By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU No. 2 starter Cooper Moore is expected to miss his next three starts with an arm injury suffered in the Tigers’ 4-2 loss to Oklahoma on Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Moore, a junior right-hander transfer from Kansas, is 3-3 on the season with a 3.38 ERA and only seven walks in a team-high 32 innings with 39 strikeouts. He was 7-3 last season with a 3.96 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 88 and two-thirds innings with 19 walks at Kansas.
The LSU coach who won 1 national title, finished runner-up for a 2nd, left most of the team that won another one in 2023, and won 4 SEC titles, has been fired by South Carolina after 6-28 mark in one SEC season and 4 games.https://t.co/NAlwRUCoTh
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) March 21, 2026
After retiring the side in order with three strikeouts in the first two innings Friday, Moore allowed two runs on four hits through four innings for the loss Friday. He left the game after the fourth as he was experiencing soreness and tightness in his triceps – muscles in the upper arm – of his pitching arm. He threw 62 pitches with 43 strikes.
“My guess is he’ll probably miss at best two, probably three weeks and then should be able to return to pitch,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said on the LSU Radio Network broadcast pre-game show on Saturday before the Tigers took the field against Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Saturday on SEC Network+.
Johnson described the injury as a bruise on his right pitching arm on Saturday. Moore will rest the arm for seven to 10 days and then “reboot it” by gradually pitching more and more before returning to the lineup, Johnson said.
On Friday night after the game, Johnson referred to the injury as tightness and soreness in the triceps – upper arm muscles behind the bicep.
“His tricep was sore. That’s it. That’s all I know,” Johnson said after the game on Friday. “We didn’t plan on taking Cooper out right there (after four innings). Tonight’s unfortunate because I thought he was throing the ball good. I had no plans of taking him out.”
Johnson noticed Moore looked off while he warmed up before the fifth inning.
“The first one missed so badly for a guy that throws strikes blindfolded,” Johnson said Friday. “So I walked out, and he said, ‘Yeah, my triceps are bothering me. Sometimes, it happens. I’m optimistic he’ll be all right – a week, two weeks, a month? But I’m pretty optimistic he’s going to be all right.”
Moore was consistently good in all six of his starts. LSU’s offense, though, was not behind him, scoring just two runs over his last three starts.
“He’s done his job keeping us in games,” Johnson said. “We haven’t scored a lot for him.”
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