By Hunt Palmer
One look around the LSU meeting room, and you can understand how focused LSU is on this weekend’s opponent.
It’s plastered everywhere—Omaha.
I’d like to promise that’s my last “Omaha” joke for the weekend, but I can’t. The Mavericks and the College World Series provide two different challenges. With the June classic, you get multiple opponents, a national television spotlight and a potential championship. With this week’s visitor at Alex Box Stadium, you get a team that was swept by Tulane last weekend and currently sports a team ERA bordering 10.00.
This is another weekend that will be far more about how LSU plays than what challenge the opponent presents. The Tigers have another massive talent advantage and should turn this weekend into a replay of the Purdue Fort Wayne series.
Henry Zipay and Jackson Trout were everyday players for the Mavericks last year, and they’ve enjoyed a hot start. Zipay is 7-for-12 with four walks. He’s a 6-foot-2 senior from Omaha. Trout’s a big 6-foot-5 presence in the box who is 6-for-16 with a homer and six driven in.
It’s a veteran Omaha position player group that could be a tougher challenge for the Tiger pitchers, but that remains to be seen.
The weather will be chilly once again but nothing like what Wednesday could have been in Thibodaux.
The Tigers are healthy and rather fresh. None of the catchers have been overworked, and most of the position players have gotten into at least three games.
BATTERS UP
Omaha’s pitching has been awful through four games. The Maverick staff gave up 32 runs on 32 hits, 20 walks and four hit batsmen in just 24 innings at Tulane. The Green Wave reached double digit runs in all three games.
Nicholls only scored two on a cool night on the bayou, but that didn’t help the cosmetics of the statistics. Omaha’s team ERA is 9.28 through four games, and the batting average against is .305.
Pair that with an LSU lineup that’s currently sporting a .500 on base percentage and an 11.3 runs per game average, and you’ve got a recipe for a lot of LSU offense over the weekend.
HOLD THE HEAT
LSU threw hard last weekend, and the Tigers will throw hard again this weekend. That’s of no concern.
However, Kade Anderson and Chase Shores both saw velocity dip in the fifth inning of their outings last week. That’s completely natural. They generally stayed around three innings during preseason scrimmages, and the idea is to stretch a little bit more every time out.
I’ll be monitoring Anderson and Shores after 70 pitches this weekend to see if the velocity holds. Anderson threw 83 last week. Shores only threw 67. Weather and the amount of stress on the outing are both variables that could affect things, but 85 pitches or so for both would be a solid progression.
FRESHMAN FOURSOME
William Schmidt, Cooper Williams, Mavrick Rizy and Casan Evans were sensational over the weekend.
Those four combined for a line score of 6.2 innings, 0 runs, 1 H, 13 strikeouts and no walks. It was phenomenal to watch those guys command the ball and put hitters away with offspeed stuff. All four got what Jay Johnson called a “ramp”. They pitched in low leverage spots at the end of blowouts.
That may present itself again this week. LSU’s starters could smother Omaha, and the bats could go nuts. But there may be a tight game. Does Johnson go to one of the youngsters? Or does he stick with Gavin Guidry, Connor Benge or one of the other more seasoned options.
He’s said repeatedly that he’s confident enough to put the rookies in tight spots. I’m curious if that comes this weekend.
SERIES SCHEDULE: Friday’s game will start at 4:00. Saturday the teams will play a double-header due to a forecast of inclement weather Sunday. The first game will start at Noon. Game 2 of the double-header will begin at 5:00.
