LSU coach Paul Mainieri takes pride in his team’s stellar midweek play – so much so, the seventh-year Tigers coach regularly scoffs at any questions related to a weekend series when a midweek opponent still looms.
For Mainieri, taking it one game at a time is easy. For his players, it’s a different tune.
“Coach always has his way,” said junior third baseman Christian Ibarra. “But it’s pretty difficult [not to overlook midweek games].”
Nevertheless, Ibarra and company are tasked with keeping the midweek streak alive as they welcome Grambling (14-21) into Alex Box Stadium as the visiting Tigers heal from a 30-0 drubbing at the hands of Central Arkansas last Tuesday.
Though that lopsided loss may be the only result casual sports fans see, Mainieri pointed to a hard-fought 2-0 loss Grambling suffered against Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi State in its fourth game of the season.
“They’ve played some teams really tough,” Mainieri said. “They’ve won a few big games this year. I know last year when we played Grambling … they were knocking the ball all over the park against our top pitchers.”
Senior southpaw Brent Bonvillain will start for LSU (34-3, 13-2 SEC) — but will only throw about two innings, according to Mainieri — before giving way to junior righty Kurt McCune.
McCune saw his first action of the season last week, tossing three innings and allowing only two runs in an 11-2 victory against Southern followed by one shutout inning in an 8-3 loss against Arkansas on Saturday.
“I was very happy with my second performance [against Arkansas],” McCune said. “I felt that I was hitting my spots pretty consistently. It was very comforting and hopefully I’ll just keep producing the same results.”
McCune has fully recovered from two stress fractures of vertebrates in his back and said he’s finally in a groove with his newfound splitter, a pitch he calls a difference-maker in his arsenal.
“I can throw it to where they’ll swing at it pretty consistently, which is huge for me,” McCune said. “Having that pitch has definitely stepped my game up this year.”
Mainieri added that McCune would also go about two innings and said he wanted to get junior Will LaMarche some work on the mound after his less-than-stellar outing in Saturday’s loss against Arkansas.
With the usual lineup set to go, Mainieri cautioned against looking past Grambling after last season’s 17-10 slugfest and assured LSU’s focus would only be on the Alabama series after accomplishing its primary goal.
“We’re taking a lot of pride in that we haven’t lost a midweek game in two years,” Mainieri said. “Our first goal is to win this game tomorrow night.”
