“On and on,” teammate Ryan Pitts said, “he’s been really dominant and a completely different player.”
The numbers back that up. Dunmire is 4-0 with one earned run allowed in 17 innings and has a 8.67 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He plays first base when he doesn’t pitch.
The risk the 18-year-old Dunmire was initially hesitant to take more than two years ago turned out to be one he doesn’t regret. It has transformed him into a new pitcher and a new-look competitor.
“The biggest thing that’s changed from before is to enjoy it, and to be more excited, and to get hyped up before you go out there,” he said. “I’ve learned to take advantage of every opportunity on the mound.”
Dunmire is part of an alarming statistic and a growing trend in baseball. A study by the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine revealed 57 percent of Tommy John surgeries — named after the first major league pitcher to undergo UCL reconstruction in 1974 — over a recent four-year period were performed on teens ages 15 to 19.
Dunmire falls into that category, but is still puzzled when and why the injury occurred. Always a multi-sport athlete priding on arm care, he learned during basketball season sophomore year of the fully torn UCL in the pitching arm.
The news came as a shock to this day, Dunmire can’t pinpoint times of overuse, or a specific pitch or game the left arm gave way to pain; rather, a gradual injury that began freshman year and continued for months without improvement.
“We’ve still tried to figure out why it happened,” he said.
Dunmire admits he wasn’t much of a risk taker until agreeing to have the reconstructive surgery in February 2017. Persuasion by his father, David, helped the younger Dunmire see the benefits while knowing the risk factors involved.
“The fact I’d miss an entire season, or have the surgery go wrong, I didn’t want to risk it,” Dunmire said. But I realized how much I liked (baseball) and put into it, I’d be letting myself down if I didn’t take a shot.
“I can’t imagine if I didn’t go through it now.”
Surgery shelved Dunmire for 12 months. Recovery included lengthy rehabilitation and strict throwing schedules to build back arm strength and control. That spring, Dunmire was a team manager for the Skyview team that reached the Class 4A state semifinals. That 2017 season is same year the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association responded to new national high school regulations on pitch-count limits, limiting pitchers to no more than 105 pitches in a day. Previously, innings thrown is what determined pitchers’ rest time.
Skyview head coach Seth Johnson follows USA Baseball guidelines and its Pitch Smart Program to help avoid overuse injuries for all Storm pitchers.
While Dunmire is the first to have the surgery in Johnson’s tenure at Skyview, the coach dealt with a similar scenario as a Lower Columbia College assistant coach. Right-hander Levi Dean from Chehalis missed the first half of 2008 recovering from Tommy John, and Johnson took a page out of Dean’s time at LCC to formulate a back-to-pitching plan for Dunmire in 2018. It included three starts between varsity and sub-varsity and a strict pitch-count limit each outing.
Not wanting to rush, the coach looked at Dunmire’s future rather than the present.
“I was more concerned about his health than if he was going to throw and help us win a games,” Johnson said. “It was more important for him to get right and be healthy at (age) 21-22 and show off at that age.”
And what Johnson has seen is a player who has exceeded the coach’s expectations as a pitcher and hitter this spring. In last week’s 7-1 win over Union, Dunmire drove in five runs in a 3-for-3 day at the plate. He’s also allowed just six hits in four starts entering the Storm’s (11-2) 4A Greater St. Helens League contest at Battle Ground on Thursday.
“His fastball is as good as I’ve ever seen him with,” Johnson said.
In showcase tournaments last summer, Dunmire said his fastball was clocked in the mid-80s. Not long after, colleges came calling. He signed with LCC, cementing what he labels a positive two-year ordeal with a rewarding takeaway.
“Baseball can always teach you a lot about life, and how to overcome obstacles,” Dunmire said. “If you keep playing long enough and hard enough, things will work out in the end.
“It’s one of those things you feel the most pain you’ve ever felt on the field, but it can be the most happy and excited you’ve ever been.
“I’ve gotten that spirit and fire back, but I’m not done.”
