LSU in need of strong finish to net NCAA berth
BATON ROUGE — The 2018 season hasn’t played out the way LSU hoped after a College World Series runner-up finish in 2017, but the Tigers are still in position to secure a postseason berth as the season winds down.
Injuries coupled with a lack of “star power” have LSU sitting at 29-20 entering its last seven games of the regular season and there are several key matchups on the horizon. Up first is a three-game set with Alabama beginning today at 7 p.m. before a one-off against Northwestern State on May 15, and LSU closes the season with a three-game series at Auburn starting May 17.
The Tigers can afford very few missteps along the way as they were recently projected by both d1baseball.com and baseballamerica.com to miss the NCAA tournament before moving back into the field of 64 following a series win over Arkansas last weekend.
LSU took the final two games of that series, 7-5, and 6-4 after dropping the opener, 5-4, and Austin Bain took over for the Tigers against the fourth-ranked Razorbacks. The senior went 5-for-10 with two doubles, four RBIs and three runs in three games, which included the game-winning hit in Saturday’s 6-4 win.
LSU totaled 31 hits in the series and their bats stayed hot Wednesday night with a 13-3 win over McNeese in seven innings at Alex Box Stadium.
“I think Hunter Feduccia is swinging the bat a lot better and I think Daniel Cabrera is becoming the hitter we thought he would be before the season began,” Mainieri said after LSU’s 14-hit day against McNeese. “Those two things in themselves I think are making us a lot better. Antoine’s been doing his thing all year, Beau’s done some good stuff, especially when we put him at the top of the order.
“I think the big thing is when Slaughter can get a hit for us, and to me, it looks like Brandt’s starting to swing the bat a little better and Hal’s had some productive at-bats,” said Mainieri, whose team went into Wednesday’s contest ranked fourth in the SEC in batting average at .293. “Offensively the guys are doing a pretty good job (but) you don’t want to feel like you have to score nine runs to win a game. It comes down to pitching really well and it’ll make your lineup look pretty decent.”
LSU’s pitching staff has struggled throughout the season and went into Wednesday’s game ranked 12th in the SEC with a 4.51 ERA. The Tigers may get a bit of a boost down the stretch, however, with highly-touted freshman Nick Storz returning to the mound.
The 6-foot-6, 255-pounder from New York appeared in just his second game of the season Wednesday against McNeese and threw two innings of shutout ball, allowing one hit with two walks and two strikeouts. Storz threw one inning on March 21 against Tulane but a shoulder injury sent him back to the bench until Wednesday’s outing against the Cowboys.
“It felt great,” Storz said of returning to the rotation. “The biggest thing is just get back on the mound and try to help this team any way that I can … It sucks that after the Tulane start I had a little bit of a setback but I’m keeping a positive mindset and hopefully I’ll be back this weekend to help the team in any way I can.”
“I’m so happy for (Storz) — that’s my boy,” fellow freshman Daniel Cabrera said. “He’s getting there and I think he can help us out a lot. If he just goes up there, pounds the zone and throws strikes, his stuff is really good.”
Cabrera also is rounding into form as LSU heads into its final stretch of regular season baseball. He launched his sixth home run of the season Wednesday night and could be a key piece as the Tigers’ push to secure spots in the NCAA and SEC tournaments.
LSU rose five spots to No. 47 in the latest RPI rankings and is two games behind Arkansas, the SEC West division leader at 14-10. The Tigers’ 12-12 record in conference play also puts them behind Ole Miss and Auburn, tied with Texas A&M in the division, and there isn’t much room for error against last-place Alabama (25-25, 6-18) this coming weekend.
“We’ve just gotta focus on Friday night first,” Cabrera said. “Once we play Friday night, then we move on to Saturday and Sunday. We’ve just got to take it one game at a time.”