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Why Tennessee baseball has the highest stakes in the SEC tournament
The Montgomery Advertiser’s Adam Cole explains why the Volunteers need to win or make a deep run in the SEC baseball tournament.
In a turn of events, Texas A&M baseball will reportedly have its star slugger back for Friday’s SEC tournament quarterfinal vs. LSU after all.
According to several reports, Aggies star outfielder Jace LaViolette is in the lineup for Friday night’s game at Hoover Met Stadium in Hoover, Alabama, less than 24 hours after sustaining a broken left hand. Texas A&M manager Michael Earley had ruled out LaViolette for the remainder of the SEC Tournament after the Aggies’ 3-2 second-round win over Auburn.
Friday’s game will be LaViolette’s 187th career start in an Aggies uniform. He is hitting .256 on the season with 19 home runs and 59 RBIs. He is also ranked by MLB Pipeline as the seventh-best prospect in this year’s upcoming MLB draft.
Texas A&M and LSU are slated for a 7:45 p.m. ET first pitch on Friday in Alabama. The winner will face Ole Miss in the semifinals on Saturday.
Here’s the latest on LaViolette’s status for Friday’s game vs. LSU:
Is Jace LaViolette playing tonight? Status for SEC tournament
According to the Austin American-Statesman’s Tony Catalina, LaViolette is set to play in Texas A&M’s game vs. LSU on Friday in the SEC tournament. He is slated to hit in the third spot in the lineup while serving as the Aggies’ designated hitter.
Catalina reported that the broken bone in LaViolette’s broken left hand “can’t get any worse” than it already is.
LaViolette’s status change for Friday’s game vs. LSU comes 24 hours after Earley said LaViolette would miss the remainder of the SEC Tournament.
“Yeah, he got an X-ray, he broke his hand, so he’ll be out. We’re going to see what we’re going to do with it. I don’t know if there’s a situation where we get him operated on how what we’re going capacity where he’s able to pinch run as long as we’re able to pad it up and he’s safe and can’t injure it,” Earley said in his postgame news conference on LaViolette.
“That, I don’t know at this moment, but he’s not going to be in the starting lineup for this tournament. But we think if we can get this done, then we might be able to get him back for the postseason.”
Jace LaViolette injury update
LaViolette’s injury came in the fifth inning of Texas A&M’s second-round game vs. Auburn. The SEC Network broadcast showed LaViolette attempting to swing at a pitch that eventually came in on him and hit him off his knuckles and the knob of the bat.
He then trotted down to first base, where he stood briefly on the base before signaling into the Texas A&M dugout that he couldn’t remain in the game. He left with an apparent left-hand injury.
After leaving the Aggies’ dugout for X-rays at the stadium, the SEC Network’s broadcast caught LaViolette sitting at the top of the dugout in the seventh inning with his hand wrapped
LaViolette, speaking before the game, had this to say of his return from injury:
What is Jace LaViolette’s injury?
In his postgame news conference with reporters in Alabama on Thursday, Earley said that X-rays showed that LaViolette broke his hand. Earley’s comments confirmed a report on the SEC Network’s broadcast of Tennessee-Texas by sideline reporter Kris Budden that LaViolette fractured his left hand.
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