This College World Series star will have an emotional return to the mound for CCU
When senior Bobby Holmes takes the mound for the first time this season, Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore may have the sleeve of his baseball jersey ready for alternate use.
Hopefully it’s moisture absorbent.
“It will be hard not to have tears run down my face when Holmes walks out there on the mound for the first time because that young man, as much as he has meant to us as a physical baseball player, he has meant exponentially more to us as a team leader, a guy that the coaching staff and his teammates could count on 24-7 to do all the right things,” Gilmore said.
The tears will be for what Holmes has already done, what he’s been through and what he may still yet accomplish for the Chanticleers in his final collegiate season.
Holmes played a vital role in helping Coastal win the 2016 College World Series as a sophomore out of the bullpen, but he was beset with arm injuries over the past two seasons that threatened to keep him from returning to the mound.
After missing the entire 2018 season following Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery, he persevered through a couple setbacks to be available for a fifth year of eligibility at Coastal, which opens the 2019 season against Virginia Commonwealth at 4 p.m. Friday at Springs Brooks Stadium as part of the Brittain Resorts Invitational.
Holmes’ presence will mean more to the Chants this season than his substantial ability will reflect.
“He’s if not our best academic [student] he’s right there. He’s an incredible academic guy, unbelievable young man in the locker room,” Gilmore said. “I just want to see him pitch and stay healthy and do the things he can do. Obviously those things will help us as a team, but I’m all about Bobby Holmes walking out there and having fun again.”
The tears won’t likely be relegated to the dugout when Holmes makes his first appearance.
His official residence is Watkinsville, Ga., outside Athens, but Coastal has become Holmes’ second home over the past nearly five years and those in the program, including Gilmore, have become his second family.
“He’s definitely been almost like a father figure to me and he never gave up on me when it could have been very easy to with the amount of setbacks I had,” Holmes said of Gilmore. “He’s been nothing but supportive and I’ve been very grateful for that.
“So I think it will be hard for me not to have a tear in my eye too when I look around for the first time. Certainly when I come off [the mound] I want to make sure I give him a big hug and tell him I love him.”
Most importantly for Holmes and the Chants, he believes he’s healthy for the first time in nearly two years.
“I feel 100 percent. I want to get out there and show people what they’ve been missing for two years,” Holmes said.
Rise and fall
Holmes was instrumental in Coastal’s national title run. He threw 18 2/3 postseason innings and allowed just four earned runs for an ERA of 1.93 as both an alternating closer and set-up man with Mike Morrison.
He entered the championship game against Arizona with two outs and two runners on in the sixth inning and recorded a strikeout to end the inning, and finished the season having allowed only three of 26 inherited runners to score.
“It was a [bullpen] rotation of four or five or six of us just going out there throwing every pitch we could till our arm would fall off,” Holmes recalled. “. . . We were totally bought in. We would do anything, and we still will.”
He was 7-2 with four saves and a 4.20 ERA in 28 outings that sophomore season, and had been a Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American after posting a 4-1 record in 27 appearances with four saves and a 2.90 ERA.
Prior to his junior season in 2017 – Coastal’s first in the Sun Belt Conference – Holmes was tabbed the sixth-best pro prospect in the conference for the 2017 draft by D1Baseball.
He made 23 appearances and was 5-3 with three saves and a 2.51 ERA that season, but that May he felt the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow tear – taking a piece of bone with it – and renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews performed Tommy John surgery in June 2017.
Rehab was progressing according to plan for about nine months before inflammation began to irritate the back of Holmes elbow. He took a month off and felt good for a short time before inflammation hit his tricep. On the advice of Andrews, Holmes ceased all throwing last fall. “I never understood inflammation could feel like that,” Holmes said.
After the second setback in his rehab, Holmes said he feared he might not pitch again, and he called his mother and grandfather in despair. “I’m 23 years old, I’m the grandfather around here and it definitely struck my mind that I might not ever get back out there again,” said Holmes, who said he forged past negative thoughts at the behest of CCU pitching coach Drew Thomas. “. . . I guess I gave myself a day or so to kind of think like that and move on and get past it. At that point, what the [heck] did I have to lose?”
