CORVALLIS — A fluke weight room collision, a swollen left arm and a twinge of fourth-inning discomfort forced Nelson Keljo to miss his last start for the Oregon State baseball team.
But it will only be one start.
The Beavers’ ace said Wednesday he will return to the mound on Friday night, when 11th-ranked Oregon State opens a marquee three-game series against the 12th-ranked UC Irvine Anteaters at Goss Stadium in Corvallis.
“I’m excited,” Keljo said. “Irvine’s a good ball club and, obviously, last weekend didn’t turn out how we wanted it to. So I want to come back home. It’s going to be fun.”
Things weren’t so fun for Keljo on March 21 during a start against Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. The left-hander’s throwing arm started “bugging” him before the bottom of the fourth inning, as he went through his normal warmup routine in-between innings. After a visit with coaches and trainers, Keljo was abruptly pulled after 57 pitches.
It turns out the injury stemmed a fluke accident in the weight room two days before the start. As Keljo was going through a routine rotational exercise session, he accidentally collided with a piece of equipment.
His triceps immediately ballooned.
“I knew something was a little wrong,” he said. “And, obviously, I wanted to power through it, go to Cal Poly and stuff. The first three innings were fine. I never felt great, but then as I was warming up for that fourth inning, it really kind of caught up to me.”
Keljo visited a doctor the following week for evaluation and was advised to “give it a week off to kind of calm down,” he said, which forced him to miss last Friday’s start at Nebraska.
It was the first start he’s missed this season, as he’s transitioned from a reliever to a front-of-the-rotation starter.
The Beavers (20-6) suffered a 7-3 defeat that night and went on to lose two of three games to the Cornhuskers, suffering their first series defeat of the season.
But the news wasn’t entirely bad. Keljo’s injury was deemed minor and rest was prescribed merely as a precaution. He missed just one bullpen session last week and threw daily on the side with teammates.
“It was definitely relieving,” Keljo said of the positive medical news. “I didn’t think it was terrible. Obviously, I wanted to go to Nebraska and play there, but the doctor wanted me to take just a week off, which was fine. I didn’t want one week to turn into more.”
Keljo resumed his normal throwing routine this week, which included a bullpen session on Monday, and declared himself fit to return.
He will do so under a limited pitch count. But that didn’t dampen the reaction from teammates, who are eager for the return of a hard-throwing ace who is 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 26 innings this season.
“A big lefty Friday night guy is awesome to have,” junior outfielder Gavin Turley said. “So having him back at home, I’m expecting him to come out fiery as ever, fresh as ever, and ready to go.”
If anything, a week off the mound and a weekend away from teammates — he watched the Nebraska series on television in Corvallis — made Keljo take a deeper look at the season and his time at Oregon State. During a recent chat with Mitch Canham, Keljo told his coach the minor setback served as a minor “wake-up call.”
“Life can be quick and you never know what’s going to happen,” Canham said. “And not being on the field, especially as you’re an older guy, it hurts a little bit. So you want to get back out there.
“So I don’t anticipate him going out with anything short of his hair on fire and ready to get some outs.”
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.