SAUL LOEB/Arizona Daily Wildcat Sophomore pitcher Joe Little shows off the World War I-era helmet given to him by his teammate, senior pitcher Brian Pemble. Little was hit above the left eye by a line drive during Sunday's game at Sancet Field. He received 20 stitches on the wound but did not suffer a concussion.

It happened again, but this time the player was able to walk away.

In an incident that bore a striking resemblance to the death of former Arizona baseball player Kelsey Osburn, sophomore pitcher Joe Little took a foul ball directly to the head in the Arizona dugout off the bat of New Mexico right fielder Joe Salas, in the top of the eighth inning Sunday.

Little suffered a severe laceration above his left eyebrow and received 20 stitches at St. Mary's Hospital later that afternoon.

"Everything is fine and he is in good condition," UA head coach Andy Lopez said. "We are going to monitor him and he obviously caught a good break."

The injury is eerily similar to the one that killed Osburn, who died in the summer of 2000 during a base-running drill for his summer team, the Newark Raptors of the Northeast Collegiate Baseball League.

Osburn, 20, who wasn't wearing a batting helmet at the time, was struck on the right temple by a line drive and died July 17, 2000 after three days in a coma.

The Wildcats retired his number 41 on Jan. 27, 2001.

Senior pitcher Brian Pemble, a close friend of Osburn, was in the stands handling the team radar gun at the time of Little's injury.

"There's no words for it," Pemble said. "It's one of these things that you don't want to see happen again."

Little said he had just sat down on the bench for the top of the inning, but he wasn't paying attention to the game.

"I heard some guys yell, 'heads up', and everybody got out of the way and (the ball) just hit me," he said.

The game temporarily stopped for 10 minutes while trainers carted a conscious Little off the field in an emergency vehicle.

Remarkably, he didn't suffer a concussion and underwent a CAT scan Sunday that was negative.

Yesterday, at practice, Little sported a World War I helmet with the Arizona logo on the front and his number 2 on the back, compliments of Pemble.

"We kind of like to joke about it, but it just puts the whole game thing in perspective," Pemble said. "It's just a game, just baseball."

Senior catcher Chris Cunningham, also a teammate of Osburn, quickly linked what happened to both players.

"I thought about Kelsey the second I saw (Little) get hit," he said. "I didn't allow it to get into my head too much and just prayed and hoped for the best."

Pemble hasn't forgotten Osburn either.

"I knew him really well, I've got pictures of him in my locker and take them on the road with me," he said.

Pemble brought up the similarity of Osburn's situation to Little's.

"It could have been a lot more scary, Pemble brought it up and I started thinking. It really got me in a different spot," he said.

Little, the winning pitcher in Saturday's 23-3 blowout victory against UNM, is currently listed as day-to-day and will miss his scheduled start Saturday but might pitch in relief.