Oregon first baseman AJ Balta tore his ACL and will miss the spring baseball season, according to Aaron Fitt of D1baseball.com.

Rotten news for @OregonBaseball: coach George Horton tells me A.J. Balta tore his ACL and will miss the spring. Was a key offensive piece.

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) January 16, 2015

Balta was named to the Freshman All-American team last year. He batted .242, hit three home runs and accumulated 29 runs batted in. In addition, he started 56 of Oregon’s 64 games, 15 of which were multi-hit games.

He left the 2014 season on a high note, being named to the Nashville Regional all-tournament team after batting a team-best .333.

However, head coach George Horton will not have Balta at his disposal when Oregon’s season begins at Hawaii on Feb. 13.

Follow Justin Wise on Twitter @JustinFWise