Pitching staff faces another tough test in California slugger Andrew Vaughn
Following a disappointing three game sweep to the Texas Longhorns last weekend, LSU is doing some soul searching for this weekend’s battle with the California Golden Bears. Coach Paulson Mainieri and players talked about the upcoming series with Mainieri shedding some light on the pitching rotation and making a few tweaks along the way.
The three game series, which starts Friday at 7 p.m. will be another big test for the pitching staff with one of the country’s elite hitters coming to town. In the Texas series, the Tigers surrendered 28 runs in the three games to which only eight of them were earned, which means a repeat performance will result in similar fashion for LSU.
Mainieri had hinted earlier in the week that the Tigers would make some changes in the pitching rotation and elected to start freshman Cole Henry over roommate and fellow freshman Landon Marceaux on Saturday.
Marceaux began the first three weeks of the season as the Saturday starter but after a strong start, struggled with his command the final two weeks. Against the Longhorns, Marceaux lasted just one out into the second inning as four, three hits and six earned runs put the Tigers in a early bind.
Henry on the other hand was brought out of the bullpen on Sunday and pitched three solid innings in relief of Eric Walker, giving up one run and striking out four batters in the effort.
While Mainieri is still high on Marceaux and believes his future is bright with the purple and gold, he felt a change was necessary given Henry’s string of successful performances.
“Cole has a lot of attributes that you love in a pitcher,” Mainieri said. “His stuff speaks for itself, somebody told me it was up to 97 mph the other day. He’s a three pitch guy and he throws a lot of strikes. His mechanics are very consistent, able to repeat his delivery plus he has a very calm and cool demeanor. He doesn’t get out of whack when things start going wrong.”
Mainieri did go on to say that Marceaux could very well be back in the weekend rotation next week against Kentucky, but will start Tuesday at Northwestern State to give him that second experience of a road environment.
“By his own admission, I’m sure he’d tell you he didn’t handle his first road start very well,” Mainieri said. “When things started to unravel, he didn’t have the composure to settle down and make a big pitch. I told him that if he wants to be in the weekend rotation he’s got to be able to show more poise.”
Marceaux said his focus was off during his start against Texas and that he wasn’t able to quite reign it in after the game started to spiral in that second inning. Former Tiger pitcher Alex Lange shot Marceaux a text after the tough performance and basically told him that those are the types of experiences that mold you into a great pitcher.
“He said it just happens to everybody at a certain point,” Marceaux said. “For him he said it was his sophomore season against TCU where he gave up a ton of runs. So he just said to move on from it because you’re not going to be great every single time.”
The freshman pitcher certainly understands the decision Mainieri made to start Henry and wants to grow from this experience.
“Adversity is staring at me right in the face and now what I’m going to do with it is the question I need to answer,” Marceaux said.
All hands will be on deck from a pitcher’s standpoint when the Golden Bears (6-4) come to Baton Rouge with one of the best hitters in the country, led by Andrew Vaughn. Vaughn, who is batting .529 with seven homeruns and an on base percentage of .680, played with Maineiri, Zack Hess, Zach Watson and Daniel Cabrera on Team USA last summer.
“Andrew is a great hitter, there’s no other way to put it,” Mainieri said. “It was a real privilege being his coach for three weeks this past summer, I loved every minute of it. I sent him a text message that said my goodness will you please cool down for a week.”
“When I was 15 we also played together on Team USA,” Cabrera said. “We’ve just always stayed in touch and played together last year as well. I just know he’s very hard to get out and he hits the ball very far.”
One pitcher that will try to slow Vaughn down is Hess, who became fast friends with the California slugger last summer. Hess is in dire need of a solid start as two of the first three weeks have not gone as planned.
While only three runs came across in the first Texas game, Hess lasted just four innings after his pitch count got to 95 including four walks. Like Marceaux, Mainieri is still confident in his junior ace but said that time is ticking on him to show some improvements or other options will need to start coming into the fold.
Hess will take the mound Friday followed by Henry on Saturday at 3 p.m. and concluding with Eric Walker on Sunday at noon.