Weekend Preview: New-Look Tigers To Be Tested Again
After losing eight members of the starting lineup that helped Louisiana State reach the College World Series last year, the Tigers came into this year with a different look on offense. They weren’t short on talent, but getting the new lineup settled was sure to take some time.
| Top 25 Series |
| Virginia at (1) Miami |
| Georgia at (2) Florida |
| Alabama at (3) Texas A&M |
| (4) Texas Christian at Oklahoma State |
| (7) Mississippi State at (5) Louisiana State |
| (6) Louisville at Boston College |
| (8) Vanderbilt at Tennessee |
| (9) UC Santa Barbara at Cal Poly |
| Texas at (10) Texas Tech |
| Notre Dame at (11) Florida State |
| Missouri at (12) South Carolina |
| (13) Rice at Southern Miss |
| North Carolina A&T at (14) North Carolina State |
| Auburn at (15) Mississippi |
| (16) North Carolina at Wake Forest |
| (17) Long Beach State at UC Riverside |
| (18) Michigan at Iowa |
| Arkansas at (19) Kentucky |
| Arizona at (20) California |
| (21) Florida Atlantic at Florida International |
| (22) Oregon State at Utah |
| Indiana at (23) Michigan State |
| Texas State at (24) Louisiana-Lafayette |
| High Point at (25) Coastal Carolina |
LSU lost its first two Southeastern Conference series, at home to Alabama and at Texas A&M, scoring just 15 runs in six games. Since then, however, the Tigers have won their next three SEC series, averaging more than eight runs per game in that stretch.
“The more they’ve played, more players have become confident and started to believe they can get the job done at this level,” coach Paul Mainieri said. “They’ve busted through the barrier of ‘Do we belong at this level?’”
In the last two weekends, No. 5 LSU (26-11) has beaten some of the best pitchers in the SEC. It won games against Vanderbilt’s top two starters, Jordan Sheffield and Kyle Wright, as well as Missouri’s duo of Reggie McClain and Tanner Houck.
There will be no let up this weekend for LSU, as it welcomes No. 7 Mississippi State (25-12) to Baton Rouge. The Bulldogs’ pitching staff is led by righthander Dakota Hudson (4-3, 2.08), who could be a top-10 pick this June. With the teams separated by a game in the SEC West standings and both ranked in the top 20 of the RPI, the series could have significant implications in division race, as well as for national seeds and hosting bids in the NCAA Tournament.
With so much on the line, Mainieri expects another great series between the longtime rivals.
“We love to play Mississippi State,” Mainieri said. “We always have spirited games. It’s always a great scene and a great atmosphere. You’re talking about two teams that have a lot of talent out there on the field.”
LSU’s new-look lineup still has some pop to it—Greg Deichmann and Jordan Romero lead the team with six home runs apiece—it is capable of beating teams in other ways as well. Four Tigers have already stolen at least nine bases, led by junior center fielder Jake Fraley with 19. Freshman right fielder Antonie Duplantis (.365/.434/.459) comes into the weekend as the team’s leading hitter and has swiped 10 bases.
The Tigers have also proven to be difficult to strikeout, and have whiffed the fewest times in the SEC. LSU has struck out 168 times in 37 games, 61 fewer times than Florida and Mississippi State, who are tied for second.
“We do have speed, we don’t strikeout very much,” Mainieri said. “It’s a testament to the feistiness of our hitters. When you put the ball in play, good things happen.”
Mississippi State will be looking to bounce back after getting swept at home last weekend by Texas A&M. The Bulldogs had won their first four conference series and worked their way up to No. 2 in the Top 25, their highest ranking since finishing as national runners-up in the 2013 College World Series. But against Texas A&M, Mississippi State faltered and gave up 10 runs in three straight games.
Mississippi State got back on track Wednesday with a 1-0 win in 14 innings against Louisiana-Monroe. Coach John Cohen said in his postgame radio interview that his team would benefit from playing that kind of game.
