Career hits records were the furthest from his mind this summer as Antoine Duplantis barreled head first into an outfield wall.

LSU coach Paul Mainieiri remembers watching in shock from the Team USA dugout as his star outfielder lay motionless after the jarring collision in a mid-summer scrimmage.

“My heart stopped,” said Mainieri, who coached the national team. “I was like, ‘I don’t believe that I just saw this happen.’ He’s laying face down in the warning track. He doesn’t move … but when I was about 20 yards away, and he got to his hands and his knees, I took a big sigh of relief.

“Then when I got there, his face was covered with a combination of blood and gravel from the warning track. It was ugly looking. And he was wailing.”

What was hurting?

“Everything.”

Duplantis wasn’t sure what the most serious or lasting issue might be.

“All I cared about at that point was breathing,” he says. “I was just laying on the ground. (Zach) Watson ran over, and I was telling him to come pick me up. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but I just felt like if I stood up, I might be able to breathe. And he lifted me up, and I just remember I had dirt all over my face. I didn’t know I was bleeding until they told me.

“But every step walking to the training room from the outfield was pain. My back spasms were getting me. Every step, it would just squeeze me, and I couldn’t breathe. It was a real scary time, but I’m real fortunate and happy it wasn’t anything too serious.”

Duplantis eventually regained his breath, wiped any lingering clumps of dirt and grass from his eyes late that night and watched the final scars and bruises subside over the next month.

And returned to workouts and now practice full-go for a senior season with the Tigers that appears poised for the history books.

The Lafayette product enters his final campaign “just” 84 hits shy of the SEC career record of 352 by former LSU star Eddy Furniss.

“It would be a really cool accomplishment,” he admits. “But it’s such a long season, and it’s not like I need 20 hits. I need 85 hits. That’s gonna take a whole year’s worth of at-bats, probably. Hopefully we make it far and give me some breathing room.

“But, kind of the same thing, it’s a fun thing to think about, but it’s not going to happen in one day, and it’s not going to happen in two months. It’s going to happen throughout this whole year, so it’s such a long journey. It’s my last year at LSU. I’m hoping it’s going to be a special one. So, although it’s in the back of my mind, I’m just taking it a day at a time, and we’ll worry about that when it’s time for that.”

Only six SEC players recorded that many hits in 2018.

And no more than 12 have done so in any of the past five seasons.

But Duplantis has been a model of consistency with 89, 90 and 89 hits, respectively, during the first three years of his career.

“He’s just one of those guys that every time he comes up to bat, you never know what’s gonna happen. He can just spark the game like that —” snaps sophomore outfielder Daniel Cabrera. “I mean, look at his stats. He’s 85 hits away from beating the LSU hits record. He’s something special. He’s honestly one of the best players I’ve ever played with. His baseball IQ, the way he carries himself, everything is like a pro.”

Duplantis points to his day by day, at-bat by at-bat approach at the root of his success.

The statistical consistency comes as the result of constant small adjustments, he says.

“Every year it’s something new,” he explains. “Every single year there’s little minor things that my swing looks a little different. Like maybe I’m late on the ball and I’ve gotta start pulling ‘em a little bit more. There’s always minor adjustments that I have to make. It’s never the same thing, so I think I do a good job of just finding what adjustment I need to make.

“The coaches obviously help me a lot with that. I remember coach Mainieri sat me down after the second UL game, the Wally Pontiff Classic, last year and just told me, ‘You’re pulling the ball way too much.’ Obviously there’s nothing wrong with that, but if I’m rolling over everything, that’s not what I’m looking for, so I started hitting the ball the other way, and I started having some success.”

Duplantis says opposing pitchers noticed him having trouble with changeups last season and started throwing him a heavy dose.

So, identified that approach, scooted up in the batter’s box and worked on better identifying those pitches to either be patient with his swing or lay off entirely.

“For the most part, what I figured out is just don’t swing at ‘em, because they’re usually gonna be balls,” he says. “But I had to figure out ways to do that because people started pitching me that way. After three years of seeing you, especially in the SEC, they’re gonna start locking down on what they want to do to you, because they’re gonna have a plan — especially for a guy like me that they’ve seen. They have 500 at-bats on you.”

Those types of adjustments Duplantis might have to make in his final college season remain to be seen.

“Nothing too serious right now,” but the Tigers’ star is already hard at work fine-tuning.

“I’m just trying to maintain the same simple swing, keep going the other way well and I’m trying to learn how to pull the ball not on the ground,” he says. “I’m just really trying to stay short with everything and stay inside everything, so I don’t hit those weak grounders to the right side, and when I do make mistakes, it’s to the left side so I get my chance to run a ball out.”

If all goes well, Duplantis appears poised to leave LSU next summer having toppled an LSU record that has now stood for two decades.

Whether that mark ultimately stands atop the conference history books will involve another wrinkle, though.

“I didn’t know it was an SEC record as well until (Mississippi State senior) Jake Mangum actually texted me,” Duplantis says. “When we both didn’t get drafted, he texted me, because we kind of had the same situation going, and he said, ‘We’re both gonna be competing for the SEC record now’ … So that’s pretty neat.”

The Bulldogs’ outfielder enters the upcoming season seven hits ahead of Duplantis after compiling totals of 84, 90 and 101 during his first three years.

That positioning remains on the backburner until later in the season, though.

“It’s cool, especially since Mangum’s a good friend of mine,” Duplantis says. “We text a lot. He texted me last night, actually, just talking about how school’s going. And he’s gonna come visit during the Mississippi State football game and stay with me. You know, it’s just a fun little thing.

“And coach Mainieri was actually telling me the other day, ‘All you’ve got to worry about right now is the LSU record. And then once you beat that, you’ll fight with Mangum for the SEC record.’ So I think it will be a cool thing to watch for — two guys competing for that record.”

Mainieri likes his standout’s chances.

The coach is naturally excited to have Duplantis back for one more season in the lineup and the clubhouse.

And, with all the offseason work, Mainieri is confident the veteran may even exceed that steadily high level he’s established for himself throughout his career thus far.

“He’s had 89, 90 and 89 hits in his year years, and he needs 85,” Mainieri says. “So I’m gonna go out on a limb and predict 110 — how’s that!?”