Coronavirus cut this USM player’s career short. Now, he may join the fight vs. disease.
While some Southern Miss baseball seniors will likely be given a shot to return for another season, at least one has decided it’s time to move on from the sport and enter the medical profession during a difficult time for the industry.
Senior right-hander Alex Nelms, a product of Gulfport High School, and the rest of the USM baseball team found out on Monday that Conference USA canceled sporting events for the rest of the spring due to the new coronavirus outbreak.
The NCAA announced that it will grant an extra season of eligibility to those seniors who want it, but Nelms already has other plans for the 2020-21 school year.
“Right now, I’ve decided to pretty much forego that last year and go ahead and start my journey with medical school,” Nelms said in a phone interview with the Sun Herald on Tuesday. “I love baseball, but it’s my dream to get through med school and start a career in a field that I love. That’s the plan right now.”
Nelms, 21, was accepted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson in October.
He got the news while was sitting on the couch in Hattiesburg and watching a movie with his roommate, redshirt junior outfielder Gabe Montenegro.
“I got a random email and it said in the subject line, ‘Acceptance from UMMC.’ I jumped up,” Nelms said. “Gabe was so happy for me. I called my mom immediately and we had a 30-minute conversation. It was a dream come true.
“That day was one of the most exciting days of my life.”
With COVID-19 growing into a worldwide pandemic, Nelms has gained a deeper respect for the health profession. He also realizes that he’ll be entering a challenging environment as he begins his medical studies.
“The career I’m going into in times like this, you’re on the front line,” Nelms said. “I’ve seen things on Twitter where health professionals are working 24 hours a day, doing their best to fight this thing. It’s really something where you’ve got to be ready for battle. It’s spreading so fast. Hopefully I’m ready to be a part of that.”
Nelms, who is majoring in biomedical studies with a minor in chemistry, holds a 3.86 GPA at USM.
At UMMC, he’s not sure yet which specific field will be his focus.
“That’s definitely going to shake out,” he said. “The reason I even decided to pursue medicine was because of an arm injury I suffered at the age of 12. I went to the surgeon about it and I loved how he went about the process. He saw I was interested and he showed me everything he was doing. It was super cool. Orthopedics is the reason I chose to enter the field, but going in I’ll be as open minded as I can.”
Canceling the 2020 USM season
USM coach Scott Berry gathered his players for a meeting on March 13, giving them a pep talk after C-USA announced the indefinite suspension of spring sports.
“We were doing our best not to think that (the season would be canceled),” Nelms said. “They told us in the meeting that April 5 would be the day to look for. That’s the day we can start to put work in. I was still throwing and stuff. Some guys went home and were getting work in on their own.”
The decision to call off the College World Series on March 12 proved to be a sign of what was to come.
“That was definitely a weird blow,” Nelms said. “We didn’t really know if it was possible to have a conference championship at that point. Me personally, I still would have liked to compete in conference play and play (in the C-USA tournament) in Biloxi. We were still holding out hope for that. Having the dream of playing in the College World Series taken away, that was a tough blow.”
On Monday, Nelms and his teammates got a text informing them that the conference was preparing to announce that all sports would be called off for the rest of the spring.
In the matter a few days, the USM baseball team went from starting C-USA play as a favorite to win another league title to having its season come to an end.
For Nelms and teammates, it’s been a difficult time.
“They canceled the FIU series and everybody was kind of shell shocked,” Nelms said. “We didn’t know the full extent of what was going on. There was a lot of confusion in the beginning. Honestly, there was resentment. From what we saw, nothing was going on. As time passed, we heard stuff come out about how contagious it is. I was immediately on board with playing with no fans. That was a great initial idea.
“At this point, it’s hard to argue that they made the wrong decision. It’s not worth the risk. Obviously, I’m not happy about the end of my baseball career going down like this, but this is more important than baseball.”
Alex Nelms’ baseball career
After putting together a stellar prep career at Gulfport, Nelms worked in the bullpen and received a few mid-week starts at USM. As a junior, he made 17 appearances out of the bullpen and a pair of starts before finishing 0-0 with a 4.62 ERA.
Ahead of his senior year, Nelms was voted a team captain by his teammates.
“It was a thrill, a huge honor,” he said. “At first, it was wow — I’m a leader and these guys look up to me. Once I was named a captain, I knew it was up to me show them the ropes and fire these guys up. The respect we have among teammates is phenomenal. I loved every minute of it.”
A youth movement on the pitching staff kept Nelms from taking the mound before the 2020 season came to an end. The Golden Eagles finished the abbreviated campaign with a record of 12-4.
Even though he didn’t take the field in 2020, USM coach Scott Berry is appreciative of the Nelms’ impact on the program.
“He’s been great,” Berry said. “He’s a very, very good student. He was voted a team captain by our players. To me, that tells you everything you need to know about him. I couldn’t ask for a better representative for our program. He’s going to be a very good doctor one day as well.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 1:51 PM.
