LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
Entering the eighth on Friday, LSU trailed Indiana 5-4.
From that point forward, LSU outscored three Jax Classic opponents 29-7 to sweep a pre-conference tournament for the third straight season. I wouldn’t suggest LSU is playing competition comparable to high-level SEC baseball, but the Tigers are dominating consistently.
That’s a good sign.
OFFENSIVE EFFORT
It’s a chore to pitch to this lineup.
LSU was only retired in order three times in 23 innings over the weekend. The Tigers posted nine crooked numbers, collected 40 hits and scored 34 runs in those 23 frames. Add up the hits (40), walks (25) and hit by pitches (5), and you get 70 baserunners in 23 innings.
There’s truly not a weak spot in the order, and the depth on the roster allows for favorable matchups depending on pitching. Those favorable matchups continue when the bullpen shows up, because there are always two or three guys on the bench capable of coming in and providing a quality at bat.
Five times LSU stood in Sunday with a runner at third and less than two outs. All five times he scored. The Tigers put the leadoff man on base 15 times in 23 innings over the weekend. So, 65 percent of the time, the pitcher was immediately in hot water.
It’s relentless.
ROTATION REVIEW
The best way to chase a championship is with dominant starting pitching. LSU did it eight months ago.
To this point, and it’s about as early as it can be, LSU doesn’t quite have that. It didn’t at this point last year, either. This weekend was the blueprint for the other way to do things.
LSU’s three starters were effective early and gave way to a deep bullpen late.
Casan Evans, Cooper Moore and William Schmidt combined to work 15.2 innings. They allowed a total of five earned runs. LSU then used nine relievers, none twice, that combined to allow just three earned runs in 9.1 innings.
The positives on the starters were that they only walked four in those 15.2 innings and only allowed two extra base hits. So, they weren’t giving up many free bases or big swings. Moore hung a breaking ball that got hit out of the ballpark. That was the biggest mistake made.
Evans’s line is worse than he pitched. The three-spot he yielded in the third inning resulted from a leadoff infield single, two walks, a ground ball through the left side and a swinging bunt that Cade Arrambide flipped wildly out of play. The walks were untimely, but he was hardly lit up.
After the debacle of a defensive error, runners were at second and third with one out, and Evans struck out the four and five hitters in the order on seven pitches.
Moore gave up eight hits, but he worked into the sixth inning which Evans and Schmidt were unable to do. He got six ground outs and six strikeouts and was only at 78 pitches when he was lifted with two out in the sixth.
Schmidt really commanded his breaking ball well. He was able to steal some early count strikes with it because UCF was laying off. He talked about that postgame. I loved his response to the leadoff double in the fourth. The runner moved to third with one out. and Schmidt got a pair of strikeouts to strand him. A leadoff single reached in the fifth, and Schmidt immediately struck the next two out and escaped the trouble with a fly ball.
This group has two weeks to tune up before SEC play. This weekend was solid, but there is more in the tank for the rotation.
BULLPEN BEST
Gavin Guidry and Deven Sheerin are the top two in the bullpen right now.
Guidry was summoned on Friday with two on and no one out. He quickly got a strikeout on three pitches and a ground ball. He did allow an RBI single but limited the damage there. He’s got an 11-0 strikeout to walk ratio and has allowed just two hits in 5.1 innings.
Guidry is never going to blow anyone away with velocity, but he’s got two breaking balls and enough pop to make hitters uncomfortable.
Sheerin can blow you away. He was hitting 97 on the gun Saturday afternoon, but it was the slider that was doing damage. After he walked the first two he faced, which is unacceptable, he just mowed the Irish down. He struck out four of the next five hitters with some lethal breaking stuff.
If there is a new candidate for the Chase Shores June role, Sheerin is the guy. He’s got a starting background like Shores did. He’s got the huge frame and blazing fastball, too.
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