Notes: Doctors suggest rehab for Austin Simmons' elbow injury

OXFORD | Austin Simmons will try rehabilitation on his injured elbow instead of surgery.

The two-sport freshman, who is a quarterback and left-handed pitcher, sprained his UCL on April 25 against Alabama.

Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco didn't disclose the grade of Simmons' injury -- from stretched ligament to severity of a tear -- though the treatment plan and sprained designation usually means a stretched or frayed UCL instead of a majority or complete tear.

"He won't pitch the rest of the season for us," Bianco said. "They're gonna rehab him and get him ready for summer workouts that they do in football and obviously for fall football."

The rehab program, if successful, will have Simmons fully operational for the 2024 football season, as he is set to compete with Walker Howard for the back-up quarterback role.

Simmons has appeared in 13 games this baseball season with a 3.21 ERA and .173 batting average against. He has 20 strikeouts and 11 walks in 14 innings.

UCL (Tommy John) surgery typically carries a 9-to-12 recovery, so the potential rehab route is the only way to avoid a recovery that could impact multiple seasons.

Ethan Lege fractured his thumb when a pitch him against Mississippi State on May 1.

The Ole Miss outfielder has missed the past four games and won't play this weekend against Texas A&M. The Rebels (25-23, 9-15 SEC) start the series at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The three games wrap up the home schedule at Swayze Field.

"After meeting with doctors on Monday, Lege has, which we knew, a clean fracture of the thumb," Bianco said. "But where he is, they wanted some bone growth and see how he was. He was in some pain, obviously over the weekend and didn't play. He won't play this weekend.

"I don't want to say the football day-to-day but week-to-week, I guess."

Lege leads Ole Miss with a .323 batting average.