To strengthen and protect his arm, Holmes altered his delivery about three months ago.
“I’ve been perfect since,” Holmes said. “The other day I threw on the mound and it had been 621 days since I threw off that mound to a batter, so I’m certainly looking forward to it. It has been a long time since I got out there and competed against another team. That’s what I came to school for so I’m looking forward to doing that again.”
He hit 92 mph on the radar gun that first day back on the mound and expects the arm to continue strengthening as the season progresses. “That [92] was somewhere I would maybe touch now and then before Tommy John, but it’s somewhere I certainly didn’t hover around that often,” said Holmes, who also throws a slider and has been working diligently on a changeup.
Holmes, who is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, expects to start the season as the third or fourth starter, pitching two or three innings in the first few appearances so he’ll know when to prepare his body and arm for action. Then he expects to settle into a bullpen role.
“I’m just going to help the staff wherever they need help,” he said. “I just want to get out there and throw, I want to get out there and compete. I don’t really care what my role is, I just want to help this team as much as I can. That’s the plan. If that changes I’m totally fine with it.”
More than a hurler
Coastal has a talented but generally young pitching staff, and the return of both Holmes and junior lefthanded reliever Austin Kitchen following seasons lost to injuries will provide both talent and leadership in the clubhouse and bullpen.
“Those guys are extremely important because they bring a lot of leadership to those young guys that may not have the experience but they have the talent,” senior first baseman Zach Biermann said. “They kind of guide them the right way. Then when they get on the mound everybody knows what they can do and is ready to help them in the best way they can. Those guys are huge and they’re going to be in extremely important roles for us this year.”
Holmes said he considered himself a leader in 2016 despite being just a sophomore because of all the appearances he made, and in keeping with Coastal tradition, he’s passing on the baseball and life lessons that those who preceded him in the program taught him.
“I was fortunate to learn from Andrew Beckwith and Mike Morrison kind of how to be a good person before a good baseball player,” Holmes said. “That’s all I’m trying to do with these guys, make sure they know baseball is important and we’re having a lot of fun out here but we’re representing a lot more than just the nine guys on the field, we’re representing the university and Gary Gilmore and stuff like that.”
Holmes has a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in conservation science and land management – he graduated with a 3.75 GPA – and at the end of this semester he’ll be two classes shy of a Master’s Degree in Business Administration.
“I certainly want to be drafted but I feel I’m definitely prepared for life if it doesn’t happen,” said Holmes, who was honored during the opening ceremony at the 2016 College World Series for having the highest GPA among all participating players. “I’m completely bought into giving this place the next six months of my life, no matter where it takes me.
“. . . This injury, this journey since then has definitely been an eye-opener. I’ve re-fallen in love with this place, fallen in love with the game. I consider this place my home, so it’s definitely a rekindled love of this place.”
The right side of Holmes’ hat has the word “dad” written on it in Sharpie as a reminder of his father, Steve, a college player who coached Holmes and his brothers throughout his early youth before dying when Holmes was 11.
“He was a baseball guy through and through and he was an incredible dad,” Holmes said. “I’d like to think I come out here every day and try to make him happy. I know he certainly would have loved what we did in ’16. He’d love to be out here watching me compete.
“It’s just kind of a nice reminder to me when things are kind of monotonous or frustrating at times that this is the reason I’m doing it.”
Holmes’ mother, Katie Towns, will be a vocal supporter at many of CCU’s games this season. “She’s been kind of my rock. She would do absolutely anything for me and still would,” Holmes said. “We talk every day and she’s certainly looking forward to coming up here and watching me play again.”
Heck, she might shed a tear as well.
Brittain Resorts Invitational schedule
(all games at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway)
Friday
Maryland vs. Campbell, 11 a.m.
Coastal Carolina vs. VCU, 4 p.m.
Saturday
Campbell vs. VCU, 11 a.m.
Coastal Carolina vs. Maryland, 3 p.m.
Sunday
VCU vs. Maryland, 11 a.m.
Coastal Carolina vs. Campbell, 3 p.m.
