Key closer in Tuatara lineup

a win and posting an ERA of 2.0.

He played one post season game that year, but in 2015 was sent down to the minors and his career was derailed by a shoulder injury.

At 31 and nearly three years since he last threw a pitch in a game, Holdzkom is having another crack at being a professional baseball player.

‘‘I’m pretty excited to see what I can still do,’’ Holdzkom told Stuff. ‘‘There are little butterflies of course, but I’ll go out there and see what I’ve got.’’ Holdzkom spent two months in the States preparing to play again and has been in Auckland the past fortnight training with the team.

He said he jumped at the chance to play for the Tuatara when he was approached earlier this year.

Tuatara manager Steve Mintz says he’s looking to have Holdzkom coming in late in games to protect a win.

It could be tough to throw him into that high pressured situation so early in his comeback, but Mintz says he has been impressed with how he’s been throwing in practice.

‘‘Whenever he’s come in he’s been throwing strikes and in live bp (batting practice) he’s been going well,’’ Mintz said.

‘‘He says he feels great and we’re going to try to use him at the end of games.

‘‘We’d really like not to throw him into the fire, but on Friday if we’ve got a lead and he’s our guy, we’ll put him in there.’’

The four-game series against Sydney is the Tuatara’s final home stand this season and if they can win three of the games, it will put them at .500 and ahead of the Blue Sox in the North East division standings in the ABL.

‘‘That was our goal when we started this thing,’’ Mintz said.

‘‘If we could get through these first four weeks, with three home stands and the long trip to Perth right off the bat, and be somewhere around .500, I liked our chances.

‘‘We’ve got that at our disposal, we can take care of that and be around .500.’’

The first game of the series, against the Blue Sox is at 3pm tomorrow at Mcleod Park, West Auckland, and will be live streamed on Stuff.