STILLWATER — Thomas Hatch could have done without the pain and the unknowns associated with the elbow injury that robbed him of 15 months of baseball.
Yet now, recovered and removed from the many downsides of the injury, Hatch swears by one major upside attached to the experience: scrutiny.
“Oh, the injury was a blessing in disguise,” Hatch said.
And who can argue, as the Oklahoma State ace carries a scoreless innings streak of 29 2/3 innings — the latest stretch in a season of domination — into Friday night's Bedlam opener at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark?