LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson said prior to last Tuesday’s game against McNeese State that you must be aware of the “third week coma.”
Johnson said the “third week coma” is the third week of the regular season. The players were amped up for the opening weekend, excited for the series in Jacksonville in week two, so naturally there would be an emotional let-down in week three.
LSU was not in a “coma” this past weekend, but the bats are in a slumber. However, it didn’t stop LSU from winning three more games to improve to 11-1.
Excellent pitching is the reason why the Tigers keep winning.
On Friday night, starter Casan Evans struck out 10 and gave way to Gavin Guidry who won his third game of the season by striking out five in 3.2 innings in a 5-2 win over Dartmouth.
On Saturday afternoon, LSU hosted Northeastern and Cooper Moore was magnificent again. The transfer from Kansas struck out 10 over 7.2 innings and gave up just a solo home run in a 3-1 win.
On Sunday afternoon, William Schmidt dominated Dartmouth hitters as he threw a career-high 7.1 innings and struck out nine. Schmidt only allowed four hits and did not walk anyone.
Schmidt’s last two starts have been really good as he’s throwing his fastball and breaking balls for strikes consistently.
Control was a problem for Schmidt last season, but in three starts this year he has only walked four hitters in 16.1 innings and he’s struck out 25.
Schmidt credits the work he’s done with pitching coach Nate Yeskie and the fact that he’s stronger. Schmidt added 15 pounds since his freshman season.
While the pitching was great, the Tigers offense only generated 11 runs over the last three games.
All a sudden there are only four regular starters hitting .300 or better.
Jake Brown is leading the way as he’s hitting .415 with 5 home runs and 20 RBIs. Brown had another big day on Sunday with a home run and an RBI double. The Sulphur native is confident the offense will get back on track.
“Obviously the guys want to do more, like we want to perform at our best every time, so when we are not doing that it’s going to be tough, not everybody is going to be happy with that, that’s the competitors that we are and that’s why we were so good, it’s because of the competitiveness, so it’s just honing in, trusting the process and getting right back to it.”
Coach Jay Johnson also believes the offense will be all right. He said Zach Yorke and Steven Milam were in the batting cages on Saturday night, several hours after their win over Northeastern.
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“That tells me all I need to know about those guys,” Johnson said.
This is what happens during a long baseball season. There are weekends where you score a bunch of runs like the Tigers enjoyed in Jacksonville, when they crossed home plate 34 times.
And then you have weekends like this past one, when you go a combined 2-for-24 with runners in scoring position and you leave 24 men on base.
But what’s really important is that LSU’s pitching looks great. The Tigers might have one of its best weekend rotations ever and there are really good relievers in Guidry, Deven Sheerin, and Mavrick Rizy.
The bats will eventually get going as it’s another busy week for the Tigers.
LSU hosts Northeastern on Monday, heads to Lafayette to take on the 9-3 Ragin Cajuns on Wednesday and then hosts Sacramento State for the final non-conference weekend series. The Hornets are off to a 3-8 start.