John Gaddis, for most of the season, thought the weeks would be his final trip through a college baseball schedule.

The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi left-hander had an ulnar nerve transposition and decompression in November, where doctors took the nerve next to the ligament most often associated with Tommy John and moved it to a more suitable location to avoid any issues moving forward.

The procedure left him healthy, but his command and feel weren’t 100 percent. And with such a tight recovery timetable, each time he pitched was in a game, making it difficult to work on feel.

“After the Sam Houston game (March 27), I had longer to reset and started to feel better,” Gaddis said. “The week after, I got slotted into a seven-inning game during a doubleheader and something clicked with control and command. My velocity had been upticking. I was throwing all three pitches for strikes.”

From that point on, Gaddis was nearly unhittable. He allowed just four earned runs in his final 52.1 innings of the season, including seven shutout innings against Sam Houston State in the conference tournament. He had 13 strikeouts in that one.

During those 52.1 innings, he struck out 59 and walked 11.

Just prior to his final appearance, he decided he wasn’t done with college baseball. Gaddis entered the transfer portal, and Texas, Arizona and Ole Miss were three of the first teams to call him. He committed to the Rebels on Friday.

“I didn’t want to be done,” Gaddis said. “I want to play in a regional and a College World Series. I was just shocked at some of the calls I got. The first time someone from Arizona called I thought I was getting pranked. I had so much excitement.”

Gaddis struck out 72 in 64 innings with a WHIP under one and a 2.25 ERA despite not being 100 percent for the first month of the season. He’s deferring medical school for a year to pitch for the Rebels.

The 6-foot, 190-pounder from Corpus Christi, Texas, has never seen Oxford or Swayze Field in person, but he’s aware of Ole Miss’ program and watched all the videos he could find online.

Gaddis is in the low 90s with his fastball and has a splitter and a curveball he uses the most as secondary pitches.

“(Ole Miss) said they need lefties and want me to come throw for them,” Gaddis said. “They want me as a Rebel as badly as I want to be a Rebel. It’s a perfect fit, and between the staff and the facilities and he atmosphere, it’s hard not to fall in love.

“The love the players get there and how much fun it is; that’s what resonated with me the most.”