Loaded’ LSU committed to playing up to its rankings at Bama
BATON ROUGE – No. 2 LSU’s 8-6 win over the UL Ragin’ Cajuns on Tuesday night was a start toward erasing a disappointing home series loss to unranked Kentucky last weekend.
But the Tigers (24-5) still have considerable ground to make up if they want their place in the Southeastern Conference standings to coincide with their lofty national rankings. LSU, which dropped to 5-4 in the SEC West by losing two of three to Kentucky, is behind three teams in the overall league standings — Vanderbilt and Texas A&M at 7-2 and Missouri at 6-3 — while being ranked No. 2 in the Perfect Game poll, No. 3 by Baseball America and No. 4 by USA Today.
LSU plays Alabama (15-12, 4-5 SEC) at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama, as the Tide’s regular ballpark on campus in Tuscaloosa — Sewell-Thomas Stadium — is undergoing a $42.6 million renovation. A 7 p.m. game follows Friday with a 2 p.m. series finale on Saturday. All games will be televised on the SEC Network.
“We should be playing a lot better,” LSU left fielder Jared Foster said on Sunday after the Tigers came back from a four-run deficit only to blow two leads and lose 12-10 in 11 innings. “We’re still a great team. We’re loaded. We’re just not always playing like it. We’ll bounce back from this. Championship teams don’t let losses linger.”
The Tigers banged out three home runs in a 10-hit attack for the victory over UL Tuesday. Kade Scivicque, who is second in the SEC with a .407 batting average, hit his fourth homer of the season and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Alex Bregman hit his seventh homer to tie Foster for second in the league with seven home runs. He also came within a single of hitting for the cycle as he was 3-for-3 with four RBIs with his 10th double of the season and second triple. And Chris Chinea hit his second homer on the year.
LSU leads the SEC and is among the nation’s leaders with 27 home runs. The Tigers are also the top hitting team in the SEC and second nationally at .329.
“They swung the bats super,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said after the win over UL. “We’ve really been swinging the bats well.”
The Tigers collected 40 hits in the Kentucky series – 13.3 a game – and saw their opponent commit nine errors, but still lost twice.
“I know everybody around here expects us to win every game,” Mainieri said.
Mainieri expects himself to manage better this weekend. He criticized himself for various decisions in the Kentucky series.
“I’m going to take full responsibility for that one,” he said after a 5-4 loss in 12 innings to Kentucky in the series opener. “Couple of moves I should have made, I didn’t.”
Mainieri said he should have had freshman Greg Deichmann prepared to bunt in an obvious bunting situation in the 11th inning of that game with runners on first and second with nobody out. Deichmann, who is the career home run leader at Brother Martin High with 29, is not a bunter. After entering the game in the eighth as a pinch-hitter and moving to designated hitter, Deichmann didn’t bunt and hit into a double play.
“Greg has never bunted in his life,” Mainieri said. “That’s my fault for not having him be able to. I haven’t emphasized that enough to him in practice, and we didn’t have any other options on the bench who could bunt as well.”
Mainieri was still thinking about Friday’s loss on Monday as he criticized himself for taking Chris Sciambra and Chris Chinea out of that game. “That’s where I do my self-analysis,” he said. “I’m mad at myself.”
Meanwhile, LSU’s numbers are impressive everywhere but in the SEC loss column. The Tigers have three hitters in the top 11 in SEC batting average with Scivicque at .407 for second, Andrew Stevenson at .379 for seventh and Mark Laird at .374 for 11th. LSU is fifth in the league in earned run average at 3.09, and starter Alex Lange (5-0, 1.20 ERA) leads the SEC in wins and in ERA.
“We’ll start putting it all together soon,” Foster said. “This week would be a good time to start.”
PITCHING MATCHUPS: Sophomore left-hander Jared Poche (5-1, 3.48 ERA) will start for the Tigers Thursday night at 7 against Alabama senior left-hander Taylor Guilbeau (2-2, 3.07 ERA) of Zachary High.
In the Friday 7 p.m. game, LSU freshman right-hander Alex Lange (5-0, 1.20 ERA) will face junior right-hander Will Carter (1-3, 5.91 ERA). In the 2 p.m. Saturday game, LSU freshman right-hander Jake Godfrey (5-0, 3.21 ERA) will oppose sophomore right-hander Geoffrey Bramblett (4-1, 3.67 ERA).