Tyson Gau likely to miss games again

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Things were looking positive for Alexandria-native Tyson Gau.

The junior pitcher for Augustana’s baseball team was one out away from a complete-game shutout against Winona State on Saturday when suddenly a pain shot through his forearm.

“I just felt something in my arm,” said Gau, who moved his pitching record to 3-0 this season with his team’s 2-1 win Saturday. “It happened last year, when I thought it was just getting tight and I kept going. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again.”

Last year, Gau tried to pitch through pain and later found out he had partially torn his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL).

He was shut down for the remainder of the season and doctors considered reconstructing his UCL with a procedure commonly referred to as Tommy John surgery.

“I was pretty worried,” Gau said. “I think the doctors made the right decision not to have surgery.”

After coming out of the game against Winona State, Gau will once again be visiting with team doctors today to look at possible options. Gau finished with three strikeouts and gave up four hits in 6 2/3 innings.

“It’s been an ongoing battle since high school,” Augustana head coach Tim Huber said. “Unfortunately, we’re not out of the woods just yet.”

Huber admits that he thought the best situation for Gau may have been to have surgery before this season.

“I was hoping they would go in and cut him and get something fixed,” he said. “The thing I’m worried about now is if he has to get surgery, he’s going to have to miss next year, too. It’s still too early to talk about that kind of stuff.”

Huber said that Gau has been the team’s best pitcher the last three years.

This season Gau has an impressive ERA of 1.23.

“He’s been awesome,” Huber said. “I don’t know where we’re going to go if we lose him for a stretch. Somebody else is going to have to step up.”

Huber said that Gau will be shut down for a couple of weeks and the team hopes to have him return to the mound this season.

“I don’t see any reason to use him. The trainers are telling me it’s forearm tightness, maybe a strained forearm,” Huber said. “The doctor is going to be the determining factor, but they seem to think it’s going to be a couple of weeks.”

As far as the possibility of Tommy John surgery, Gau said that the thought is always in the back of his mind.

“It doesn’t feel too good,” he said. “My arm has been kind of tighter this year. It’s still pretty sore and tight, but nothing terrible, I don’t think.”

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