A year later than expected, Trent Swart is ready to be the ace of Duke’s pitching staff in his final season.
Swart’s senior season was ripped away from him last winter when he underwent Tommy John surgery on his left elbow, but he is fully recovered now and expects to take the mound when Duke hosts California to open the season Feb. 19. After Michael Matuella—who saw his season cut short last year due to Tommy John surgery—was drafted in the third round of the MLB draft by the Texas Rangers in June and opted to go pro, the onus will be on Swart to carry the load for a pitching staff that also lost mainstays Andrew Istler and James Marvel.
“I don’t really notice anything different mentally [after the surgery]. I know I got a lot stronger in the weight room, definitely put a lot of time in shoulder care and elbow care just to make sure I’m healthy coming back,” Swart said. “In terms of my drive and competitiveness and all that, I don’t think much will change."
READ: How Tommy John at Duke reflects a broader national trend
The 2014 season was a landmark one for Duke, which went 16-14 in the ACC to finish better than .500 in conference play for the first time since 1994. Swart’s 1.76 ERA that season was the second-lowest mark in the ACC, and the Carlsbad, Calif., native took the hill for a critical game against Miami in the ACC tournament in Greensboro when a win would have sent the Blue Devils to the championship game.
The 5-foot-11 left-hander threw seven innings and gave up three runs to keep his team in the game, but Duke lost 6-5 in 12 innings after staging a ninth-inning rally to force extra frames. The Blue Devils’ season ended that afternoon, but the foundation was set and the outlook on the 2015 season looked promising with both Swart and Matuella returning.
Swart has not pitched in a game since.
The graduate student could only watch from the dugout last season as Duke took a step back in its rebuilding process and finished 19-19 in the ACC, failing to qualify for the conference tournament in Durham. While a young team was learning through experience on the field, though, Swart rehabbed tirelessly off the field to be ready for the start of the 2016 campaign.
“Trent is cleared and progressing, and we feel like he’s absolutely on pace to be ready by Opening Day,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “Coming back from Tommy John is a process, and some weeks it’s three steps forward, one step back, some weeks it’s two steps forward and a step back, but he’s doing really well with it.”
The recovery has certainly been a process for Swart, who went under the knife in December 2014 and did not throw to live batters for the entire calendar year of 2015. The southpaw finally faced batters in practice for the first time in mid-January, and hopes to enter the season right where he left off in 2014.
“It’s a huge shot in the arm for our team emotionally just to see him back on our field. Last week was the first time he’d thrown to batters in almost two years,” Pollard said. “To have him back out there and doing what he loves—it was a big emotional lift not only for him, but for the team.”
Pollard expects pitching to be one of the Blue Devils’ major strengths this year, and Swart will anchor a formidable weekend rotation that will include junior Bailey Clark and graduate student Brian McAfee, who is new to the program after transferring from Cornell.
Starting pitching depth was a major problem on last year’s injury-riddled team, especially after Matuella was lost for the season in early April. Clark and Istler remained healthy and effective all season, but were the only hurlers that started more than seven games, leaving Duke without a reliable third starter every weekend.
Istler graduated last year, but Swart’s return and the addition of McAfee—a first-team All-Ivy League performer in 2015—gives the Blue Devils the depth they have lacked in the past. If these three starters can stay healthy for the entire season, Duke could take a leap forward and meet its lofty goals for this season.
Swart is an unquestioned leader of the team, and he is here to win in his final year. After coming so close to triumph in the ACC tournament as a junior, he expects to go a step further this season. The conference tournament returns to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park—where the Blue Devils will play 36 home games per year beginning this season—for the second straight year in 2016, and Duke expects to play and win in its hometown park this time around.
A championship win there would mean an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament—which Duke has not played in since 1961.
“Winning is the number one thing. I know we want to make the ACC championship and then obviously the NCAA tournament. That’s our goal—I think that’s every team’s goal,” Swart said. “We have the history of our program too, and that’s kind of something we want to break. It’s been a long time since we’ve been [to the NCAA tournament], so that’s our number one goal.”
If the Blue Devils are playing for a championship in the DBAP May 29 with Swart on the mound, he would welcome the chance to write a storybook ending to a turbulent tale of resiliency.
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