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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will likely be without Peyton Pallette the rest of the season, head coach Dave Van Horn announced Tuesday.
The right-hander will definitely miss the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., this week and Van Horn added he would “probably not” be available for a regional the following weekend.
Although the veteran coach didn’t reveal any specifics about the injury, Pallette was seen pointing to his elbow when visited on the mound by pitching coach Matt Hobbs and a trainer during his relief outing against Florida.
“That’s probably what that means,” Van Horn said when asked if he was done for the year. “I don’t know if I can (elaborate) because it’s a medical thing, so I’ve just given you all I’m going to give you.”
Following the game Friday night, Van Horn expressed optimism that the injury might not be as bad as they expected. However, his comments Tuesday afternoon - after he was scheduled to have the elbow looked at twice over the weekend - had a different tone.
Unlike some arm injuries with pitchers, Pallette was not dealing with any pain or soreness until throwing his 24th pitch - a first-pitch ball to Kendrick Calilao - against the Gators.
“He was perfectly fine and it was one pitch,” Van Horn said. “Which isn’t a good sign.”
Arkansas now has to wait to see if the injury will require surgery. The most well-known elbow procedure for pitchers is Tommy John surgery, which would be a major blow for the Razorbacks because it has a year-long recovery time.
If that is the road Pallette has to take, he would not be able to pitch in the 2022 season - when he could establish himself as a top prospect. Earlier this month, Perfect Game already tabbed him as the No. 10 college prospect for the 2022 MLB Draft.
In the more immediate future, Arkansas will be without a key arm for the postseason. Pallette spent most of the season in the rotation, but has also been used as a long reliever and was expected to have a big role for the No. 1 Razorbacks in some capacity in the NCAA Tournament.
Only Patrick Wicklander and Kevin Kopps have thrown more than his 56 innings on the staff and he posted a 4.02 ERA with 67 strikeouts, earning a spot on the SEC All-Newcomer Team.
Van Horn is confident there are enough arms to fill his role, though. Caleb Bolden actually replaced Pallette in the rotation for the Florida series and Lael Lockhart had a strong start in his last outing after struggling a few weeks in a row.
The Razorbacks also got three scoreless innings in the regular-season finale from freshman Jaxon Wiggins, who was making his first career SEC start.
“We’ve already had Bolden step up and kind of moved in there, and Lockhart looked pretty good the last time we started him…against Tennessee. I thought he threw the ball decent.
“So we’ve got more over there. It’s about matchups a lot of times. I feel like we have enough pitching.”
Arkansas’ first game at the SEC Tournament is at 4:30 p.m. CT Wednesday. It will face the winner of Tuesday’s Georgia-LSU matchup and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.
