It started on a cold and windy Thursday morning in of LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri’s office tucked away inside an empty and shaken Alex Box Stadium.
Just one night prior, the Tigers suffered a nightmarish defeat at the hands of in-state foe Nicholls State, 6-3. The Tigers stranded 17 men on base while going 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
Tigers fans left the Box on Wednesday night shocked, appalled and with a sense of early panic. It was LSU’s first mid-week loss since March 2014 when it lost to Tulane in 11 innings.
But while fans on the outside began to point fingers, Mainieri stayed calm.
His patience paid off as LSU’s bats exploded in its three-game series sweep against Boston College. The Tigers (6-1) scored a total of 31 runs on 42 hits to make Wednesday’s loss feel like a distant memory.
The Tigers combined for 20 extra base hits on the weekend, knocking four triples and four home runs along the way.
“He wanted us to focus on hitting the guys in when they were in scoring position, so that’s what we’ve really been focusing on,” said junior center fielder Andrew Stevenson. “The past couple of games we’ve been able to do that.”
The Tigers were sparked by senior outfielder Jared Foster, who produced immediately after Mainieri put him into the leadoff spot for Games 2 and 3 of the series.
Foster led off both games with a hit to get the Tigers’ bats going early and often. Foster’s burst onto the scene comes as a huge boost for the Tigers, who got their offense going in a series in which they desperately needed it.
“Our kids are strong,” Mainieri said. “They’re good athletes, they’re good hitters, it was just a matter of time.”
Following the loss to Nicholls State, Mainieri called a meeting with hitting coach Andy Cannizaro on Thursday morning, way ahead of the Tigers’ scheduled practice time of 4 p.m., and they got to work.
The two coaches were not happy with Wednesday night’s result, but with the right adjustments, they both saw potential for a quick turnaround in their lineup.
Mainieri and Cannizaro came to the conclusion the players’ heads weren’t in the right place. They weren’t attacking the baseball and being aggressive at the plate.
“At practice on Thursday, we really emphasized being aggressive at the plate, going up there and attacking the ball,” Mainieri said. “My biggest concern, besides the clutch hitting, was we weren’t getting any extra base hits, and we’re capable. We work hard in the weight room, the kids have the talent, but they just weren’t letting it fly.”
Mainieri and Cannizaro also noticed some mechanical nuances in the swings of Stevenson and junior shortstop Alex Bregman, which weakened the contact of their swings, giving the ball a softer pop off the bat than what Mainieri and Cannizaro like to see.
The two coaches opted to make some mechanical adjustments to the two hitters’ swings.
The Tigers’ Thursday practice was centered around aggressive hitting. Mainieri said it was an “intense” session.
Players were out as early as two hours before practice taking swings in the cage, trying tirelessly to erase the mistakes from the night before.
After taking the extra time to get back in a groove, the Tigers showed just how good they can be by sweeping Boston College.
“Practice [Thursday] was really an intense practice and guys are swinging the bats with some real commitment and desire, and you could see it was going to come,” Mainieri said.
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @Chascin_TDR.