LSU not taking any team lightly in regional setting this weekend
As Paul Mainieri threw batting practice at Thursday’s open practice, the players seemed relaxed and ready to host its first regional since 2017. Mainieri was getting into his windup, trying his best to throw off the LSU batters with a mix of fastballs and offspeed pitches, as the pitchers grinned ear to ear watching the whole ordeal.
When Mainieri struck out Giovanni DiGiacomo, the entire team lost it as the freshman pivoted his way around the batting cage to take the heat. It was a loose, calming atmosphere that hasn’t always been there with the 2019 LSU baseball team because of the preseason hype and injury concerns, but seems to be picking up at the right time.
LSU (37-24, 17-13) plays host to No. 2 seed Arizona State, No. 3 seed Southern Miss and No. 4 seed Stony Brook, who the Tigers take on Friday night at 6 p.m. for what the team hopes, is a fast start to postseason play.
Mainieri announced Thursday morning that freshman pitcher Landon Marceaux would draw the start against Stony Brook, but wouldn’t surrender all of his cards for the plan the rest of the weekend. Conceivably, LSU will go with freshman Cole Henry and sophomore Eric Walker for two of those games, but if the Tigers should falter at any point this weekend, that question becomes much more important.
“Landon has been pitching great baseball for us,” Mainieri said. “I feel like he has the best chance to get us off to a good start this weekend. We need to go at them (Stony Brook) with a guy that’s pitching really well for us and hopefully continues to pitch well for us.”
“I just have to keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Marceaux said. “Go out there with confidence, keep filling up the strike zone and I know I have my defense behind me to work for me.”
The reasoning behind starting Marceaux, Mainieri said, is that the team finds itself in a bit of an unusual circumstance. Most of the time, Mainieri said, team’s that are No.1 seeds, will save their best arms for after the first game. The challenges that Stony Brook presents left Mainieri to decide to throw one of his best arms for as long as Marceaux can go.
“I think they’re to talented of a team,” Mainieri said. “They swing the bats, they’re aggressive and I think we need to pitch one of our top guys against them.”
In hopes of not repeating what happened in 2012, reinforcements may be on the way for the Tigers this weekend. Mainieri disclosed that recent injuries to second baseman Brandt Broussard and relief pitcher Trent Vietmeier have healed and both will be available this weekend.
Broussard will step back in to second base immediately according to Mainieri, who was particularly taken aback by the news about Vietmeier, who two weeks ago was told the injury was “serious,” leaving doubt that he’d be able to pitch at all again this season.
“He’s made a miraculous recovery,” Mainieri said of Vietmeier. “He must’ve been at Mass every day for the last two weeks because we were told three weeks ago he had a significant injury. He threw a bullpen yesterday and he looked like the same old Trent Vietmeier. It makes you believe it was an old injury that flared up for a day or so.”
While the ultimate goal is to win three straight games, Mainieri and the players are focused on taking this one game at a time, starting with a Stony Brook team that is bursting with confidence after winning the American East conference championship last week. Mainieri wanted it to be known that Stony Brook “might beat us, but it is not going to be because we overlooked them.”
Shortstop Josh Smith and Antoine Duplantis admittedly don’t know too much about what to expect from the Seawolves, but were given a scouting report on what to expect from starting pitcher Greg Marino while also saying the team is taking no one lightly.
“We honestly don’t know too much about them other than that they’re a good team, being in the tournament,” Smith said. “Excited to play them and I know the last time they came here they upset us so we’re looking forward to playing them.”
“We just got the scouting report on the pitcher we’re facing tomorrow because that’s all we can really control as hitters,” Duplantis said. “When you’re at home, people expect you to win the regional and it gives you a ton of energy and enthusiasm.”
Catcher Saul Garza is one player that is bursting with confidence, boosting his .213 batting average he had hovered around most of the season, all the way up to .290, becoming one of the most consistent hitters the final month of the season.
Garza, who spent most of the spring recovering from a torn meniscus sustained in the fall, said the turning point stems from a combination of staying confident at the plate and getting reps at catcher, which helps him see different pitches from another angle.
“Earlier in the year it felt like I was kind of pressing and now it’s just about staying relaxed and confident in myself,” Garza said. “The shadows in all ballparks is different but as a catcher you kind of know how the shadow’s going to be, so you expect different things. I think that has helped me in my pitch recognition at the plate and I think also just reps and more at bats has helped me progress over the season.”
Mainieri told his team five wins is all that is needed to make a return to Omaha, a place that is synonymous with LSU baseball history. The team feels it’s learned a lot about itself with the recent trip to Hoover, but knows the season will be defined by what’s to come.
“It’s been one of the craziest years of my coaching life,” Mainieri said. “I’m glad we’re in the NCAA tournament because now we can just go for it and leave it all out there on the field and see what happens.”