Jace LaViolette injury update: Michael Earley reveals Texas A&M outfielder's status for rest of SEC Tournament

Texas A&M star centerfielder Jace LaViolette is expected to miss the remainder of the 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament with a broken left hand after being hit by a pitch in the fifth inning of Thursday’s second-round game against Auburn. Manager Michael Earley confirmed the news.

“He’ll be out for the remainder of the tournament,” Earley confirmed. His comments came during a postgame hit on the SEC Network.

LaViotte’s left hand was hit by a pitch during the fifth inning of Thursday’s 3-2 victory over the sixth-seeded Tigers, as the 14th-seeded Texas A&M advanced to Friday’s tournament quarterfinals against No. 3-seeded LSU at 7:30 pm ET from the Hoover Met.

“With Jace being out, it’s definitely going to change our offense a little bit,” Earley added earlier. “But we just have to go out and fight and scrap, play nine innings of clean baseball and look up and see what happens. They’re a really good team and they’re going to be a handful.”

After initially leaving the field following the injury, LaViolette returned to the A&M dugout with his left hand heavily bandaged. Earley later revealed X-rays confirmed LaViolette suffered a broken hand.

While LaViolette is out for the remainder of the week in Hoover, Earley told reporters he could be used as a pinch runner in certain situations. The team is holding out hope he could be available at some point should the Aggies make the NCAA postseason, according to D1Baseball’s Joe Healy.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound LaViotte entered the season rated as the No. 1 collegiate prospect according to both D1Baseball and Baseball America. He was projected to be a potential Top 10 selection in the upcoming 2025 MLB Draft as the No. 2 overall draft prospect per MLB Pipeline.

The lower-seeded Aggies took an early lead in the third inning with a 3-run home run from junior Kaeden Kent. They never relented to stay alive in the single-elimination SEC Tournament.

Auburn finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot from junior Eric Snow to cut A&M’s advantage to 3-1. The Tigers would add one more with a one-out solo home run from junior Lucas Steele in the bottom of the ninth inning, but no more.

Aggies left-handed starter Justin Lamkin limited the Tigers to just one run on three hits over five innings for the win. It was A&M’s second-straight quality start of the tournament.