by Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
LSU baseball coaches Skip Bertman and Turtle Thomas have been involved with college baseball for a long time. Both have come to accept the challenge of putting a superior product on the field year after year and both have succeeded.
That challenge looks to be particularly tough in the season to come, Bertman?s last as Tiger coach.
Gone from LSU’s 2000 National Championship squad are six position players responsible for 358 of the Tigers 598 RBI’s and 64 of 96 home runs.
Heading the list of players either leaving for pro baseball or graduating is Brad Cresse, who led the team in every offensive category with a .388 batting average, 30 home runs and 106 RBI’s. Back-up catcher Ryan Jorgensen left as well, taking with him what Thomas called the best defensive skills in college baseball.
First baseman Brad Hawpe’s .362 average and NCAA record-tying 36 doubles made their way to the minor leagues joined by center fielder Cedrick Harris’ speed and .370 average. Finally, the leadership and clutch hitting of seniors Blair Barbier and Jeremy Witten left as well as both played their final season for the Tigers.
LSU’s pitching staff took some hits as well. Missing from last season are the four starting pitchers who carried much of the load during the Tigers’ fifth title run. Junior Brain Tallet left for the minors after posting a 15-3 record last year. Also gone are College World Series MVP Trey Hodges, Ben Saxon who finished the year with a 5-0 record and Hunter Gomez who was as steady as any Tiger pitcher in 2000, posting a 9-1 record last season.
Thomas said replacing the senior leadership lost when Saxon, Cresse, Hodges, Barbier and Witten left will be harder than replacing the statistics.
“The ability to lead people is a humongous loss,” Thomas said. “We’ve lost a tremendous amount. With the exception of two guys, we lose everybody who threw in the College World Series last year. Right away you can tell that’s why we had the chance to go to the World Series and win. We had a great amount of talent and experience.”
Thomas said he can’t replace the experience, but he’s doing his best to replace the talent and further develop the talent already in place.
LSU’s middle infield will stay the same with Freshman All-American Mike Fontenot, who batted .353 with 17 homers and 64 RBI’s returning to second base and junior Ryan Theriot, who scored the winning run in the National Championship game, taking his same spot at short.
Sophomore Wally Pontiff is expected to take Barbier’s spot at third after batting .343 splitting time between the outfield and designated hitter last season. David Raymer and Ray Wright return and will challenge for starting roles in the outfield along with a host of newcomers.
“There’s no way, no matter how good of a recruiting class you have, to replace the talent and experience we lost,” Thomas said. “But we did fill in the best we could.”
The “best” Thomas could do was to lure some of the most talented players in the country to Baton Rouge. Junior Todd Lindon, a projected first-round draft pick, will transfer to LSU at mid-term after batting .390 with 6 home runs and 49 RBI’s last spring at the University of Washington. Thomas said Lindon will immediately challenge for a spot in center field and the middle of the batting order.
“Todd Lindon is the closest guy we’ve got to being able to replace Brad Cresse’s stats,” Thomas said. “We expect him to come in and play right away.”
Freshman Aaron Hill, who led the squad with a .461 batting average in fall scrimmages, should play somewhere in the outfield or DH. Hill chose LSU over the pro’s after being drafted in the seventh round by the Angels.
Juniors Zeph Zinsman and Brain Moore will battle for the first baseman’s job in the spring. Thomas said Zinsman may be one of the most feared hitters in the Southeastern Conference by the end of the spring after leading the squad in homers in the fall. Moore is a mid-term transfer from Indian River Junior College who, according to Thomas, is a very good hitter from the left side of the plate.
Thomas said catcher will be the most difficult spot to fill after four Tiger signees left after the Major League Draft. The two leading candidates to replace Cresse and Jorgensen are Juniors Matt Heath, a switch hitter with good speed and average defensive skills and Shawn French, who according to Thomas, has adequate defensive skills but needs work with the bat. Heath, who transferred from the University of Florida, is recovering from a slightly separated shoulder which, Thomas said, has kept him from improving as much as the coaching staff would like.
“It takes constant work with these new guys and constant repetition to make them better,” Thomas said. “We had a problem in November because Heath had the separated shoulder and it has kept him from being as good when the spring comes around.”
Thomas said pitching coach Dan Canevari has been working hard to develop a young pitching staff, but it may take some time before the rotation is set. Junior Billy Brian could be a dominate pitcher this season after posting a 6-2 record with a 4.18 ERA last spring. Sophomore Bo Petit is recovering from surgery but should return for the spring and junior Jason Scobie is expected to be a strong starter.
Shane Youman and Weylin Guidry will stay in the bullpen and newcomer John Zamora is expected to be a part of the starting rotation.
“This pitching staff is going to have to come together individually and collectively as the games go on,” Thomas said. ” This is a relatively new bunch of pitchers in terms of experience. As the season progresses they should get better and more consistent.”
Thomas said it may take a while for the 2001 Tigers to develop into a dominate squad because of all of the new faces but he expects LSU to be in the same position as last June when next June arrives.
“At LSU, the bar has been raised by Skip Bertman and former teams,” Thomas said. “We have the expectations of going to Omaha and competing for the National Championship and winning. This team has to come together, everybody has to be on the same page. There will be a lot of team building and that may go on for a long time during the spring. Hopefully as the days and weeks and months go by we’ll get better and better.”