By Hunt Palmer
Between the gold uniforms and high 80s temperatures, there was a feeling of June at Alex Box Stadium on Saturday.
Instead, it was just the final weekend tune up for LSU just six days away from Opening Day.
It struck me as I watched Chase Shores bump nearly 100 mph and William Schmidt sit upwards of 95 for two innings that I was watching what appears to be LSU’s third starter and a guy wrestling for bullpen innings.
Those two would have been complete outliers in terms of stuff 10 years ago. Now it’s just commonplace.
Both right-handers struggled a little bit.
Shores started the game and was greeted with an assembly line of good at bats.
Tanner Reaves pulled a two-strike single through the right side of the infield. Cade Arrambide walked. Ethan Frey smoked a double high off the wall in right center. Then Ashton Larson singled with two strikes.
Shores was generally in the zone, and the velocity was great. He struggled to put hitters away, though, until he got Ryan Costello on a fastball and John Pearson on his best slider of the day.
Because Kade Anderson threw Friday and Shores stared Saturday, that may be the lineup you see next week.
Schmidt gave up back-to-back homers to Derek Curiel and Jared Jones on 94 mph fastballs. I’m thinking that didn’t happen much at Catholic High. Curiel’s was a liner into the third row in right. Jones’s was a towering blast over the bleachers in left.
That talented freshman struggled with his command much of the day. He issued a handful of walks and allowed runners to move on multiple occasions with wild pitches. He also hit Josh Pearson in the foot with a slider. His highlight was blowing one by Jones at the letters for strike three.
Many schools would need to rush Schmidt to the weekend rotation or back end of the bullpen because of his talent. That’s not the case with this LSU staff. There is plenty of depth that can allow Nate Yeskie and Jay Johnson to ease Schmidt in.
Jones homered twice in the scrimmage. Jake Brown added one, as well.
Brown is an interesting piece to this 2025 puzzle. He’s getting first team reps in right field opposite Chris Stanfield and Curiel. He has not pitched that I’ve seen. All of that natural athleticism is being poured into hitting and defense for the first time.
He struggled last year against SEC pitching, collecting just three hits in 21 at bats (.143). It’s not hard to envision a huge step forward this year. He’s put on some weight and has some pop in his bat.
The low point today continued to be the defense behind the plate. Arrambide is such a toolsy player, but he does need to do a little bit better job of blocking the ball and deadening it in front of him.
This is far and away the best stuff he’s ever caught. The fastballs are mid-to-upper 90s, and the sliders are sharp. That’s a far cry from high school. He’s got a month to work on all of that before SEC play cranks up. Those free bases can be killers in league games.
I think Arrambide will catch some games against the SEC.
No decision has been made on the left side of the infield just yet, but Michael Braswell and Steven Milam are doing a really nice job defensively. I think it was going to take Milam really struggling for him to yield that job back to Braswell. Since that hasn’t happened, I do expect Milam at shortstop on Opening Day.
