By Hunt Palmer
For an SEC baseball team, the first four weeks of the season are about evaluation.
The next 10 are about positioning. The rest is about championships.
The evaluation portion of the season comes to an end, to a certain extent, this weekend. Of course, Jay Johnson will continue to evaluate his team to make the Tigers as good as they can be, but the level of competition ramps up significantly from here. How you win becomes less important in league play. Just do it.
North Alabama comes to Alex Box Stadium for the weekend at 3-8. The Lions beat Army 2 of 3 to open the season, split a two-game weekend with St. Louis and then were swept at UAB last weekend in a series where they managed just three total runs.
The Lions are underwhelming in just about every aspect on paper.
Their top hitter is leadoff man Jonathan Lane. He’s hitting .292 with one extra base hit on the season. He’s walked twice and struck out 12 times.
The lineup hits .211 as a club and has only produced five home runs in 11 games.
On the mound, the Lions do have a starter who has enjoyed some early season success.
Tripp Patterson, a slender left hander, has done a good job on Saturdays. He’s 1-1 with a 1.37 ERA. Last week against UAB he fired eight innings of one-run ball, allowing just two hits. He walked a pair and struck out one. Most eight-inning outing result in more than one strikeout, but tip your cap.
The presumed Friday starter is Brycen Parish. He’s a big 6-foot-5 righty. The good news for LSU is that a variety of players can be used Friday and Saturday with the righty-lefty start to the weekend from North Alabama.
C’MON CATCHING
The free bases have been the most glaring issue for the Tigers in the last two weeks. Kade Anderson and Chase Shores have only combined for one wild pitch. Anthony Eyanson has five. Cade Arrambide has started all of Eyanson’s starts.
The plan is almost always to use two catchers throughout SEC play. Certainly, that’s what Johnson had in his mind entering the season. Both catchers, but specifically Arrambide, need to keep the ball in front of them this weekend.
THIRD TRIP
Anderson has been great early on. That goes for the season and in games. He’s hitting a wall the third time through the order, though.
In the first two trips around the lineup, hitters are 5-for-48 (.104 batting average) off Anderson with no home runs, 24 strikeouts and four walks. The third time? 5-for-8 with two homers, two walks and two strikeouts.
His stuff and demeanor are “ace-level”. He’s got one more hurdle to clear, and that’s pitches 70-105. He’s got to execute better. The good news is that that is almost always the last thing to come early in the season.
SEVEN HEAVEN
LSU’s offense has been remarkably consistent all year. LSU has scored at least seven runs in eight straight games. There was a 10-inning stretch against Omaha where the bats went to sleep. Perhaps they more aptly froze in chilly February temperatures. Outside of that, LSU has done its thing.
That includes drawing walks (7.2 per game), getting hit by pitches (24 in 14 games) and driving the baseball. LSU’s team batting average is a healthy .333, and the on base percentage is .466.
The competition has been poor. That’s not to be sugar coated. But LSU has done the job to this point. Four more of these to go.
WEEKEND WARE
Conner Ware has gotten a pair of midweek starts. The effort against Dallas Baptist was excellent. This week against North Dakota State, he didn’t have it. With only one midweek game next week and William Schmidt rolling along, does Ware get a chance to pitch out of the bullpen this weekend?
I think that’s ultimately where he lands, so this might be a good time to get him out there. Ware only threw 60 pitches on Tuesday. He could come back Sunday without much of an issue.
This has less to do with what day of the week he pitches on and more to do with how he’s used. I think two of three inning bullpen stints are best right now.
SERIES SCHEDULE:
- Friday 6:30 pm
- Saturday: 6:00 pm
- Sunday: 1:00 pm
It’s Tigers vs. Lions when LSU takes on North Alabama this weekend! pic.twitter.com/H5nFzw9KxP
— LSU Baseball (@LSUbaseball) March 6, 2025
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