LSU pitching staff impresses
e_SDLqOur starting pitching was phenomenal. ... Our position players love to play behind those guys, because they work fast and they throw strikes.” PAUL MAINIERI, LSU coach
LSU was expected to be a team with top-flight starting pitching, a deep bullpen solid defense, and an offense that would have to scrape for runs because of a lack of power.
The Tigers pretty much fit that description as they opened the season with 10-2 and 4-0 victories against Air Force sandwiched around a 19-0 rout of Alcorn State over the weekend.
“Our starting pitching was phenomenal,” coach Paul Maineri said. “Not only did they have good results and hardly gave up any runs, but they got ahead of hitters. We didn’t walk many batters. Their tempo on the mound was something I saw big improvement in. There was no standing around waiting We were getting ahead of the hitters.
“Our position players love to play behind those guys, because they work fast and they throw strikes. (The fielders) stay in the game. They don’t get bored. They don’t get distracted.”
Starters Kevin Gausman, Ryan Eades and Kurt McCune combined to pitch 17 innings; allow eight hits, four walks and one run; and strike out 19.
Relievers Aaron Nola, Nick Rumbelow, Joe Broussard, Chris Cotton, Kevin Berry and Nick Goody combined to pitch 10 innings; allow seven hits, one walk and one run; and strike out 15.
“Every kid we brought in out of the bullpen pitched the same way,” Mainieri said. “I thought every single one of them was outstanding. They came in and pounded the strike zone.”
LSU’s pitchers got 34 of their 81 outs on strikeouts, taking a lot of the pressure off the defense, which was error-free until Austin Nola and Tyler Moore each made a throwing error in the ninth inning Sunday.
“It wasn’t tremendously challenging, because we had so many strikeouts,” Mainieri said, “but overall I thought our defense was really good.”
Even though LSU averaged 11 runs per game, it failed to take full advantage of several scoring opportunities.
“Overall, I didn’t think we hit consistently enough against the level of pitching we were facing,” Mainieri said. “We should have had a few more good at-bats, but at the same time I felt we had some really good at-bats. There were some clutch hits. I just think we need to keep improving. We’ve got a lot of work to do with our hitting, but I don’t think we can be too critical of the whole weekend.”
Making outs on the bases
The Tigers had four runners thrown out on the bases Sunday.
Mason Katz was thrown out trying to advance on a wild pitch, Moore was thrown out on a hit-and-run when Tyler Hanover swung and missed and Chris Sciambra and Jared Foster were thrown out on straight steals.
“If it was an SEC game, I’d be concerned that we got four runners thrown out,” Mainieri said, “but you have to remember that if you’re not a power-hitting team and you’re going to get a lot of singles you’re going to have to gamble at times. You have to take some chances, and sometimes those chances backfire and it doesn’t work, but you still have to have the courage to try. We did do it a couple of times and they were big plays.”
Heads-up on the bases
Two heads-up baserunning plays by Katz were in the middle of LSU’s three-run fourth Sunday.
Katz moved up from second to third on JaCoby Jones’ fly to medium center. Then, with one out and Jackson Slaid on first, Katz broke for home on Austin Nola’s one-hopper back to the mound. He got into a rundown, allowing Slaid to advance and Nola to reach. The play was even better when Katz beat the throw back to third, loading the bases.
“If he doesn’t break, it’s a pitcher-to-short-to-first double play, and the inning’s over,” Mainieri said, “so you break on that ball to stay out of the double play.”
When Katz got back to the bag, Mainieri told him he had done the right thing by breaking for home.
“You really don’t try to get out of it, you just try to stay in it as long as possible and let the other guys move around the bases and put yourselves in a better situation for the next hitter,” Katz said. “We got lucky. I got to stay in it as long as I could, and then they made one little mistake and didn’t throw it and I got in there safe.”
Moore followed with a two-run single and another run scored on a throwing error.
Adjusting to ‘new’ coach
Katz said the base runners have had to adjust to having Mainieri in the third base coach’s box instead of hitting coach Javi Sanchez.
“Usually, you expect Javi kind of moving swiftly down the third base line, but now you see coach not moving too much and just slowly kind of backing up,” Katz said with a smile, “so it’s a little different, but we’ll get used to it. It’s fun with him over there. It’s easier for him to communicate with us.”