Lady is ready for the journey.