By Sarah K. Spencer
On March 15, the Georgia redshirt junior pitcher’s legs were giving out as he threw 2.2 innings in a 6-0 loss to Missouri. It was nothing new, as they had felt like Jell-O for a while now.
“I went into the locker room and just broke down,” Sosebee said. “Because I was so frustrated, couldn’t figure out what was going on. I thought my career was slipping out of my hands.”
It took a while for doctors to pinpoint the problem, but it’s no wonder Sosebee was hampered.
He was playing with part of his spinal cord constricted.
Sosebee, who has a 2.67 ERA in 33.2 innings pitched this season, went into surgery not long after his diagnosis to get the pressure on his spinal cord relieved. He said he was up and walking around an hour later, his legs back to normal, eager to rejoin the pitching rotation – which spiraled downward in his and fellow starter Robert Tyer’s absence.
“When he goes, we go,” roommate and teammate Jared Walsh said, explaining Sosebee’s vocal leadership.
In less than a month, Sosebee got back on the mound.
But before zeroing in on the specific part of his back causing problems, Sosebee, team doctors, coaches and teammates had no explanation for the unpredictable numbness spells in his lower body. During flare-ups, Sosebee was sidelined along with Tyler, out with a forearm strain, hoping a little rest would solve the problem.
Rest did nothing to alleviate the pressure constricting his spinal cord. It did, however, inspire serenading from his teammates insisting Sosebee was simply weak.
“They would sing that song like, ‘When your legs don’t work like they used to before,’” senior Kailey Carroll, Sosebee’s girlfriend, said to the tune of “Thinking Out Loud” by Ed Sheeran.
They soon fell silent as pitcher, outfielder and first baseman Walsh noticed Sosebee couldn’t even swing a golf club without feeling tingling in his legs. Walsh said the team encouraged Sosebee to take his symptoms seriously after there was no sign of them letting up.
“Once we realized it was something serious, we were like ‘OK, you need to get it checked out,” Walsh said.
