Saint Ansgar, IA

Saint Ansgar Junior Logan Cimmiyotti is on the baseball diamond just five-months after doctors replaced his ACL.

Cimmiyotti remembers the play which injured him like it was yesterday.

"I was running to the left in the 3rd quarter against Lake Mills," Cimmiyotti recalls. "A guy hit me right in the knee."

According to Cimmiyotti, the doctors initially ruled it a sprained MCL. Logan put the pads back on and went at it the very next week against North Iowa.

"I was running to the right and I heard it just popped," Cimmiyotti said.

The Saint Ansgar Junior had a 'cadaver' procedure performed. According to Accelerated Rehab Physical Therapist Amy VanHeel, that means someone else's ACL is put into him.

Cimmiyotti went to rehab at Accelerated Rehab in Mason City.

"We lead him through exercises that make him bend and extend," VanHeel said.  "We gradually get harder with the exercises and get more functional as he heals."

Cimmiyotti went through workouts which consisted of jogs on the treadmill to quad-exercises to cones and ladder drills. Doctors cleared Cimmiyotti because the nature of baseball being more of a non-contact sport.

Five months after the surgery, he feels fine.

"It doesn't really hurt all that much," Cimmiyotti said. "When I go down (in a catcher's position), you don't really feel it."