LSU baseball team has had one goal this season: make it to Omaha.
The Tigers are one step away from achieving its goal, but will have to go through an Oklahoma team featuring one of the best pitching staffs in the nation.
The Tigers (55-9 overall, 23-7 SEC) will have to hit against the third overall pick in Thursday night’s MLB draft, Jonathan Grey.
Grey has some of the best raw stuff in the nation — a fastball sits in the high 90’s, and a power breaking ball that he can throw for strikes — but LSU first baseman Mason Katz think the hitters will be able to adjust.
“He’s going to come right at us,” Katz said. “Guys with stuff like that usually pound the strike zone and challenge you, so if we can square some balls up we should be okay.”
Grey’s fielding independent pitching — which takes into account how much a defense is helping him — is 3.22 which puts him into the “great” category, according to fangraphs.com.
The Tigers have an ace of their own, though. Sophomore Aaron Nola will take the mound for LSU on Friday, in perhaps the biggest pitching matchup of the season.
Nola has been lights out all season for the Tigers, and is expected to be a high first round selection in his own right.
While he doesn’t have the pure power that Grey possesses, he’s able to pound the strike zone and sports a WHIP of .82, which would tie him for the best WHIP in the MLB.
Nola will go against an Oklahoma lineup which only has two hitters batting above .300
Grey isn’t the only top-pitcher LSU will face this weekend, as junior Dillon Overton has pitched well since coming back from injury.
“[Overton] came out and pitched six innings of shut-out ball [in last week’s Regional],” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “[Oklahoma] definitely has one of the best pitching staffs in the nation.”
The Sooners’ bullpen could prove to be a challenge as well. Closer Jacob Evans has nine saves on the season and has only given up 36 hits in 52 innings pitched. Southpaw setup man Billy Waltrip has struck out 45 batters in only 36.2 innings pitched, good for an amazing 11 K’s per nine innings.
LSU’s pitching staff was bolstered by the return of sophomore lefty Cody Glenn from suspension. Glenn was suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules, but was reinstated after a team vote, which took place after the Regional was over.
“I told the guys, ‘This is your team, he’s the one who let y’all down, so you decide if y’all want him to come back,'”Mainieri said. “He made a heartfelt apology to the team, and they unanimously voted to reinstate him for the games this weekend.”
While not releasing the exact nature of the incident, Mainieri classified it as purely a violation of team rules and no violation of NCAA rules or LSU rules occurred.
“You’ve got to remember these kids are 18-22 years old,” Mainieri said. “Sometimes these things happened.”
Mainieri didn’t seem phased by the tough competition, though.
“We’re at a point in the tournament where all sixteen teams left are great,” Mainieri said. “If we were playing any other team everyone would be worrying about how good they were.”
The Tigers will take on Oklahoma in the first game of the Super Regional tonight at 6 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium. The matchup will be televised on ESPN.
