Ian Tosi stretched out his comeback to the max.
The Mount Carmel left-hander missed his entire junior season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but was back on the mound as a senior this spring.
The Caravan wound up playing the last game of the 2026 season, thanks to a scheduling quirk, and Tosi earned the win as Mount Carmel beat Naperville Central 11-2 in the Class 4A third-place game on June 13 at Slammers Stadium in Joliet.
The Caravan normally would have played earlier in the day after losing to Libertyville in the 4A semifinals on June 12. But the IHSA tweaked the schedule to avoid weather issues.
In any case, Tosi was glad to get a chance to pitch at state before heading off to play college baseball at Miami — especially after all he’d been through.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said of sitting out in 2025. “I think it was honestly worse that I (had already) committed because, just mentally speaking, I felt like I was on top of the world.
“It was a humbling moment for me because I felt like nothing was stopping me.”
He had surgery on March 28, 2025 and was originally targeting his return to action for April or May this year.
The usual recovery time for Tommy John is 12-16 months, Tosi said. But he was back throwing in 11.
“I was working really hard, six days a week … getting the arm right,” Tosi said.
He made his season debut on March 21, pitching one inning in a 12-2 win against Lane and striking out two.
Caravan coach Brian Hurry was careful about ramping up Tosi, monitoring his workload during the regular season to make sure he’d be healthy for the playoff run. It worked out, with Tosi pitching six innings in Mount Carmel’s eight-inning win against Sandburg in the supersectional and going four innings against Naperville Central.
He struck out seven, walked one and allowed a run on two hits against the Redhawks. Cullen Winters and Mario Medina drove in two runs each to pace the offense for the Caravan (31-11).
“We had talked about it and we were on the same page (and) it worked,” Hurry said of Tosi’s comeback. “Didn’t mean that it wasn’t gonna get derailed — like he could have felt some discomfort and we (would have changed) the plan. But the plan we put in place in February just worked all the way through, amazingly.
“So Ian Tosi is one of the best pitchers in Mount Carmel baseball history.”
The numbers tell the story: Tosi pitched 51 innings this season to a 2.05 earned run average, allowing just 29 hits and nine walks while striking out 58.
“I’m just so proud of him,” Hurry said. “The amount of work he put in to get back is just truly amazing. … With a scholarship to Miami of Florida, he could have just said, ‘I’m going to prepare and get ready for college’ and not do what he did. …
“But he’s all about the team, all about the program and I’m sure going to miss him.”