OMAHA (KMTV) — It’s a comeback season for Millard West junior Tyson Lewis.
He missed the last baseball season with a fractured back.
“It happened about two weeks before the start of the spring season,” Lewis said. “I went to the doctor and found out I had a L5 pars fracture in my lower back, so that sidelined me for about a better part of a year so yeah, it’s been a long road back.”
During the offseason, he healed up and transferred from Class B program Platte Valley to Millard West in Class A.
Lewis said he’s handled the transition well so far.
“I feel like I’m taking it in stride,” he said. “And the guys on this team are really awesome. So it made it a lot easier… We gel really well. We’ve got a lot of great chemistry. I’ve known a lot of these guys for a long time, so I’ve got pretty good friendships with a lot of them.”
Head coach Steve Frey sees that as well.
“Just a great addition to our team,” he said. “[Lewis is] high-energy, great ball player of course. And he’s just so much fun to watch.”
There’s another transition coming up for Lewis after the 2024 season: He’s committed to play baseball at perennial powerhouse Arkansas under former Nebraska head coach Dave Van Horn.
“It’s gonna be awesome,” Lewis said. “I love him. It’s gonna be really fun to be down there.
“I actually had gone to a camp there my freshman year, so I kind of had built that relationship.”
Lewis admitted he had a little family pressure to stay in-state for college.
His brother Hayden plays for Nebraska, and their dad played for Creighton.
Ultimately, he chose the Razorbacks.
“They were actually one of the only schools that kind of stuck with me through the whole rehab process, so they made the decision kind of easy because they were right there alongside me,” he said.
Lewis still has almost two years before his move down to Fayetteville, so he said right now, his focus is winning a state title with the Wildcats.
“We want to have that dogpile at the end of the season,” he said.
