Izaac Garsez is having a storybook year. The past week, however, is a chapter he won’t want to reread.

Garsez, a Caldwell native, had a stellar senior season at the College of Idaho. Shortly after his college career ended, he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs.

Then, after a short stint with the Mesa Cubs in the Arizona Summer League, the outfielder was promoted to Boise on July 17.

Garsez couldn’t have written it up any better.

Except for this: In his second game with the Hawks, he began feeling pain in his elbow.

“It was just kind of like a sore or something, and it just got really inflamed,” Garsez said. “A couple of days later, my whole arm was swollen.”

So, instead of making the most of his first professional season, Garsez has been nursing an infected bursa.

“It’s been disappointing, but it’s only been a few days and hopefully it doesn’t keep me out much longer,” he said.

Garsez would like to be playing again by this weekend, but that might be a little hopeful, manager Mark Johnson said.

“They’re not going to rush him, by any means,” Johnson said. “You don’t mess around with infections.”

Johnson understands Garsez’s frustration, but said young players like the 22-year-old Garsez need to learn from setbacks.

“Injuries, slumps, you have to go through them no matter where you play,” Johnson said. “Everybody goes through them.”

And once the injury is behind Garsez, he hopes to get back to showing the promise he flashed at the College of Idaho. A two-time NAIA All-American, Garsez hit .389 as a senior with eight home runs and 53 RBIs. He led the NAIA West with 93 hits and 75 runs scored as the Coyotes qualified for the NAIA World Series for the first time since 2002.

“It was a lot of fun, something I’ll never forget,” Garsez said. “That was the best season I’ve put together. There were a lot of good memories.”

He had another memorable moment in early June when he learned the Cubs had selected him in the 30th round.

“Teams tell you things, but you don’t want to get your hopes up,” Garsez said. “I got my hopes up last year and I didn’t get drafted. So, this year, I was just hoping for a call, at any time.”

It didn’t take long after receiving the call to realize what being drafted by the Cubs could lead to.

“The next thing I thought of was, ‘Wait, that’s the Hawks,’” he said.

A little more than a month later, he was in a Hawks uniform.

After putting up solid numbers with Mesa, Garsez still is looking for his first hit with Boise. He went 0-for-7 before being sidelined by the infection, making him that much more eager to return to action.

Until then, however, he’s been doing what Johnson would want him to do: soaking up as much information as possible.

“Even while I’ve been out of the lineup, I’ve learned a lot about this league,” Garsez said.

Chris Langrill: 377-6424