Aa. Nola to miss start with shoulder fatigue

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McCune to start Thursday and bump Gausman and Eades to normal rest

LSU sophomore pitcher Kurt McCune will begin a series for the first time in 2012 versus Florida in Gainesville this weekend (photo by Gail Chisum).

By RICHARD FISCHER
Tiger Rag Assistant Editor

Due to Aaron Nola’s shoulder injury that caused him to leave Sunday’s game versus Arkansas after 6.1 innings and 95 pitches, the freshman has been diagnosed with a fatigued muscle. Upon visiting an orthopedic surgeon Monday, there was found to be no structural damage, but he will miss his next scheduled start versus Florida this weekend.

Nola struck out a career-high nine Razorbacks and reached as high as 95 mph on the radar gun before being removed from the contest.

“I just think the fact that he’s a freshman and his body is stilling growing, I think it just taxed him,” said LSU head coach Paul Mainieri.

The skipper said Nola will travel with the team to Gainesville for this weekend’s Thursday-Friday-Saturday series, but he won’t throw a practice session until Thursday.

“How he feels will tell us what his availability will be this weekend,” explained the coach. “I would say it’s probable that he won’t pitch at all this weekend.”

Mainieri added that he would be “very surprised” if Nola didn’t assume his normal Sunday role in LSU’s following weekend series versus Alabama.

But without Nola this weekend, Mainieri will shuffle up his rotation a bit. The first freshman trio to start a weekend series in SEC history will reunite in Gainesville as Kurt McCune will receive his fifth start of the season in the series-opener Thursday night. Kevin Gausman and Ryan Eades will then follow suit on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

“I think we’ll turn a negative into a positive here, because in Gausman’s and Eades’ cases, they’ll get their normal rest so they’ll be able to do their normal routine. Both of them worked extremely hard this weekend as well,” said Mainieri. “I think Kurt McCune is ready for this, so we’ll go with him on Thursday night.”

The shuffle will also affect Tuesday’s game with Louisiana College to a smaller degree. Mainieri said he will likely start Cody Glenn, and although the lefty would have gotten the go regardless of Nola’s injury, now Glenn will be held to two innings to keep him available for this weekend. Previously, Mainieri was going to let Glenn go deep into the ballgame.