LSU pitcher Eric Walker (10) is greeted at the dugout after being pulled in the top of the ninth inning of an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game against Rice in Baton Rouge, La., Sunday, June 4, 2017. Walker gave up seven hits over eight innings for a 5-0 shutout, allowing LSU to advance to the Super Regionals. 

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

OMAHA, Neb. — LSU’s Eric Walker shrugged his shoulders, no big deal, and said he was pretty sure he’d sleep well Sunday night. He usually does.

But he’s young, possibly oblivious.

The really amazing thing is that head coach Paul Mainieri is figured to sleep just as well.

“No qualms whatsoever,” Mainieri chuckled.

In fact, Mainieri was almost taken aback that he might hesitate to put a mere freshman on the mound in easily the Tigers’ biggest, most crucial, gargantuan game of the season — against the unquestioned No. 1 team in the country, no less.

But it will be up to Walker to hold down Oregon State and its not-a-typo 54-4 record tonight in a battle to take control of Bracket One in the College World Series.

The stakes are simple. Tonight’s winner is off until Friday, when it will have two chances to win the one more game it takes to reach the CWS championship series. The loser will need to win three more games, with no safety net, to get there.

The choice to give Walker the ball was a no-brainer, no matter his age.

“I worry about a lot of things,” Mainieri said. “I’m not worried about Eric Walker. Nothing is too big for him.

“If they hit him, they hit him, but it won’t be because he was overwhelmed by the moment.”

There’s the cliché, pitching coach Alan Dunn mentioned, that by this time of the season, freshmen aren’t really freshmen anymore.

Walker never was. Never acted like it anyway.

“Alan thought he would make our rotation as a freshman,” Mainieri said. “And since the day he walked on campus he’s shown he can do it.”

Dunn was enamored with Walker early on in the recruiting process.  

But the first time Mainieri saw Walker throw a ball, he was still a senior at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas. Walker threw three touchdown passes in that game.

Mainieri has always loved dual sport high school stars on his team.

Especially a big-time Texas high school program where you play in front of 20,000 or more and it’s not easy to start anywhere as a sophomore, let alone at quarterback, like Walker did.

Big game?

That first time Mainieri saw Walker, Mainieri was watching with his son from the living room as it was televised nationally, live, on ESPN.

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“I said, ‘Look how’s he’s taking charge, he’s just taken control of this game.’ I was captivated by it.

“He was the field general. He looked like Peyton Manning standing there, directing traffic. Then he’d look at the coach, then do this and that and everybody would move … throwing perfect passes. You could tell the kid just oozes confidence.”

It has translated to perhaps one of college baseball’s biggest pressure-cookers at Alex Box Stadium.

“Sure it did,” said shortstop Kramer Robertson, another former Texas high school quarterback at a big-time program in Waco.

“You’re used to everybody watching, all eyes being on you. Texas football? There’s pressure, big spot, big moment.

“I have all the confidence in the world in Eric Walker.”

“If he was 6-4, maybe 40 more pounds, he’d probably be a Division I  quarterback,” Mainieri said.

Instead, though not physically imposing at 6-0, 172 pounds, he often draws comparisons, in style at least, to Major League Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.

“Every time I watch someone else and try to emulate them, it never works,” Walker said when asked if he copied the former Cub and Brave. “Now, the way he pitches, yes.”

So far, so good. Walker was the starter for LSU wins that clinched the SEC West regular season (and a share of the overall title), the SEC tournament and the NCAA regional final.

After he carved up Rice in LSU’s regional final, Owls’ coach Wayne Graham marvelled at how each Walker pitch seemed to have a purpose.

“He’s the thinking mans’ pitcher,” Mainieri said. “You have to play defense. He doesn’t strike a lot of batters out, and they (Oregon State) don’t strike out a bunch.

“But if he can keep them off balance and keep it away from their barrels, we’ll be fine.

“He has exemplified that kind of poise and composure since the day he walked in here.”

“I worry about a lot of things. I’m not worried about Eric Walker. Nothing is too big for him.” 

– Paul Mainieri