Around the Horn: Tigers sweep Lions

(Photo: Nate Bell)

By Hunt Palmer

After 16 games in 24 days, LSU has positioned itself about as well as possible entering the conference grind.

Aside from 10 chilly innings against Omaha over two days, LSU ‘s offense has functioned at a high level for a month. The starting pitching has built pitch counts steadily toward 100 and been largely effective and sometimes dominant. Defensively, LSU has been excellent aside from some issues behind the plate.

Only one loss cropped up while Jay Johnson was cycling through lineup options and bullpen roles. A quality non-conference run in this sport doesn’t guarantee success in the nation’s most difficult conference.

We know by now that the Tigers enjoyed a steady pre-conference slate last year including a four-game sweep in Houston before face-planting in league play.

This group has performed well and feels ready to enter the gauntlet, but you never know until that bell rings.

LEADOFF LOCK

Derek Curiel has been incredible in the leadoff spot.

Dating back to the Dallas Baptist game, the freshman has reached base 29 times in nine games. That’s better than three times per game. He’s accumulated 12 hits, five multi-hit games, 15 walks, including six multi-walk games, and only one without a base on balls. He’s scored 14 runs and now boasts a season-long on base percentage of .588.

His discipline paired with the ability to do damage has just been incredible, and the way Jared Jones can swing it behind him creates a ton of problems for opposing teams.

One play that I loved from Curiel this weekend was the tag and bluff play he made on Saturday. With one out, Curiel was on third base, and Ethan Frey popped up to very shallow right field. So shallow that the second baseman caught it. Curiel bluffed a tag, as a good baserunner would do. Ninety-seven times out of 100 the second baseman either makes the solid throw home or just runs the ball into the infield to stop the play. But every once in a while, he makes a mistake. He did, short-hopping the catcher with the throw. It skipped away allowing Curiel to score from third.

It would have been really easy for Curiel to give a half-hearted bluff or not do it at all. He sold it enough to draw the throw. And it earned LSU a run.

BREAKING THE BARRI-KADE

Kade Anderson smashed through that sixth inning wall on Friday. After two weeks of struggles the third time through the order, Anderson worked a scoreless sixth on Friday including a pair of strikeouts. His command seemed pretty sharp through the 92^nd and final pitch of his outing. He struck out 11 and didn’t walk anyone.

This is not like Alex Lange in year two or year three. Even Paul Skenes was an ace before he got to LSU. This is Anderson’s first time as even a weekend starter, much less the Friday guy. I think he’s checked the last pre-conference box necessary.

My favorite inning Anderson worked on Friday wasn’t the sixth, though. It was the fourth.

After his team hung a five-spot in the bottom of the third, relegating Anderson to the dugout for an extended time, he emerged and attacked the North Alabama lineup.

Strike one. Strike two. Waste pitch. Strikeout.

Strike out. Foul pop out.

Strike one. Strike two. Waste pitch. Foul ball. Strikeout.

That’s 11 pitches, the first two for strikes in every at bat. Nine strikes. Two waste pitches. Two punch outs.

That’s helping your team take a game over after a big inning.

EY OF THE TIGER

After four hitters, Anthony Eyanson looked closer to losing his spot in the weekend rotation than making history.

North Dakota State had walked and squared the junior right-hander up twice more to plate a pair of first inning runs.

From that point on, Eyanson dominated. He retired 20 of the next 21 with 15 strikeouts.

Observing his last two outings, the bumpy start against Nebraska that was smoothed out over the final three innings and this one on Saturday, the difference appears to be the slider.

He featured that pitch Saturday in various ways to manhandle a poor-hitting North Dakota State team. He was using it to get ahead of hitters, and then really featuring it to put hitters away.

That looping breaking ball might be effective as an infrequent 0-0 pitch to get ahead of guys who just don’t want to swing at breaking stuff on the first pitch, but the fastball-slider combination is going to have to be the featured portion of Eyanson’s arsenal in the SEC, I think.

PEARSON POWER

Could Josh Pearson wear the 2023 Gavin Dugas-Cade Beloso costume for this team?

Dugas was the SEC RBI leader in 2021, so 2023 was no fluke. But he was a very pedestrian player in 2022, Jay Johnson’s first year, and didn’t practice much entering 2023 because of eye issues.

That’s why he wasn’t in the Opening Day lineup in 2023. But by the time the Tigers raised the trophy, Dugas was a 17-home bat in middle of the most potent lineup in the country.

Beloso was an afterthought in February of 2023. Even he didn’t think he’d facto in much. He was so good all season that he led off the title-clinching game instead of Dylan Crews because Johnson wanted Florida to have to pitch to him.

Pearson has been a nice player at LSU for three seasons. He’s gotten huge hits like the game-winner at Southern Miss or the homer in the championship series.

But nothing over three years would suggest that he’s a .320 hitter with 15 home run pop. As of two weeks ago, he was a platoon bat in right field and at designated hitter. And he still may be. But with Ashton Larson struggling and Pearson surging, it’s reasonable to suggest Pearson could be an every day player.

He’s only started 11 of the 17 games. Still, he’s got 15 RBI and is tied for second on the team with 17 walks + hit by pitches.

Sunday’s grand slam flew the bleachers in right field.

I do believe LSU will use its depth moving throughout the SEC schedule, but the rotation of bats will tighten. Right now, Pearson demands at bats.

LAGNIAPPE

• LSU’s only two errors on the weekend came late Sunday from reserves Mikey Ryan and Michael Braswell. The starters were clean.
• Ashton Larson and Braswell are really fighting it. Larson is 0-for his last eight with six strikeouts. Braswell is just 6-for-33 on the year with three walks and eight strikeouts. Both guys found another gear in April and May last year. However, the time for lots of reps has dwindled. Pearson, Jake Brown and Ethan Frey are hitting. That’s going to make it tough to get Larson at bats. Tanner Reaves had four hits including a homer and a sharp opposite field hit over the weekend. He may be making a claim for the only available infield spot. Things can change quickly, and those guys will be fighting every day. Right now, it would be surprising to see either in the lineup against Missouri.
• Chase Shores was better than he linescore on Sunday. Five of the nine hits he allowed weren’t struck all that well. He limited damage, and his 94^th and final pitch of the day was a 95 mph sinker over the outer third of the plate for a strikeout. He’s not a finished product, but he’s a hell of a third option.
• Pearson was thrown out on a squeeze play Saturday that looked like bad baserunning. It wasn’t. LSU put a suicide squeeze on with the bases loaded and Chris Stanfield up with no one out. Pearson was at second. He broke for third on the pitch. The play design is for the pitcher to field the ball and throw to first as the first run scores. When you have speed at second base, you assume the pitcher will be casual with the throw to first allowing the speedy runner to round third and head home before the first baseman can make the catch and throw home. North Alabama didn’t cover first base properly, and Stanfield’s speed forced the pitcher to eat the ball. Well, by the time a streaking Pearson can throw on the brakes around third, he’s cooked. Just bad luck on a good call up three (quickly became four) in the eighth.