The Duke baseball team and the athletic department breathed a collective sigh of relief today.
All available information indicates that sophomore pitcher Jeff Alleva should make a full recovery after being struck in the eye with a linedrive on Sunday at Elon.
"I just got back from the eye center with him," said Joe Alleva, Jeff's father and Duke's athletic director. "His vision has drastically improved today. Yesterday his vision was none. It was a huge improvement from last night. The prognosis was good, the doctors expect his vision to fully recover."
Alleva was able to see the top "E" on the eye chart. Test results indicate that his retina was not detached, and that although he suffered a concussion, there is no brain damage from the impact. He took ten stitches to his eye and has a slight fracture of the lower orbital. He will rest in bed for two to four days.
The injury occurred in the third inning of an 11-10 loss to the Elon Phoenix at Burlington. Leftfielder Jim Swenson hit a linedrive that smashed into Alleva's face.
"The first thing you felt was fear," head coach Bill Hillier said. "Your natural instincts take over, you just want to get to him as quick as possible, and you pray to God he's alright."
Alleva's initial appearance did not do much to assuage the Blue Devils' fears.
"You hoped it wasn't as bad as it looked," Hillier said. "It looked pretty bad. He was semi-conscious. It looked like he had been hit by Mike Tyson, he definitely had a concussion.
"There were a lot of people standing around and you could have heard a pin drop. There wasn't anyone talking, and he was probably down for 15 or 20 minutes on the mound. You knew when he got hit that it was a serious injury."
Alleva regained his senses on the field and was lucid while being taken to the hospital. This helped to calm both the coaching staff and his teammates, as they then felt confident Alleva would be alright.
Hillier has kept in constant contact with Alleva since the accident and said that the player is dealing with the situation well.
"I'm not sure if he realizes how fortunate he is," Hillier said. "He was within an inch or so of losing his eye. But he saw his older brother [thirdbaseman J.D. Alleva] go down in three games into the 1999 season [and be forced to redshirt]. So he is probably wondering when he can get back and if he is going to be 100 percent."
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