Ryan Rogers
LSUsports.net
The LSU baseball team has uncharacteristically struggled in the early part of the season. LSU is a disappointing 12-8 (1-2) this year, having dropped games to what would have once been considered inferior opponents a few too many times this season.
These include a loss to McNeese St. in 11 innings, a 14-13 loss to Central Florida after the Tigers were up by three runs going into the bottom of the ninth, and losing two of three against Georgia at home to open conference play. And, although Houston is a very good baseball team, being swept by the Cougars was the first time since 1969 a non-conference opponent swept the Tigers in Alex Box. It also capped off an almost unfathomable five-game losing streak for the Tigers.
Fans cant seem to pinpoint the reason for the high number of losses early in the year. After all, this is LSU baseball we are talking about. The team that has made 10 College World Series appearances in the last 14 years. The team that has had eight 50-win seasons accounting for seven SEC titles. The team that shattered the NCAA team home run record by crushing 188 homers in 1997. A team thats attendance records are virtually untouchable averaging 271,000 fans a year which almost doubling the next best figure for any team. The team which has produced 25 Major League Baseball players, and with a large number of players climbing the minor league ranks that number will soon increase. And finally, the team that won four national titles in the 1990s.
So whats wrong with LSU baseball? Well, there seems to be a number of things not going right for the Tigers lately. But, the good news is its nothing that cant be fixed.
LSU pitching staff is just very young and inexperienced. Its hard to build a solid pitching staff when the Tigers top hurlers often leave early for the pros. This is a dilemma that hampers Skip Bertamn and his staff. With true freshmen Bo Petitt, and sophomores Billy Brian and Weylin Guidry, half of the Tiger staff just have not seen enough time on the mound to develop consistency.
However, they can only get stronger as the season goes on. Guidrys improvement from last year is remarkable. Brian Saxon and Trey Hodges whom have assumed the roles of the two and three men in the starting rotation need to step up for the Tigers. Although they were never starters for the Tigers in previous years, their experience is valuable.
Hunter Gomez needs to assert himself as the staffs ace reliever. The Tigers need someone they can count on in clutch situations. The team ERA is 4.07. The Tigers need to bring that number down.
The Tiger pitching staff is easy to blame, but is not alone in fault for the Tigers struggles.
The defense for the Tigers has been unsatisfactory at times. The Tigers have made costly errors. The season total is at 32, and there have only been 20 games. More important than the high number of errors, is the unfortunate timing of the errors. Against Houston, the Tigers had two outs before committing two errors that resulted in the bases being loaded. Then the next Houston batter hit a grand slam on the next pitch and the instead of going into the dugout tied at 0-0, the Tigers dug themselves a 4-0 hole and couldnt fight back from the deficit.
LSU needs to make the routine plays in the field if they want to have any chance of making it to back to Omaha.
The hitting has not been bad, but can improve. The Tigers are batting .324 as a team. The Tigers problem has been a lack of timely hitting. Too many runners are being stranded on base. Another problem has been that LSU is hitting the ball hard right at the defense, with a .485 slugging percentage as evidence to this. With more timely hitting and hard hit balls that find the gaps, LSU will be a heavy hitting team that will cause havoc for all opponents.
Some players have not played up to par for the Tigers this year. Third baseman Blair Barbier is too good to be playing mediocre baseball. But not to worry, his heart and work ethic will bring him back to being a top-notch baseball player before season’s end. Shortstop Ryan Theriot has struggled at the plate this year. He leads the team in on base percentage .519 and walks with 24, but he needs to be more aggressive at the plate. Theriot is capable of being a big hitter in the lineup.
Injuries have also not helped. David Raymer’s collarbone brake took away the teams lead-off hitter. And Cedrick Harris is nursing an injured wrist.
Regardless of the problems with LSU baseball, two facts remain: 1) Its too early in the season to write this team off. And 2) Never doubt Skip Bertman. Bertman will have this team where he wants it by season’s end. Hang in there.