Freshmen making big impact at the plate

LSU returned eight starters from their 2016 lineup.

That number was reduced to seven when designated hitter Bryce Jordan suffered a season-ending knee injury shortly before the season-opener.

Now, it appears that as many as three freshmen are ready to be in the everyday lineup.

Infielders Josh Smith and Jake Slaughter have started every game at third base and first base, respectively. In the weekend series against Maryland, Rankin Woley had two solid games as the designated hitter.

In the Tigers’ sweep of the Terps, the three freshmen were a combined 12-of-30 (.400) with eight RBIs. The trio also scored eight runs. Heading into Tuesday’s game against Nicholls State at The Box (6:30 p.m. Central/SEC Digital Network), the three freshmen are batting a combined .410 for the season.

“All three freshmen played extremely well over the weekend,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “They were not perfect, but they were pretty good for freshmen. All three showed well for themselves against a very good team.”

Smith was expected to be in the LSU starting lineup very quickly. During fall practice, Smith won the third base job – beating out returning starter Chris Reid and Slaughter. Smith is batting .333 with one homer and eight RBIs. He has struck out just once in the Tigers’ eight games.

“Josh was the one out of all the freshmen who was the most advanced with his approach at the plate,” first-year hitting coach Micah Gibbs said. “He won’t wow you in batting practice, but he finds a way to hit the ball hard.”

Slaughter did win the third base job, but he proved to Mainieri that he belonged in the lineup. So, Mainieri shifted Slaughter to first during the last couple of weeks of fall drills. Slaughter has been flawless at first base. In addition, he has a hit in each of LSU’s eight games.

Slaughter is batting .462 with one home run and eight RBIs – just like Smith. Slaughter’s one problem has been making consistent contact. Half of his 14 outs have been the result of a strikeout.

“I don’t worry about Jake’s strikeouts,” Gibbs said. “He is hitting the ball hard. We’ll work on the strikeouts as he sees more pitching. The more he plays, the better he will get with that. The strikeouts will go down as he gets more at-bats.”

Bryce Adams got the first shot at being LSU’s replacement for Jordan as the designated hitter. Adams had some big hits in the first few games. Woley was not retired in his first four plate appearances – single, double, walk and hit batter.

Mainieri inserted Woley in the lineup as the designated hitter for the last two games of the Maryland series. Woley went 3-for-9 with two RBIs. So, for the season, Woley is 5-for-11 with three RBIs.

“Rankin has more of a physical maturity,” Gibbs said. “He has so much confidence at the plate. He has been hitting the ball hard. We have him a chance after he had some real quality at-bats and he ran with it.

“All three of them are so advanced in their approach. You could tell in the fall that they were not normal freshmen. They knew where they needed to be all fall and in the early spring.”

Mainieri is quick to point out that three freshmen pitchers have also made a positive impact in the first eight games – starters Eric Walker and Zack Hess and reliever Todd Peterson. Those three pitchers have allowed six runs and 16 hits with seven walks and 24 strikeouts in 20 innings.

Walker and Hess, who will start against Nicholls, are competing to see who will be the No. 3 starter in the rotation for Southeastern Conference games. Peterson is attempting to nail down a permanent spot as a set-up guy in the bullpen – more important due to Doug Norman’s season-ending elbow injury.

“All three freshmen pitchers have been throwing well,” Mainieri said. “With Norman being out, we will evaluate if we will use a (full-time) midweek starter.”