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Sunday solution eludes LSU
Published 6:00 pm Friday, April 13, 2018
<p class="p1">Nobody seems to relish tinkering with things more than Paul Mainieri does with the LSU baseball team.</p><p class="p1">It’s just the way he is. He attacks it as feverishly as most men do their weekend hobby — and his biggest strength as a coach might be that the Tigers are forever evolving. Mainly he seems to spend the whole season figuring out what each piece of his puzzle has to offer toward the eventual solution.</p><p class="p1">If they sign with LSU, they ought to be able to do something, and Mainieri has few peers when it comes to keeping everybody involved and somehow utilizing the whole roster.</p><p class="p1">Of course, he’d prefer to do it on his own terms, with the luxury of, say, just fine-tuning a double-play combination or mixing and matching leadoff men.</p><p class="p1">That’s not the case this season.</p><p class="p1">What Mainieri has done thus far couldn’t really be called tinkering in the true sense of the word.</p><p class="p1">It’s kind of a madcap fight for survival.</p><p class="p1">He’s more like the desperate tramp in an old black-and-white comedy/adventure movie, the poor pug who plugs one hole only to have two more leaks pop up behind him and suddenly his boot heel is stuck in the tracks with the freight train coming around the bend.</p><p class="p1">It’s always something this year, mostly the injuries which seem to be epidemic on a team that already had a lot of holes to fill from last season.</p><p class="p1">Thursday, for instance, LSU was just about to take batting practice when a nasty swarm of bees descended on the batting cage.</p><p class="p1">If it had been locusts, you could thrown in the Seven Plagues of Egypt as another obstacle Mainieri has to stop and fix.</p><p class="p1">Still, for all the gloom and doom talk among a rightfully demanding fan base that can’t envision Omaha in this bunch’s future right now, it’s certainly not hopeless.</p><p class="p1">LSU is 21-13 and 6-6 in the SEC. A year ago at this time the eventual College World Series runners-up Tigers were on about the same pace — 23-11 and 7-5 in the SEC, which wasn’t as ridiculously strong top to bottom as it is this year.</p><p class="p1">And if nothing else, last year should have taught LSU fans not to fret too much over midweek losses.</p><p class="p1">But it was also about this time last year that LSU really kicked it in, going 15-3 the rest of the way in conference to win the SEC West and tie with Florida for the overall title.</p><p class="p1">If that happens again, it will be Mainieri’s best coaching job yet, which takes in a lot of territory.</p><p class="p1">But help could be on the way.</p><p class="p1">Right now Mainieri has an entire infield that’s either playing out of position or with backups.</p><p class="p1">You’ve got last year’s first baseman at third base (Jake Slaughter), a light-hitting backup at shortstop (Hal Hughes), a relief pitcher/DH at second base (Austin Bain) and a backup catcher at first base (Nick Coomes).</p><p class="p1">If Mainieri had tried that stunt out of anything more than desperation, the move would have prefaced with “Hold my beer and watch this …”</p><p class="p1">Somehow they manage to knock down a few ground balls.</p><p class="p1">In fact, the fielding percentage is third-best in the SEC.</p><p class="p1">Very few errors. It’s not the Bad News Bears kicking it around haphazardly. </p><p class="p1">What’s missing with that lineup is the out-of-the-ordinary, jaw-dropping spectacular play or two a game that changes the outcome. They’re playing the modern college game with an infield that’s a throwback to the old Gorilla Ball days.</p><p class="p1">Perhaps LSU’s best all-around player and offensive catalyst, center fielder Zach Watson, missed nine games, but is back creating havoc and running down everything in the outfield.</p><p class="p1">Relief may be on the way.</p><p class="p1">Starting shortstop Josh Smith had a bit of a setback in his back rehab when he had spasms earlier this week, but it wasn’t serious. Although he won’t play this weekend against Tennessee, he should be back soon.</p><p class="p1">The splint is off second baseman Brandt Broussard’s thumb and he should be available in the coming weeks. Broussard was looking like the second coming of last year’s all-around instigator, Cole Freeman, before the fractured thumb.</p><p class="p1">First baseman Bryce Jordan will also miss this week but not the entire season as originally feared.</p><p class="p1">So things will get better.</p><p class="p1">Now Mainieri just has to find a Sunday starting pitcher.</p><p class="p1">He had a perfectly functional one in freshman Ma’Khail Hilliard, the SEC ERA leader, but Hilliard is now the solution to replacing struggling Caleb Gilbert as the Saturday starter.</p><p class="p1">Don’t expect a quick solution, only because Mainieri will keep fiddling with it until it works itself out.</p><p class="p1">With him, it usually does.</p><p class="p1">But one thing is for certain: if LSU is to get on track and start looking like a team bound for Omaha, this would be a good weekend to start against Tennessee.</p><p class="p1">They may not have the luxury of waiting until the bulk of the team is back healthy.</p>
<p class="p3"><strong>Scooter Hobbs</strong> covers LSU athletics. Email him at shobbs@americanpress.com