LSU freshman southpaw Jared Poche’ got his first chance to impress the Tigers’ coaching staff Thursday on the road at Northwestern State in an 8-1 LSU victory.
Poche’ tossed five innings of one-run baseball, allowing five hits and striking out four.
The Tigers improved to 11-2 this season, and they will be entering their final non-conference weekend series of the season Friday against Purdue.
Since the days leading into 2014 Opening Day, LSU coach Paul Mainieri has stressed how important the first three weeks of the season were for the fundamentals of the program.
This weekend’s Purdue series marks the finale of that period. The Tigers begin Southeastern Conference play when they travel to Vanderbilt for a three-game series on March 14.
LSU has endured the loss of seven pitchers who logged a fair share of innings from last season’s staff thus far — the current staff has posted a 1.55 ERA, the third-best in the conference — and the departures of multiple members of the lineup who were pivotal to the Tigers’ 2013 Omaha run, including starters Ty Ross, Mason Katz, Raph Rhymes and JaCoby Jones.
Mainieri has handled the turnover with one tactic in mind.
“The only way we could find out who we could count on was by running our players out there,” Mainieri said. “It may result in a couple of losses that we didn’t lose last year because we had veteran players, and we didn’t have to experiment to find out who we could really count on. We knew who we could count on for most of the year last year. This year, some guys have done the job in an awesome way.”
Two of those players have been freshman Kramer Robertson and junior Conner Hale, who have both been battling for playing time at second base. Lately, Mainieri has found a way to insert them both into the batting order, giving Hale his fair share of innings at first base.
The Purdue series will be Mainieri’s final chance to experiment with the duo over a three-day span before the conference opponents arrive.
Another position battle will likely conclude over the weekend, as sophomore Chris Chinea and juniors Kade Scivicque and Tyler Moore will need to prove why they belong behind the plate before Vanderbilt.
Scivicque has made the best impression since transferring from Southwest Mississippi Community College, hitting a team-leading .433 with one home run and 7 RBIs.
The opposite could be said for Chinea, who has only four hits in 27 at-bats in 2014. Mainieri has admitted to favoring Chinea’s defense behind the plate, and he should get another chance to show off his defense when Purdue rolls in to Baton Rouge on Friday.
Chinea said he hasn’t been bothered by the slow start.
“I wouldn’t consider [the last few weeks] rough, it’s baseball,” Chinea said. “Balls weren’t bouncing my way, and it made me a little frustrated. But you come out here and work every day with a positive mindset. You’ve got 56 games plus, so you’ve got to come out here and grind every day and work with [LSU hitting coach Javi Sanchez].”
With so many players able to take on multiple roles in the field, Mainieri will have to do his final crafting this weekend.
He said it largely depends on Robertson’s performance at second base — he has batted .313 with five RBIs in 16 at-bats.
“Really what it comes down to is do you like that combination of Kramer at second with Hale at first and Scivicque catching with Moore [at designated hitter], or do you like Hale at second, Moore at first, God knows who [at designated hitter] and God knows who catching,” Mainieri said. “I think both combinations are going to continue to be used, but we’ll see as we go forward if Kramer is ready to play on an everyday basis.”
Purdue hasn’t proved to be a potent squad in the early weeks of the 2014 season, posting a 1-7 record, including a six-game losing streak in February.
The Boilermakers have only two batters hitting above .300, and the squad’s pitching staff has combined for a 38.76 ERA from the five pitchers who have started.
Though Purdue may not pose a threat, Mainieri said he wants his squad to put together one more efficient weekend before SEC play.
Juniors Aaron Nola, Kyle Bouman and Cody Glenn will pitch on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
“It’s a big series for us,” Mainieri. “When we get to the Purdue weekend, it’s the second time we get to play the same team three times in a row. We failed on Sunday this past week, and hopefully we’ll put three good strong games together and finish the job.”