Scuffling, passive and unlucky — it’s the current state of the LSU baseball team’s offense.
As the Tigers (20-5-1, 3-2-1 SEC) trek to Gainesville for a three-game set at Florida (16-9, 3-3 SEC) beginning tonight, the team is mired in an offensive funk that has produced six runs in the last 33 innings of baseball, dipped the team’s batting average to .199 in Southeastern Conference play and silenced the team’s leader.
Sophomore shortstop Alex Bregman, who’s 3 for his last 23 and hitting .130 in SEC play, was made off-limits to reporters starting Thursday in hopes to “take some pressure off him.”
Baseball team spokesman Bill Franques said in an email Bregman’s silence “won’t be permanent” and estimated the policy would only last a week or two.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri termed the slump “the first of Bregman’s career” and was adamant on shielding his sophomore shortstop from the media — adding Bregman received unusually high media attention during his freshman season and hasn’t had a break since.
“This kid is 19 years old, [and] he feels the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Mainieri said. “I had several meetings with him [Wednesday] to get him back into the right mental approach. He doesn’t have the answers right now, and he’s trying to figure it out himself.”
Mainieri shuffled the batting order in last Sunday’s tie against Georgia, moving Bregman from third to second, bumping sophomore outfielder Mark Laird to the leadoff spot and sticking senior outfielder Sean McMullen in the three hole.
The tinkering worked for McMullen, who emerged with junior designated hitter Kade
Scivicque as the only consistent bats in the Tigers’ lineup. McMullen’s .333 average in five SEC starts leads the team while Scivicque paces the LSU offense overall with a .373 clip.
“Everyone in our lineup still has a lot of confidence,” McMullen said. “It’s been a bunch of bad breaks. It’s not like we’re having bad at-bats, we’re hitting the ball hard. Hopefully they’ll start to fall soon.”
Mainieri blamed himself for the struggles of late — calling his team more of a speedy singles, doubles-hitting club. Mainieri said he’s struggled with how much small ball to employ and how to cater the approach at the plate to draw walks and get more runners on base.
This struggle resulted in a lack of aggressiveness at the plate, leaving too many takes on fastballs down the middle and letting hittable balls go.
“I think what I’ve done is taken the aggressiveness out of our hitters,” Mainieri said. “I think we need to get back to just playing the style of play that Paul Mainieri grew up with — an aggressive, attacking offense.”
Junior ace Aaron Nola said the offensive slump and the prospect of little run support hasn’t added any undue pressure on his Friday night start.
Nola, who’s scattered only eight hits in 13 1/3 SEC innings, said no matter the offensive struggles, it’s his job to simply replicate his past starts.
“Guys aren’t hitting too well,” Nola said. “But I’m just going to go do what I usually do, try to put zeros up and give our team a chance to win.”
The video of LSU Baseball HC Paul Mainieri discussing Alex Bregman’s Media Embargo was provided by Patrick Clay of TigerTV.