Paul Mainieri's fighting Tigers baseball team had a solid opening weekend on the baseball diamond, going 2-1.
I'm sure the team is kicking itself after blowing a late lead in Sunday’s loss to Air Force. Hey, it's baseball. It happens.
Better to happen now than in SEC action.
With that said, let's dive right in with grades for LSU from opening weekend.
Starting pitching: Jaden Hill and Landon Marceaux were outstanding on Friday and Saturday. Hill yielded three hits allowing zero runs in four innings of work. He was dominant on the bump, striking out five Air Force hitters.
Marceaux wasn't too far behind Hill going five innings giving up just two hits and two runs. Marceaux struck out four of the 17 players he faced.
AJ Labas didn't pitch as poorly as the box score might indicate against Louisiana Tech. Labas gave up six runs on 11 hits to the Bulldogs, but he also struck out eight hitters. The issue Labas had was he was missing spots in the strike zone. He doesn't have blow you away stuff so if he doesn't hit his spots, this will happen. The good news is it's all correctable in the mechanics. Just tweak here or there and he will have a different outcome. Grade: A+
Relief pitching: Freshman Ty Floyd combined with Aaron George were responsible for a blown save opportunity, Sunday, in the 6-5 loss to Air Force. George had back to back walks to plate the tying or go ahead runs.
I love the line from coach Paul Mainieri after the loss when he was asked why he would put Freshman Ty Floyd in that position as a closer? His response was perfect: "Would you rather him make his first appearance in the SEC?"
Floyd will get another shot at closing a game. In fact, he'll get a few more chances before conference play begins. The Tigers have their closer in Devin Fontenot, but it would be nice for them to find another when Fontenot can't go.
The star out of the bullpen this weekend was freshman left hander Javen Coleman. In relief of Labas last night against Louisiana Tech, he did a great job of keeping LSU in the game tossing 3.2 innings while allowing just one hit. When Coleman entered the game the Tigers were down 6 -1. Their offense finally came alive in the fifth inning and LSU went on to win the game. Grade: A-
Offense: LSU had 14 hits in the first two games of the season. On Monday night against Louisiana Tech, itas offense tallied that many hits and runs to beat the Bulldogs, 14-7.
Freshman right fielder Dylan Crews is the real deal. Crews had 12 at bats this weekend with seven hits, two home runs and three RBI. You can't ask for a better opening weekend from your youngest, but best, player on the team.
Crews could have been a first round draft pick last year, but decided he wanted to experience college baseball. We should all thank him for that decision. He's going to be a legend by the time his three in years in Baton Rouge are up.
LSU pounded out 28 hits over three games. That's not too bad. Ideally, you want to see the Tigers average about 10 hits per game. As a team LSU hit .272 over the opening weekend. This is a pretty good start. Grade: B+
Defense: LSU's defense was a little shaky in its first two games, committing four errors against Air Force. However, in the win over Louisiana Tech the defense was much improved. The errors that LSU did commit were from one player, freshman Will Helmers, who was at third base. The Tigers turned a .961 fielding percentage this weekend, Helmers was benched in game three of the weekend. LSU is usually one of the best fielding teams in the SEC and country year in and year out. I expect that to continue. Grade: B+
Coaching: It's a rare day that I will be critical of Coach Paul Mainieri. He's forgotten more about baseball than most of us know. With that said, I think he once again pushed all the right buttons at exactly the right time over the course of the first three games. Grade: A+
