Injury updates on Austin Simmons and Ethan Lege
Ole Miss lost its final home midweek game of the season to Murray State by a score of 12-9 in 15 innings but what was more important were the injury updates for Austin Simmons and Ethan Lege provided by head coach Mike Bianco after the game.
Simmons exited the series opener against Alabama two weeks ago with an elbow injury. After visiting with doctors the prognosis was determined that the left-handed pitcher suffered a sprained UCL.
The decision is for Simmons to not undergo surgery but to rehab and get ready for summer football workouts and fall camp in three months. On the baseball side of things he is shut down and will not pitch again this season.
Simmons ends his first season on the mound for Ole Miss with 13 appearances and an earned run average of 3.21. In 14 innings of work he recorded 20 strikeouts and issued 11 walks, giving up seven runs — five of them earned.
Last Wednesday against Mississippi State in Pearl Lege was hit by a pitch that resulted in a fractured right thumb. He sat out the Auburn series as well as the Murray State game.
“After meeting with the doctors on Monday (Lege) has, which we knew, a clean fracture of the thumb,” Bianco said. “But where he is they wanted some bone growth and see how he was. He was in some pain, obviously, over the weekend and didn’t play. So, he won’t play this weekend but I wouldn’t hold out after that. When I say hold out, I don’t want to say the football day-to-day but week-to-week, I guess.”
Despite not playing in four-plus games Lege still leads Ole Miss in hitting with a .323 average. After Wednesday’s game Andrew Fischer and Jackson Ross cracked back into the .300s with .303 and .302, respectively.
Ole Miss (25-23, 9-15 Southeastern Conference) hosts No. 3 Texas A&M (41-8, 16-8) this weekend for the final home SEC series of the season. First pitch on Friday is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and will air on the SEC Network.
