By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Tucker Holland returned to the mound this summer after a layoff and that felt good for the former The Burlington School pitcher.
“I really hadn’t pitched in a game in a year or so,” Holland said.
His summer assignment came with the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League.
Holland is a left-hander for Arkansas, but his first year with the Razorbacks didn’t go as planned. An elbow ailment put him on the sideline for the 2024 college season, though surgery wasn’t necessary.
He said the problem probably developed during fall workouts, and it was still bothering him when he returned to campus for the start of the spring semester. He received the diagnosis in January.
“I was just rehabbing,” Holland said. “I started throwing in early May.”
But he missed many team activities and regular practices, and didn’t travel with the Razorbacks.
He joined the Foresters during the collegiate off-season and was thrilled to be in game action.
“It felt really weird to get back out there,” Holland said.
He went 1-0 across six appearances totaling 10 innings in the California Collegiate League portion of the team’s schedule. He allowed 11 runs (nine earned), while striking out 12 batters and walking five.
Holland, whose goal is to be a full participant in the Razorbacks’ fall workouts, knew he would be eased into action this summer.
“Nothing too crazy,” he said. “The workload has been solid.”
Holland took advantage of the West Coast experience with visits to Los Angeles and the beaches.
“I loved every second of it,” he said.
The Foresters weren’t done in July in their home state. They participated last week in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas.
Santa Barbara advanced to the tournament’s quarterfinals when Holland threw 2 2/3 hitless innings of relief with three strikeouts in a victory against the Haysville Aviators. The Foresters lost in the next round, so that’s where Holland’s summer season ended.
