FAYETTEVILLE — LSU will be without one of its top arms when it travels to Arkansas this week.
According to The Advocate newspaper, LSU coach Paul Mainieri said Monday that freshman right hander Cole Henry won't travel with the team to Fayetteville for the No. 17 Tigers' series against the No. 4 Razorbacks. The series begins Thursday night.
Henry (4-2, 3.26 ERA) has missed LSU's past two series against Alabama and Ole Miss. He developed arm soreness following the best outing of his career against Florida on April 19, when he struck out 12 batters without issuing a walk in 5 1/3 innings.
LSU (30-18, 14-10 SEC) has had struggles with its pitching staff all season. According to The Advocate, as many as eight pitchers have missed playing time because of various injuries.
Jaden Hill, an Ashdown native who started for the Tigers on opening weekend, hasn't pitched since February because of a strain to his Ulnar Collateral Ligament. The Tigers do not have any left-handed pitchers on their staff after the team's only lefty, Easton McMurray, underwent a season-ending surgery in February.
Arkansas (37-12, 17-7) is batting 59 points higher this season against right handers than lefties.
The Tigers enter Tuesday's game against Louisiana Tech with a 4.55 ERA, which ranks 11th among SEC teams.
Opposing teams are batting batting .246 against LSU, and teams have successfully stolen 75 of 87 bases against the Tigers.
Last month, LSU moved junior starter Zack Hess into a relief role. Against Ole Miss last weekend, LSU started sophomore Ma'Khail Hilliard (0-2, 4.59 ERA) on Friday, redshirt sophomore Eric Walker (4-4, 5.30) on Saturday and freshman Landon Marceaux (3-2, 7.04) on Sunday.
Neither Arkansas nor LSU have announced their rotations for this week's series.