Tony Neubeck once wondered if he would ever throw again.
An elbow injury, which ended his sophomore season, required multiple surgeries to repair. The rehab took 745 days.
Despite the uncertainty, he kept his sights on returning to the mound. In 2025, he did. And now, after transferring to Indiana over the summer, he’s a key part of head coach Jeff Mercer’s rotation.
Neubeck grew up in Hugo, Minnesota, before enrolling at nearby Mahtomedi High School. He also played travel ball for the Minnesota Blizzard, considered one of the state’s elite travel programs.
Neubeck was ranked as the No. 8 prospect in Minnesota his senior year and the No. 2 left-handed pitcher in the state by Perfect Game. He was also a two-time All-Conference selection at Mahtomedi, won his conference’s player of the year award in 2021 and captained his high school to the 2021 class AAA MSHL State Championship the same year.
The Southpaw committed to the University of Missouri before his senior year of high school. He started his freshman year in Columbia, Missouri, in 2022.
During that first season, Neubeck made 15 appearances with nine starts. He notched seven wins, throwing 54.1 innings. He also threw an immaculate inning — three strikeouts in nine pitches — against the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Neubeck made six appearances in his sophomore campaign. He struck out a career-high nine batters in 3.2 innings pitched against then-No. 11 Oklahoma State University in the season opener.
Then, the elbow injury came. His last appearance was March 19, 2023, when he threw a scoreless inning in relief for the Tigers’ 7-1 victory.
At first, he said, doctors diagnosed him with a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament, which is more minor than a full tear of the ligament.
Neubeck opted to get a repair surgery for his elbow, hoping for a quicker turnaround due to the nature of the surgery. But it wasn’t effective. As he went through rehab from the first surgery, he fully tore his UCL. The then-sophomore pitcher had to undergo a full UCL reconstruction surgery — more commonly known as “Tommy John.”
Even after the difficult decision to get Tommy John — a procedure that can require 12-18 months to get back on the field — Neubeck kept his sights on continuing to play college baseball.
“The year that I had surgery, it was my second year of college,” Neubeck said during Indiana baseball’s media day Jan. 28. “The doctor that I was seeing was like, ‘You’ll have no problem getting a sixth year.’ And so, I went into the whole process with the mindset of, ‘I’m going to be here for six years if I have to be.’”
After ending his sophomore season early, the injury forced him to redshirt his junior year.
He returned to the mound as a senior April 2, 2025, for Missouri against the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff after missing two full years.
The left-hander made 10 appearances and four starts that season, throwing a total of 17.1 innings. His final outing as a Tiger was May 16, 2025. Neubeck opened the game and threw two innings in a 13-3 loss to Mississippi State University.
With his health finally back to 100%, Neubeck faced another decision: where’d he go next?
The Southpaw entered the transfer portal following the conclusion of the season. He committed to Indiana in summer 2025 along with his former Missouri teammate, graduate right-handed pitcher Kaden Jacobi.
Neubeck described the transfer portal as a “journey” but said Indiana’s program “checked off the boxes” when he made his decision.
Neubeck has built relationships with his new teammates in Bloomington but remains close with Jacobi.
“We were very close at Mizzou and then coming here, being able to work together; we live together, we’re roommates, stuff like that...” Neubeck said. “It’s quite an experience.”
On opening day, Neubeck was Indiana’s starter. He threw four innings of scoreless ball while recording two strikeouts.
While his final year of collegiate baseball has begun, the graduate pitcher said he remains grateful for the journey.
“You come to appreciate every day that you’re out on the field and every inning you get a pitch after that,” Neubeck said. “You really appreciate the joy of baseball and realize why you’re playing the game.”
Follow reporters Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) and Will Kwiatkowski (@WKwiatkowski_15 and wdkwiatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana baseball season.
