Jesus Luzardo working his way back from Tommy John surgery during high school to become an MLB prospect.

In a moment, Jesus Luzardo went from a dominant high school pitcher showcasing his skills before an assemblage of pro scouts to wondering if he’d be able to pitch again.

It happened without warning on one pitch early in the fourth start of his senior season at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in a game against rival Coral Springs in March 2016.

Luzardo felt a pop in his elbow, following by a burning sensation and, almost immediately, swelling.

While his Eagles teammates continued on to win the Class 9A state championship that spring, Luzardo’s season took a detour to Pensacola, where the reknowned Dr. James Andrews performed Tommy John surgery to reconstruct the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow.

“You hear a lot of stuff about Tommy John [surgery], and nowadays you know that it’s more common and more people come back from it,” Luzardo said recently. “But at the time I was just kind of scared, didn’t really know much about it. I was like, this could be it [for his pitching career]. You never know.”

Experiences vary widely for pitchers who undergo Tommy John surgery. So far Luzardo’s has been positive, as he is rated as the No. 2 prospect in the Oakland A’s organization and has climbed from rookie league to the Double-A level since returning to the mound late last June.

Luzardo has regained velocity on a fastball in the high 90 mph range, maybe a tick faster than before he was hurt. He attributes that to his body maturing and building strength through the 14-month rehab after surgery.

As to why he got hurt, he said, “I have no idea. It was a one-pitch thing.”

Various factors are cited for pitchers blowing out their UCLs: pitching excessive innings over a number of years, throwing with excessive velocity, the strain of throwing curveballs and sliders, fatigue, poor mechanics.

Specializing in one sport at an early age is another reason suspected for the rise in youth sports injuries over the past 20 years.

But Luzardo said he played basketball and soccer in addition to baseball until he was 13, then focused on baseball once he got to high school. He pitched from February until July but didn’t throw much the rest of the year, he said.

Luzardo had no inkling of anything wrong with his elbow before it gave out. He did have a dramatic increase in the velocity of his fastball at the beginning of his senior season.

“I went from throwing like 89 to 94 [mph] to I was sitting 93 to 97 [mph] in those four games that I started,” he said. “I took that fall off [from pitching] my senior year and got really into working out.”

As for the night he got hurt: “It was the best I felt in my life. I felt really loose and everything was working.”

Around the same time in 2016, a study by doctors at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit of 166 major league pitchers concluded that throwing a lot of fastballs — irrespective of velocity — significantly increases the risk for injury and Tommy John surgery.

It was an indication of the faith that major league teams have in the ability of pitchers to come back from Tommy John surgery when the Washington Nationals selected Luzardo in the third round of the MLB draft just a few months after surgery. They signed him to a $1.4 million bonus, well above his slotted value as the 94th overall No, 94 pick, to get him to forego a scholarship to the University of Miami.

He made three starts for the Nationals’ rookie league team before they traded him to the A’s last July in a deal for the veteran relievers Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson.

While his ascension to the second-highest level of minor league baseball has been rapid, Luzardo said the rehab process was long and tedious and emotionally draining.

He said one of the people who helped buoy his spirits after he got hurt was Stoneman Douglas athletic director Chris Hixon, who was one of the 17 victims killed in the school shooting there in February.

Luzardo, who was on the way to his alma mater to throw when he received a text about the shooting in progress, has set up a scholarship fund in Hixon’s name.

“He was always talking to me, encouraging me, saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s just a bump in the road,’ ” Luzardo said of Hixon. “So he was a great dude.”

Luzardo offers similar encouragement to other players who face Tommy John surgery: “I’d say, Follow the rehab to a T, don’t stray away from it. Just have faith that it’s going to work. If you do what you’re told, you’ll be fine.”