“Really neat ballgame to be in in the middle of the week,” he said. “It seems like every SEC game is just like this one.”
Having passed the halfway point in the SEC season last weekend, both LSU and Mississippi State are looking to start a strong finishing kick. Both are chasing Texas A&M in the division, but have plenty of time left to achieve their goals.
“Our destiny is in our own hands,” Mainieri said. “We’ve got a chance to make a significant run here to the finish line and, if we do, all our regular season goals are in front of us. We’ve just got to go out there and earn it.”
Utah Faces Test in Oregon State
Since Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference for the 2012 season, it had never won more than seven conference games in a season. But this year, less than halfway through their conference slate, the Utes are 8-4 and enter the weekend in first place in the Pac-12.
With more than half the conference schedule still to be played, coach Bill Kinneberg knows Utah can’t get ahead of itself. And while the Utes remain under .500 overall (13-20), he is pleased with where they are in the conference standings.
“I couldn’t be more happy with that,” he said. “We still have a long way to go. We’re playing some really good teams. The nice thing is four of the six (remaining) series are at home. We’re going to have to continue to play really well to compete in any of those series.”
That stretch begins this weekend with No. 22 Oregon State (24-9), the preseason conference favorites, coming to Salt Lake City. Oregon State is coming off a series loss at last-place Washington State, which dropped it to 6-6 in conference play.
Oregon State has struggled in true road games this season, entering the weekend at 5-5. It defeated Oregon, 11-10, in a nonconference game Monday in Eugene, but blew an 8-0 lead before coming out with the victory.
“Fortunately, we scored enough runs to win,” coach Pat Casey told reporters after the game. “Right now, we’re scuffling and we’ll take a win any way you can get it.”
But Kinneberg knows how good Oregon State can be. Though ace Drew Rasmussen is out for the year, the Beavers have strong starting pitching, and a variety of offensive weapons. Catcher Logan Ice (.371/.496/.722) has been one of the breakout stars of the season, and freshman second baseman Nick Madrigal (.333/.387/.422) has been a key addition.
Kinneberg said one thing that has stood out to him in previous matchups is Oregon State’s knack for getting a big weekend from an unexpected player.
“They’re very balanced No. 1,” Kinneberg said. “They’re well coached and they’re great athletes.”
Utah has been led this season by its pitching. Righthander Jayson Rose (5-3, 2.48) has been tough to beat on Fridays, but righthander Dalton Carroll (3-4, 5.15) and lefthander Josh Lapiana (2-4, 4.33) have also been solid for the Utes.
Kinneberg knows this is a big weekend for Utah, but wants his team to stay focused and not look at it any differently than they have approached their previous conference weekends.
“There are no easy weekends here,” he said. “It is Oregon State and they’re so talented. We’re preparing just like we would for any other series.”
Golden Eagles Brace For Buzzsaw
Rice travels to Southern Mississippi for a vital series between the two teams tied atop the Conference USA standings. Much as the Golden Eagles have to embrace getting their crack at C-USA’s preeminent program, it’s not exactly ideal timing.
The Owls are red hot, winning 15 of their last 17 games. Southern Miss, on the other hand, rolled through the first two months, winning its first eight weekends, before surprisingly dropping two of three at Alabama-Birmingham last week. USM followed that up by getting drilled 12-0 by Tulane on Tuesday. Now, they have to deal with the program that’s won 20 straight conference titles.
“Right now, it’s just going back out with the confidence that we’ve had for the majority of the season, and competing,” USM head coach Scott Berry said. “I just feel like, for whatever reason, in different areas of the game we haven’t competed well enough in these last four games to do well enough, honestly. We’ve got to get back to competing and getting that confidence back that we had for the majority of the season.”
Rice can relate. The Owls came out back in February and dropped two of three at home against Arizona on opening weekend. A week later, they went winless at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic at Minute Maid Park, scoring a total of just four runs in three games against Arkansas, Texas Christian and Louisiana-Lafayette.
