GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU’s ninth batter, Chris Stanfield, hit his first home run of the season Saturday night in game 59 on the schedule.
Dallas Baptist fell behind, 2-0, at the time in the second inning and continued to gradually bleed out from there in a 12-0 loss in front of 11,884 at Alex Box Stadium as the Tigers improved to 2-0 in their NCAA Regional.
LSU BASEBALL GOES FOR 3RD STRAIGHT SHUTOUT SUNDAY NIGHT
Key word, “their.”
With a win tonight (8 p.m., TV TBA), LSU (45-14) can sweep the four-team, double-elimination tournament and advance to the best-of-three Super Regional at the Box next weekend with the College World Series on the line. The Tigers will play the winner of today’s elimination game (2 p.m., ESPN+) between Dallas Baptist (41-17) and Arkansas Little-Rock (25-33), which bled out to the Tigers, 7-0, on Friday night.
LSU PITCHER ANTHONY EYANSON TOO BIG A “DUDE” FOR ARKANSAS-LITTLE ROCK
While LSU pitching has delivered back-to-back shutouts in NCAA play for the first time since 2015, its offense has incrementally matriculated to home plate with as much consistent, constant precision.
And through 16 innings, 19 runs and 21 hits in the last two games, LSU has hit just three home runs with two by Daniel Dickinson. Not bad, but this is not the home run-heavy team of 2023 that finished second in the nation with 144 on its way to the national championship.
The Tigers are a modest 27th in the nation with 93 home runs, which is only 95 away from tying the NCAA record for a season. That was 188 in 1997 by LSU’s “Gorilla Ball” team that changed the game forever as far as bat and baseball size.
LSU has even worst offensive statistical rankings in scoring – No. 48 with 7.9 runs a game – and in batting average – No. 46 at .301.
The Tigers are obviously winning with pitching as LSU is tied with Vanderbilt for No. 1 in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.9 (665 in 504 and two-thirds innings). Starters Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson are No. 1 and No. 3 in strikeouts with 156 and 132, respectively. And LSU is No. 6 in the nation in team earned run average at 3.58.
“This is one of the best pitching staffs in the country,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said going into this Regional.
But LSU’s offense may lead the nation in a statistic that is difficult to quantify so specifically – the Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts statistical category.
“What I think makes their offense good is – it’s just approach,” Dallas Baptist coach Dan Heefner said Saturday night. “I was impressed with them when we played them earlier in the year as well. They have a great approach.”
LSU beat Dallas Baptist, 7-3, on Feb. 26 in Arlington, Texas, on 12 hits with four doubles and one home run.
“One through nine, the have an approach,” Heefner said, sounding envious as he went on. “They stay within the strike zone. Every at-bat is just pressure. They did that tonight. I feel like they did that to us the last time we played them as well.”
And that is precisely the type team Johnson built last off-season. He signed two of the best recruiting classes and portal classes in the entire country, but no true home run hitters. He has one – holdover junior first baseman Jared Jones, who is tied for 31st nationally with 19. There are four others with double-digit home runs to keep the bleeding going – Dickinson and Ethan Frey with 12 and Steven Milam with 10. But it’s not like it’s intimidating.
Over time, though, it’s aggravating. LSU scored in six of eight innings Saturday, but with no more than three in any one inning. The Tigers put up 10 hits in all, including a double and a triple by Frey, but only the one home run by Stanfield.
“They’re a really solid team on the mound and on defense,” Heefner said. “But the at-bats – they put a ton of pressure on you just with how disciplined they are.”
LSU has seven .300 hitters and six with at least 40 RBIs – Jones with 67, Dickinson with 48, Derek Curiel with 47, Frey with 45, Milam with 44 and Jake Brown with 40.
LSU BASEBALL DELIVERS IN A PINCH
Adding to the peskiness of the Tigers’ attack is how proficient they are at pinch-hitting with Johnson expertly pressing all the buttons there. Just as opposing pitchers think they may have survived the lineup, in comes “The Goon Squad” of non-regular starters like Frey and Brown and Josh and John Pearson and Ashton Larson and Cade Arrambide, who had a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning Saturday during a three-run rally.
LSU is pinch-hitting .289 as a team, and Johnson doesn’t just do it every now and then. LSU pinch-hits more than most nationally and is 31-for-107 on the season.
The result is often consistent, constant cuts to the opponent. The Tigers scored in six of eight innings Saturday and five of eight against Little Rock Friday. In addition to Dickinson’s two home runs in that game, Curiel, Brown, Milam and Michael Braswell III each doubled.
“Just thought it was constant pressure, even in the innings we didn’t score,” Johnson said after the 7-0 win Friday. “It was kind of like we were poking them all night. That’s what I believe this team is when it’s at its very best.”
Not as much drama as LSU’s greatest home run teams, but the results from the constant pressure poking can be the same.
“I believe we’re the best lineup in the country,” said Stanfield, who is at .326 with 24 RBIs and 15 doubles at the rear. Not bad for the last batter.
“And we’re untouchable when we play together and have team at-bats collectively,” he said.
And remember, home run teams, tend to suffer at the World Series in oversized Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
“We take a lot of pride in being complete, in winning any type of game,” Johnson said. “And the ballpark in Omaha is bigger. So, you just want to have a complete skill set to function in a way that helps you in any type of game with what’s required. I think this team was put together in a way that it can do that.”
LSU is “hitting through the lineup,” so much so that Johnson often even sees his batting order as a continuous circle of similar hitters.
“They’re all kind of the same player to me,” he said. “That’s the beauty of this lineup. It doesn’t matter where we’re starting an inning. You feel good about what you can do, and there’s versatility in there. And there’s competitive at-bats in there.”
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