West Virginia Pitcher JJ Glasscock Diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

West Virginia escaped the first weekend of the series without any serious injuries, although Brodie Kresser and Gavin Kelly left Georgia Southern a little banged up. This weekend, however, WVU received some scary news with redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher JJ Glasscock.

No one was aware of the situation until his father, John, informed Mountaineer fans on X about what had happened ahead of the team's series against Liberty.

"The weekend started off like any other during baseball season. The team traveled to Lynchburg to play Liberty on Thursday. They go to the field and practice the night before the game. JJ felt tight in his left shoulder and asked the trainer to work on it. He removed his shirt, and the trainer froze. His shoulder and arm were swollen. He jumped on his phone and called the team doctors. He hung up and told JJ to go to the van. He went straight to the emergency room. After X-rays, sonograms, ct scan, echocardiogram, etc., they identified a blood clot in his left shoulder. The next morning(Friday), they operated to remove the 10cm blood clot from his shoulder. There was one in his lung, but that was tiny; they were not worried about. On Saturday morning, they went back in and removed the rest of the blood clot. He was placed on a blood thinner and released at 4 pm on Saturday. Of course, he insisted on going to the end of the last game to be with his teammates.

"He was diagnosed with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. He will need a follow-up surgery to remove his 1st rib, up near the shoulder. He will meet with WVU doctors this week and go to a specialist as soon as possible for the surgery. He is a very rare case; it happens on his non-dominant shoulder. We are very thankful for the trainer and WVU staff for identifying and taking immediate action. We like to also thank Ellie Kennedy, Lauren, Melanie Carwile Kennedy, and Chris for coming and keeping JJ's spirit up."

Glasscock made one appearance in the season-opening series against Georgia Southern, tossing a scoreless frame in the 15-3 Opening Day win. Last season, he made 12 relief appearances and posted an ERA of 7.50. He is expected to be a key piece of this year's bullpen.

West Virginia will hold their home opener on Wednesday, February 25th, at 1 p.m. against Ohio.