Yet they’ve been a buzzsaw since, winning seven straight series and climbing to No. 13 in this week’s Top 25 rankings.
“Honestly, we just started playing better baseball,” Owls assistant coach Patrick Hallmark said. “For whatever reason, we didn’t play very well in any phase of the game early on. We didn’t catch the ball, we didn’t pitch real well, we didn’t hit much. That doesn’t leave you too much room to win games. But the kids really buckled down and have been playing some good baseball since then.”
Both teams will be without key bats this weekend. The Owls are missing leading hitter Charlie Warren (.319/.400/.351), who’s recovering from a broken hamate bone. Warren could see some action as a pinch-runner this weekend but isn’t ready to swing a bat in games yet. The news isn’t as good for USM, which is without top power hitter Taylor Braley (.323/.450/.688, 10 HR). Braley went down with a knee injury in early April and isn’t expected back before the end of the regular season.
But even without Braley, the Golden Eagles have an imposing offense that comes at teams in waves. They have five other regulars hitting over .300, with senior Tim Lynch (.384/.470/.556, 6 HR) and junior Dylan Burdeaux (.335/.422/.571, 8 HR) keying the middle of the order in Braley’s stead. USM enters the weekend averaging 7.4 runs per game, which ranks 28th nationally, and hits .313 as a team.
“We’ve had to ask some guys to step up, and they’ve done the best they can,” Berry said. “It is what it is. I think the biggest strength is that we’ve complimented each other from top to bottom. One end’s picking up the other.”
USM’s firepower should make for a fun showdown with Rice’s ever-stout pitching. The Owls have as steady a rotation as there is in Jon Duplantier, Blake Fox and Ricardo Salinas, with a true stopper at the back of the bullpen in Glenn Otto. Duplantier’s been overpowering at his best, his 92-96 mph fastball and low 80s spike curveball leading to 77 strikeouts in 63 innings, the eighth-highest strikeout total in the country. The Owls rank 13th in the country in team ERA (2.85) and allow just a .226 opponents’ average.
“It starts with strikes, always,” Hallmark said. “Our guys are really pounding the strike zone, which is a big key when you’ve got good stuff. Duplantier’s and Otto’s stuff is really good. Then Ricky (Salinas) and Blake (Fox) can pitch a little bit—they can change speeds and hit corners and do all that stuff. We throw good breaking balls like always, so that helps too.”
Southern Miss self-admittedly isn’t especially deep on the mound—as its 4-7 record in midweek games attests—but Berry does believe they’ve found a reasonable comfort level with their weekend rotation of Cord Cockrell (6-0, 3.02), Nick Johnson (2-0, 4.63) and Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.51). The sophomore McCarty has shown the most swing-and-miss stuff, with 52 strikeouts in 49 innings, while Cockrell and Johnson are pitchability seniors.
Low scoring games would almost certainly favor the Owls. While the job of Southern Miss’ pitching is more about just keeping games close to give the offense a chance, Rice needs its arms. Rice’s offense hits just .251 collectively and averages 4.3 runs per game, which ranks 265th nationally. That said, the Owls scored 17 runs in their three-game sweep of Western Kentucky last weekend, matching their season-high for a series, and did it without Warren. The Owls don’t have much power—they’ve hit just 10 home runs all season—but Hallmark believes they’ve done a better job lately of staying on top of balls and making pitchers work from one through nine.
Keep doing that this weekend, and they can take a big step towards extending that conference championship streak to 21.
“We’d like to think that there’s more to come,” Hallmark said. “We certainly think we can continue to improve. Coach Graham talks a lot about growing throughout the season and playing your best baseball in June, so that’s what we hope to do. That’s what our goal is. Certainly, we’re playing pretty good, but I’d like to think we’ll hit our stride in four weeks.”
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