When LSU and Southern hit the field at 6:30 tonight, polish and focus will be on the agenda.
The stress of midterm exams coupled with a looming series at No. 7 Vanderbilt indicated to LSU coach Paul Mainieri that his team may not come to the park with the right focus for its two mid-week tilts against Nicholls St. and
Southern.
His intimations were accurate for Tuesday as the Tiger offense sleepwalked through a 5-3 victory against the Colonels.
Tonight, though, new faces will dot the lineup in an effort to jolt the Tiger offense.
“Hopefully that will inject a little bit of energy into the game,” Mainieri said after Tuesday’s win. “[New] guys get a chance to play. … Hopefully we can come away with the victory and play well.”
Freshman lefty Jared Poche’ will start for the Tigers (15-2), but will only go a maximum of two innings, according to Mainieri. Poche’ is scheduled to start the series finale this weekend against Vanderbilt.
After perhaps his most lackluster outing of the season — a five-inning, five-hit start in a win against Northwestern State last Thursday — Poche’ said tonight serves as a chance to refine his arsenal before facing the Commodores on Sunday.
“I’m just looking to polish things up,” Poche’ said. “Go out there, throw strikes, hopefully throw two scoreless innings and just work on my game.”
Poche’ singled out command of his fastball and curveball at Northwestern State as his biggest concern and said it’s the biggest aspect of his game he needs to improve upon in his two-inning stint.
“My last outing I was struggling a little bit to throw strikes,” Poche’ said. “Command of my pitches wasn’t there, and I need to be able to throw all my pitches for strikes.”
Poche’s weekend rotation spot is cemented, but he scoffed at any notion that he is looking past Southern, heeding Mainieri’s advice to take it one game at a time.
But as a freshman chomping at the bit for his first Southeastern Conference start, Poche’ said it can be difficult to keep thoughts of Vanderbilt from creeping in.
“In the back of [our] minds, everyone’s thinking about Vanderbilt,” Poche’ said. “But we can’t sleep on Southern. They’re a good ball club, and if we’re not playing up to our abilities, they can come up and give us a loss.”
It’ll be all hands on deck after Poche’ leaves. Mainieri said the Tiger bullpen will hodgepodge the remainder of the game, giving all bullpen pitchers who didn’t throw in Tuesday’s victory some action before heading to Nashville.