BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU junior pitcher Alex Lange, junior catcher Michael Papierski and junior outfielder Greg Deichmann appear on the Baseball America Top 100 College Prospects list released Friday.
The list includes the magazine’s Top 100 draft-eligible college prospects for the June 2017 Major League Baseball Draft.
Lange, a right-hander from Lee’s Summit, Mo., is No. 7 on the list; Papierski, a product of Lemont, Ill., is No. 79; and Deichmann, a Metairie, La., native, is No. 83.
Lange, a first-team All-American as a freshman in 2015, started 17 games last season as a sophomore, posting an 8-4 mark and a 3.79 ERA in 111.2 innings with 49 walks and 125 strikeouts while limiting opponents to a .226 batting average. He finished No. 2 in the SEC in innings pitched and No. 4 in the league in strikeouts.
Lange, who was 12-0 in his freshman year, enters this season with a 20-4 career mark at LSU. He has worked 225.2 innings in 34 starts through two seasons, posting a 2.87 ERA and 256 strikeouts.
Lange is also a member of the 2016 SEC Academic Honor Roll as a marketing major.
Papierski threw out 19 runners attempting to steal last season and batted .242 (30-for-124) with nine doubles, three homers, 20 RBI and 16 runs. He was an offensive catalyst for the Tigers in the postseason, batting .364 (8-for-22) in LSU’s six NCAA Tournament games (regional and super regional combined) with three doubles, one homer, two RBI and two runs scored.
Papierski batted .500 (4-for-8) in the NCAA Super Regional versus Coastal Carolina with one double and one run scored, and he collected two doubles, one homer, two RBI and one run scored in the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional. His home run came in the 8th inning of the regional championship win over Rice, a solo blast to give LSU a 4-2 lead.
Deichmann, a member of the 2016 SEC Academic Honor Roll as a business administration major, batted .288 (68-for-236) last season with 14 doubles, three triples, 11 homers, 57 RBI, 45 runs and five stolen bases, finishing No. 7 in the SEC in both home runs and RBI.
A .363 (29-for-80) hitter on the year with runners in scoring position, Deichmann collected 26 RBI in his final 21 games of the season. He was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional, batting .600 (9-for-15) with three homers, 10 RBI, three runs scored and a .647 on-base percentage
Deichmann was LSU’s leading hitter in 2016 postseason games (SEC and NCAA Tournament combined), batting .385 (15-for-39) with one double, five homers, 16 RBI and seven runs. He batted .522 (12-for-23) in LSU’s six NCAA Tournament games with four homers, 13 RBI and four runs.