A ball is fouled out of play well over the fence and is now rolling towards the BU tennis courts. A lanky ballplayer jogs out from the dugout to retrieve it.

Next inning, same drill.

Routine? Maybe, until you realize that the player fetching the balls is Zach Groh, the nation’s ERA leader, and a guy who recently went 42 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.

“I can’t stand sitting around and doing nothing, it drives me nuts,” Groh said. “I have to do something. A lot of guys complain about getting foul balls; I don’t care.”

Enter Groh, the unassuming cerebral star of a rising team. Scouts have come from all over to watch BU’s dominating righty, but throughout it all, Groh has remained unfazed.

“He hasn’t let anything go to his head,” said head coach Tim Sinicki. “He’s the same kid he was when this all started.”

The funny thing is, all of this almost never happened. Last season at this time, Groh’s arm was in a cast and people wondered if the team’s ace would ever return to his old form.

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He was cruising against Delaware State in his third start of the season. Five innings, just one run. But after marooning two runners in the fifth inning, Groh walked off the mound and wouldn’t return for the entire season.

“I knew something was wrong,” said Groh, who saw several specialists, including doctors from the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. “I’ve never had that kind of feeling in my elbow before. I couldn’t explain it.”

There was a tear in his throwing shoulder. Only one logical route existed: season-ending surgery.

Groh wasn’t allowed to eat the day before his surgery and, after some setbacks, the operation was pushed back to 6 p.m., making for a very nervous, very hungry injured pitcher.

“It was horrible, I was dying all day,” he said.

After attempts to take a graft from his forearm failed, they went into his knee. The surgery was a success, but Groh was still in considerable pain.

“When I woke up I couldn’t feel my knee or my arm,” he said. “I made the trip back here that night — four and half hours just to get to the hospital from Binghamton. When I got here, I just felt like I was gonna die.”

It was a long and painful rehab process: Groh couldn’t even throw a ball until late summer, he wondered how strong his arm would be when healed and he had to teach himself how to pitch again.

But despite the arduous rehab, he never thought about quitting.

“It never crossed my mind that I wasn’t going to pitch again,” Groh said.

And throughout the whole rehab, Groh had to sit back and watch as his team enjoyed its finest D-I season. A season that could have been even better with Groh in the rotation.

“After I had surgery it was hard to watch any of the games,” Groh said. “When something didn’t work out, it made me feel like I should be out there. And there’s nothing you can do. All you can do is cheer them on.”

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He wasn’t even supposed to be starting when his earned-run streak began. Optimistic estimates put Groh out until late March, but there he was on March 5, tossing three no-hit innings against Delaware State, in the very same place he suffered the injury. Then he moved on to six innings against Fresno State, and that’s when the fun began.

After the Fresno game, Groh would go on to rattle off a remarkable 42 consecutive innings without surrendering an earned run. The streak stretched from March 25 until April 29, when Maine scored two runs in the final inning.

During the streak, Groh’s ERA dropped as low as 0.42. It currently sits at 0.82, which is still the lowest in the nation.

“It’s been unbelievable,” Groh said. “I knew I could do well, I’ve always felt this way, but just how things have been working out … it’s kind of weird. Things have been falling into place. I’ve been lucky.”

Groh has relied on a good mix of breaking pitches, especially a baffling slider, to keep hitters off-balance all year. Groh attributes the success of his pitches to the game-calling skills of his battery mate, junior catcher Pat Haughie.

“It’s absolutely awesome,” Haughie said. “It’s just fun to catch him. Every time he goes out there we have a chance to win.”

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The stats don’t faze him, nor do the scouts. Even when asked about being drafted, Groh remains humble.

“Even if I did get drafted this year it would be stupid to take it,” Groh said. “I still have a scholarship here, and my education is going on. It’s nice to get looked at, though.”

It seems like a safe bet that Groh, at least for the near future, will remain a fixture on the mound for the Bearcats. And that’s great news for everyone involved — his teammates, the fans and, of course, the foul balls.