Cool customer on the mound
Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Freshman pitcher Hilliard pleasant surprise for LSU
BATON ROUGE — At an even 6-feet and barely 148 pounds sopping wet, LSU freshman Ma’Khail Hilliard is hardly an imposing figure on the mound.
But the view looks a little different from the outfield.
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Just ask LSU centerfielder Zach Watson, who has as good a view as anybody.
“Every pitch looks like a curve ball,” Watson said of watching the stringbean righthander work. “Then he throws his curve ball and it’s like … wow. It’s like a Major League curve ball, that what it looks like from out there.”
Hilliard has been one of the pleasant surprises of the early season for the Tigers, staking a claim to what for many years has been an elusive search for a Sunday starting pitcher.
Hilliard
He’s certainly made the most of his opportunities.
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Sunday’s 7-5 victory to clinch the SEC-opening series against Missouri, in which he gave up two runs in six innings, was only his second college start.
But he’s been efficient in just 23.1 innings of work as his 5-0 record leads the Tigers in victories and is tied for the SEC lead.
Despite giving up the first two runs of his career Sunday, his 0.77 ERA leads the SEC.
Head coach Paul Mainieri isn’t surprised. He’d seen the same thing when Hilliard was pitching Central High School outside of Baton Rouge to the state championship last spring.
“I know what kind of confidence that he possesses because I’ve been around him enough to know his personality,” Mainieri said.
“When a kid pitches his team to a state championship, he thinks he’s pretty good, and I’m not going to tell him any different. He’s confident, but he doesn’t act brash, doesn’t act cocky, doesn’t show up his opponents.
“He does it the way you’re supposed to do it, a lot of inner self confidence, pretty unflappable and kind of raises his game when he gets in jams. I love him.”
Unflappable may be the key description of a guy you wouldn’t want to play poker against.
The expressions, the body language, nothing ever seems to change even though his trademark thus far has been wiggling out of tight jams.
“Hes got ice in his veins,” Mainieri said.
Mainieri was particularly impressed with the way Hilliard had some “bad luck” in giving up two first-inning runs on “seeing-eye ground ball singles” and promptly put up five zeros before turning 6 3-2 lead over to the bullpen.
“It’s just the way I am,” Hilliard said of his mound demeanor. “I think I do (show emotion), but most people say I don’t seeem unhappy or rattled.”
He’s given LSU some options.
Fellow freshman AJ Labas, who pitched a quick and scoreless seventh inning Sunday, will start the Tigers’ game Wednesday at home against Tulane. That’s the only midweek game before LSU travels to Vanderbilt for the weekend.
Although his college debut was delayed while recovering from a fall back injury, he’s yet to give up a run in 12 innings this season.
LSU (12-1, 2-1 SEC) went 3-1 last week and stayed fairly steady in the major polls.
The Tigers stayed at No. 16 in Perfect Game, moved up one spot to 15 in Collegiate Baseball and to No. 20 in D1 Baseball. They fell one spot to No. 18 in Baseball America and to No. 20 in USA Today.
That last poll has five SEC teams among its top seven and the Tigers are one of eight in the top 20.
