BEIJING • Jayson Nix will miss the rest of the Olympics after undergoing surgery Friday for a laceration suffered when he bunted a ball into his face during a preliminary-round baseball game.

The Colorado Springs Sky Sox second baseman had microsurgery on his left eyebrow as well as a CT scan and an eye exam, and he’s being kept at a Beijing hospital for observation, U.S. Olympic Committee chief medical officer William Kuprevich said.

“His eye is OK,” USA Baseball spokesman John Blundell said. “I don’t think his eye is in any danger at all. They just needed to close the wounds.”

When Nix, 25, squared to bunt a high, tight pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning of a 5-4 loss to Cuba, the ball bounced off his bat and struck him in the face. He never lost consciousness, laying on the ground for several minutes before going into the clubhouse.

Trainers gave Nix ice packs to minimize swelling. They sent him to the hospital when his head didn’t stop bleeding.

“He was in the trainers’ room, and he was sitting on the table, and he was concerned about the game,” Blundell said. “He wasn’t in agonizing pain.”

U.S. manager Davey Johnson accused Cuban pitcher Pedro Luis Lazo of headhunting.

“I’m really not in favor of a guy squaring around to hit the ball and a guy throwing it right at his head,” Johnson told French news agency AFP. “It’s hard to get out of the way of that pitch. … In my wildest imagination, I didn’t think they would throw right at his coconut.”

Lazo maintains he did nothing wrong, telling reporters at Wukesong Baseball Field, “I’m not the type of pitcher to do that because it’s not the correct way to play the game. It was an accident. The ball hit the bat first and bounced onto his face. That’s unfortunate, but I was just pitching to get him out.”

Nix is 2-for-10 with one RBI for the Americans, who lost to South Korea in Wednesday’s opener and beat the Netherlands on Thursday.

The U.S. has four more games in pool play, including Canada today. Medal games are Aug. 23.

The Rockies selected Nix in the supplemental draft (No. 44 overall) in 2001. Nix has spent the past three seasons with the Sky Sox. Before leaving for Beijing, he hit .300 with 49 RBIs, 17 home runs and 19 doubles in 64 games.-CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or brian.gomez@gazettedev.gazette.com. Check out our Olympics blog at gazetteolympics.freedomblogging.com

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