LSU Baseball
By Hunt Palmer
To state the obvious, 6-6 sounds a lot better than 6-9.
LSU hit the halfway point in the SEC schedule on a real downer. The Tigers weren’t alone in that. Texas dropped both games at A&M. Mississippi State lost six straight league games after a fiery start. Georgia dropped a home series over the weekend.
None of that matters to LSU, though. The Tigers are not jockeying with those team for position. They’re currently 14th of 16 SEC teams in the standings and projected outside the NCAA Tournament field. Things have to change in the second half.
What, specifically, though? Plenty. Here’s a look at where LSU stands among its SEC peers in league action.
(Reminder, 1st is always best, and 16th is always worst meaning 1st in home runs hit is the most, and first in strikeouts hitting is fewest. “Top 4” stats are in Green. “Bottom 4” are in Red)
OFFENSE
Batting Average: 7th, .260
Runs Scored: 3rd, 107
Hits: 6th, 131
Doubles: 8th, 22
Home Runs: 6th, 24
Slugging Percentage: 6th, .455
Walks: 4th, 76
Hit By Pitch: 10th, 17
Strikeouts: 5th, 137
Stolen Bases: 12th, 10
Sacrifice Bunts: 14th, 2
LSU is walking and scoring some runs. A lot of that is coming in Game 3s where LSU has posted monster numbers against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee and Ole Miss. That’s 57 of LSU’s 107 runs, so more than half of the runs they’ve scored have come in four of 15 games.
The rest of the statistics, other than being hit by pitches, stealing bases and bunting, are top half of the league. The vast majority of that has come against the weaker arms weekend by weekend. Ole Miss didn’t really have any lesser arms to throw and handcuffed the Tigers for most of the 27 innings in Oxford, the seven-run seventh on Sunday notwithstanding.
LSU will see some poor pitching in the second half. Texas A&M and South Carolina have their pitching issues. The other three series against Mississippi State (SEC strikeout leaders), Florida (2nd in opp BA) and Georgia (1st place team in a tiny ballpark) will be a serious challenge.
PITCHING AND DEFENSE
ERA: 11th, 5.94
Hits Allowed: 7th, 120
Runs Allowed: 13th, 100
Earned Runs Allowed: 12th, 86
Walks: 14th, 86
Strikeouts: 2nd, 169
Doubles Allowed: 2nd, 17
Home Runs Allowed: 9th, 19
Batting Average Against: 7th, .242
Wild Pitches: 16th, 24
Hit By Pitch: 10th, 17
Fielding Percentage: 16th, .963
It’s tough to paint this into a rosy picture once you get past strikeouts. The bottom line is that no one gives more away than LSU. That’s impossible for most staffs to overcome.
The walks, runs allowed and putrid fielding percentage overshadow everything. Hits allowed, doubles allowed and batting average against are all in the top half of the league, some more securely than other.
LSU hasn’t had its third starter for three weeks. In SEC games, Casan Evans‘s ERA is 4.60, and William Schmidt‘s is 3.97. Those numbers aren’t awful by any stretch, but they’re not enough to overcome the rest of the staff.
The key is obvious. If the Tiger arms can throw the ball over the plate more consistently, the stuff is good enough to limit damage. Unfortunately, these issues have persisted for six weeks. It’s hard to imagine a significant shift over the final five.
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