Strikeouts and errors don’t faze Mason Katz anymore.
Whenever the junior infielder misses a tough play or has an unfavorable at-bat, all he has to do is look down at his armband to be reminded how lucky he is.
Dedicated to his best friend and fallen teammate, freshman Chris Sciambra, the armband serves as more than just a tribute.
“Going 0-for-3 isn’t as bad as having a broken neck and not being able to play,” Katz said. “I’ll rub it all the time, and I’ll be like ‘all right, things aren’t so bad.'”
Sciambra’s grisly injury came against Auburn in the Tigers’ second Southeastern Conference series of the season when he suffered two non-displaced fractures of his C1 vertebra and a concussion after crashing head first into the outfield wall.
Katz, who befriended Sciambra on his recruiting trip at the urging of hitting coach Javi Sanchez, took the freshman’s gruesome injury harder than most.
“It took a lot out of me to see him go down like that,” Katz said. “I hated it.”
A Baton Rouge native who grew up idolizing the Tiger baseball program, Sciambra was emerging as a viable leadoff hitter before the injury and admitted to being disheartened in the days after the collision.
“Of course everyone would get discouraged after an injury like that,” Sciambra said. “After the initial shock of it – after I got over it – then it wasn’t too bad.”
On top of the devastating injury, LSU dropped the series, including two one-run games, evoking memories of its inability to close out one-run games last season.
When No. 3 Arkansas came to Alex Box Stadium the next weekend for a pivotal SEC series, the Tigers rallied together and emerged from the dugout with “CS 5” written just above the bill of their caps, a small acknowledgement of their fallen brother.
The Tigers swept the Hogs that weekend and haven’t looked back since.
With a road series win over No. 1 Florida the following week, the Tigers erased any lingering memories of last year’s debacle, all thanks to what Sciambra called the “spark” of his injury.
“It might have been a little spark that started something,” Sciambra said. “We kind of found our identity and found out who we are.”
Sciambra is now a fixture in the Tiger dugout, constantly motivating his teammates either simply by his presence or taking a more vocal approach.
“He’s not scared to step up and talk to the older guys,” Katz said. “If I’m having a bad game, he’ll be the first one in my face telling me ‘Don’t be down on yourself.'”
While some may find it odd that a team embraced a largely- unknown true freshman’s unfortunate circumstance, Sciambra claimed the team would have done the same for standout pitcher Kevin Gausman or senior Austin Nola.
Senior infielder Tyler Hanover agreed.
“No matter if you’re a senior or a freshman, you’re a part of this team,” Hanover said. “We’ve come together as a team and rallied around each other.”
Sciambra said he will stay in Baton Rouge throughout the summer to rehabilitate, and should be back to “100 percent” once fall ball begins, shortly after the team reports to campus.
Katz has no worries whether Sciambra will pick up right where he left off from a promising freshman campaign.
“He’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever been on a team with,” Katz said.