Tigers take care of business in tightening SEC race
LSU received the necessary help this past weekend if it wanted to get back into the Southeastern Conference baseball race.
Mississippi State lost two of three games to home to Auburn and Arkansas did the same in its series at home against Ole Miss. Then, Kentucky lost one of its three games at South Carolina. Still, LSU had to do its part in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama turned out to be just what the doctor ordered as LSU swept three games from the Crimson Tide. As a result, the Tigers are now just one game behind Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State in the overall SEC standings.
LSU has company in its spot in the league standings. Arkansas, Florida and Texas A&M are also one game behind the three leaders.
A team needs to successfully handle its games against second-division clubs. The Tigers are now 8-1 against the SEC’s second division – 3-0 against both Alabama and Georgia and 2-1 against Ole Miss. LSU is 5-7 against first-division teams with one series victory – against Arkansas.
The Tigers are going to have to find a way to beat the better teams in the SEC if they are going to win the regular-season title. LSU has series remaining against two of the three tri-leaders – Auburn at home and Mississippi State on the road. The Tigers open a series at The Box against South Carolina on Friday.
“The standings are crazy, but I’m not surprised,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “Everybody seems about the same. One team may have one strength more than the other teams. But, everybody has their limitations. On some days, those limitations rear their head.
“We’ve got our chance just like everybody else. There are three weeks to go. We’ll see if we can sprint to the finish line. I talked to the team about this stuff in Tuscaloosa. I don’t shy away from telling the players what this and that mean. Everything is there for the taking. We just have to do the job.”
The Tigers did their job against Alabama, a team which has won only two of its 21 SEC games. LSU pulled away late for victories in the first two games of the series. Then, the Tigers won the third game in 11 innings on a game-winning hit from Michael Papierski.
Mainieri made an unorthodox call on Papierski’s single – a hit-and-run call with a three-ball, no-strike count. There were runners on first and third as Papierski responded with a line-drive single.
“That was the first time in 35 years, I made that call,” Mainieri said. “I figured they were going to throw a fast ball right down the middle to Papierski. I didn’t want him to walk. (Zach) Watson was up next and he was having trouble with the curve ball all day.”
Papierski, whose batting average is in the low .200s, was one of six LSU players to pick up a hit in each of the games in the Alabama series. Papierski, Josh Smith and Antoine Duplantis had one hit in each game. Nick Coomes, Kramer Robertson and Jordan Romero each had one two-hit game.
Greg Deichmann, who was hitless in the opener, lead the Tigers with five hits and four RBIs over the weekend. Deichmann hit two home runs. Cole Freeman had a three-hit game in the series opener. Watson was the one player who struggled at the plate – going 1-for-11 in the three games.
“Pap was great this weekend,” Mainieri said. “Nobody works as hard as he does. He has been out of sync all year. But, he stayed through the ball this weekend. He was not hooking balls foul. He also drew five or six walks.”
The No. 1 reason for the series sweep was the performance of the Tigers bullpen. LSU relievers worked 11.2 scoreless innings in the three games. The Tigers bullpen allowed only three hits with three walks and 14 strikeouts. The relief pitchers made up for mediocre starts from Jared Poche and Eric Walker.
“First, of all Zack Hess was terrific in the second game,” Mainieri said. “Caleb Gilbert was the key to the game Saturday with three scoreless innings. Nick Bush was great both Thursday and Saturday.
“Then, Hunter Newman got the job done as well on Saturday. He gave us two innings. His coming back from a disk problem (in his back) has been the most important thing for our team. I don’t know where we would be without him.”
Here are the remaining SEC schedules for the contenders for the league championship.
AUBURN (14-7): Alabama, at LSU, Ole Miss
KENTUCKY (14-7): Georgia, Tennessee, at Florida
MISSISSIPPI STATE (14-7): at Texas A&M, at Georgia, LSU
ARKANSAS (13-8): at Tennessee, Vanderbilt, at Texas A&M
FLORIDA (13-8): Ole Miss, at Alabama, Kentucky
LSU (13-8): South Carolina, Auburn, at Mississippi State
TEXAS A&M (13-8): Mississippi State, at Ole Miss, Arkansas