Tough weekend for LSU baseball

Last weekend was not what you wanted to see if like me you are an optimistic LSU fan. The Tigers opened the weekend with a solid 4-0 win over Appalachian State, but then the wheels fell off in the final two games. On Saturday, LSU lost 0-1 in a great pitching duel between App. State’s Ryan Arrowood and LSU’s Ryan Eades, and then Sunday lost 1-11. This was the Tigers first non-SEC weekend series to loss since 2009 (Kansas).

Without over evaluating the weekend losses, the Tigers have shown that they have a lot of work to do in proving their top-10 ranking. Instead of looking back at each game, let’s breaks down the weekend by looking at the pitchers and hitters.

Hitting

Like I said previously, I don’t want to make too much from the past weekend, but early on the LSU offense is struggling. In their two losses, LSU could only scratch out seven hits and only one extra-base hit (Arby Field’s triple). The Tigers left eight runners on base, but even scarier they only had four runners in scoring position in the two losses.

Tyler Hanover, Casey Yocum, Jacoby Jones, Raph Rhymes, Mason Katz, Austin Nola, Jackson Slaid and Tyler Ross have been the consistent players in LSU’s lineup early this season, but after this weekend that might change. The group on Friday batted eight of 29 with two RBIs and accounted for all four runs. Saturday the group went three of 23 with 10 strikeouts. Sunday the group matched their three of 23 from Saturday with three strike outs and left four runners on base.  Jackson Slaid had a weekend he would like to soon forget, Slaid finished the weekend hitless in 10 plate appearances with five strike outs. Austin Nola had a great opening weekend numbers, but followed it up by going one of eight from the plate with three strikeouts. Jacoby Jones sat out for Saturday’s game, but that still didn’t hide his 0-7 batting.

Paul Maineri might want to think about shaking things up with the lineup. Appalachian State isn’t a terrible club, but LSU should be able to hit against these guys. This is the type of offensive production we should expect LSU to have against the like of Florida or South Carolina. The lack of power from the middle of the line up should be a major issue, but LSU rarely hits the ball into the outfield early in the season. Hopefully this weekend was an exception to the rule; remember I am a rare optimistic LSU fan…

Pitching

With exception to Sunday’s pitching performance, LSU fans should continue to be impressed with the staff. On Friday night, Kevin Gauseman continues to look like an All-American. Gauseman pitched seven complete innings only allowing four hits and struck out seven batters and no walks. Ryan Eades continues to look like the second best pitcher on the staff. Eades went 6.1 innings with five strikeouts to only two walks. Eades did give up a home run to Daniel Rassouf (which would be the only run allowed), and recorded the first loss of the season for LSU. The first pitching struggles of the season came from the staff on Sunday. Kurt McCune started the game for LSU, but only lasted three innings. He was pulled from the game after allowing seven hits and surrendered four runs. McCune could never gain control of the game and the bullpen could not stop the bleeding. In six innings of work, the bullpen allowed seven runs on seven hits. What was lacking from the pen was the one guy who could come in and shut down the Appalachian State’s offense for a few innings, giving LSU’s offense a chance to make the game competitive. Appalachian State took a 5-0 lead into the seventh innings, but LSU allowed State to score two runs each in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

There are a few questions the pitching staff needs to address before SEC play begins in a few weeks. First of all is if LSU is set on Kurt McCune being a weekend starter for LSU, or should they allow other arms the chance to win the spot. Also, after Aaron Nola and Nick Rumbelow, who is the best bullpen pitcher?

The reason this weekend hurts so much is because we know what these losses mean to a NCAA selection committee. It is losses like this that can make or break a team’s chance to making it to a post-season regional tournament. Maybe that last sentence is putting the cart before the horse, but we all know this team is talented to make post-season noise (or I think they are). The Tigers look to get back on track starting Tuesday with Grambling State at the Box.