A pitch takes a little less than half a second to reach home plate on average.

In that span of time, Eastern junior Brant Valach went from starting third baseman to out five weeks with a broken bone in his right hand.

The Eastern baseball team was in its seventh game of the season, facing Arkansas on the road on Feb. 23.

Down 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning, Valach stepped up to the plate, settled in to his batting stance and then was hit by a pitch.

Naturally, Valach began to walk to first base, thinking he had been awarded a base by the hit by pitch. Home plate umpire Steve Dew did not see it that way.

“It hit off my wrist, as I kind of turned into the pitch, which I shouldn’t have done, but I started running to first base but the guy called it a foul ball,” Valach said.

“I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to show the guy the lace marks that were on my wrist. Crap, when it hurts that bad you at least want to get a base out of it.”

With adrenaline running through his body, as more than 2,000 Arkansas fans in attendance on a Sunday afternoon hollered out, Valach finished the at-bat, drawing a walk and adding an RBI next to his name.

Valach then went out to play third base in the bottom half of the inning, but something did not feel right.

“I threw one ball just in-between innings and it was a different pain, not a sore pain because I could tell something was injured,” he said.

“Then I threw another ball and with every throw it started to hurt more and more. It started to throb, so that’s when I knew there was something wrong.”

After a couple of tests performed by the team’s athletic trainer, the junior was pulled out of the game.

The next day Valach had X-rays done.

He had a broken bone below his right thumb. He was told he would miss four to six weeks.

“You work during the whole offseason, putting in all of the hours and one pitch makes you sit out a month,” he said.

For the next four weeks he had to wear a removable cast and was told he could not really do much rehab on the broken bone.

Valach did not return to action until March 28. During that missed time, Valach was left following the Panthers’ games through his computer.

“It’s really disappointing having to watch the game on live stats,” Valach said. “You know, when it would be my turn to go hit I just wanted to be out there more than anything.”

Valach missed a total of 17 games, including Eastern’s 2-4 start in the Ohio Valley Conference.

After the Panthers finished a series against IPFW, Valach was out of his removable cast and could finally start to work on strengthening his hand.

“I was using putty, stretching it a lot and just doing little things to strengthen it,” Valach said.

On March 25, Valach said he was told that he could not injure the bone any more if he decided to play, as long as he could withstand the pain — unless he was hit in the same place again.

He began to take batting practice to test out how it felt, slowly increasing the number of swings he would take during the week.

Then on March 28, with Jacksonville State arriving at Coaches Stadium, Valach was asked if could play.

“It was a Friday decision if I could play or not and I said I could,” Valach said.

It wasn’t the most triumphant return, as Valach went hitless in two at-bats, but did pick up a walk in Eastern’s 8-2 loss.

Before the game and every game since his return, Valach has taped up his hand as much as possible to prevent any further injury.

“Me and the trainer are joking around a little bit, but I probably go through $10 worth of tape a day, so there’s quite a bit of tape on there,” Valach said.

After the Jacksonville State series and a game on the road against Illinois State, Valach went 9-for-15 against Murray State, including a three-home run game Sunday.

The right-handed hitter drove in 10 runs, while scoring six of his own against the Thoroughbreds. The offensive performance earned Valach Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Week.

Before Valach departed the Eastern lineup in late February, he was hitting .136 (3-for-22).

Being out for more than a month gave Valach a new perspective. Early in the season, Valach would put a lot of pressure on himself, but that has changed since returning.

“I’m having more fun than I ever had before,” he said. “That’s why I think I’m doing so well, because I’m not putting pressure on myself anymore.”

Though Valach is still playing through the pain and knows that it would only take one more pitch hitting his hand to seriously get injured again, but that will not stop him.

“When I hit it’s still there, when I throw it’s still there, but you deal with it,” he said. “As long as you don’t try to think about it and focus on what you’re trying to do, it sort of hides itself. You never play baseball at 100 percent no matter what.”

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].