The LSU baseball team finds itself in a rare predicament heading into the 2015 season.
The Tigers’ biggest question mark as opening night closes in is their pitching, now without ace Aaron Nola. Before being drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft, Nola became the more-than-reliable ace for LSU during his three years at the school as the only player to be named the Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year two seasons in a row.
Nola’s reliability on the mound provided confidence for the rest of the squad,
giving the team almost no doubt he would get the job done with ease as he did for so many Friday nights in Alex Box Stadium.
“Anytime you talk about Aaron Nola, the stats individually for him obviously helped everybody else on the staff, and you go into Friday night so confident that you’re going to get the win,” said freshman pitcher Jake Latz.
But eventually the Tigers and their fans knew his reign would come to an end. With his departure, LSU is searching to find its next weekend rotation in hopes to collectively pull together a performance Nola could give by
himself in a night.
LSU coach Paul Mainieri said losing a pitcher like Nola isn’t ideal, but the team will find a way to get over the hump.
“Losing Nola was a big blow. This is the way it is in college baseball,” Mainieri said. “I laugh sometimes when I hear coaches talk about how young they are. You can’t sign kids to 10-year contracts in college. You are going to be young every year in some aspect of your team. You just have [to have] the courage to play those freshmen. You have to hope your coaches will do a good job with them, bringing them along.”
The Tigers were hard at work over the offseason, heavily recruiting pitchers to ensure they would not take a step back with Nola’s departure. The Tigers landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, adding some of the best pitchers in the country.
Latz and fellow Illinois native Jake Godfrey both pitched their respective high schools to the state championship, while the right-handed Alex Lange was a Gatorade Player of the Year in Missouri.
The list of accomplishments from a young and inexperienced pitching staff, mixed with the veteran experience of sophomore Jared Poche’, will be a huge boost for the Tigers. But Latz said he understands the work that needs to be done to become the dominant staff the pitchers want to be a part of.
“There’s definitely added pressure,” Latz said. “Obviously, no one can really repeat what Aaron Nola’s like and what he can do, but you can certainly live up to someone who has done that before, and not try to do exactly what he did, but try and do your own thing. Collectively as a group, if we can all compete at a high level, we’ll do very well.”
While the freshmen haven’t been given an opportunity to earn the trust of the fans, their teammates have put trust in them since they arrived on
campus.
Junior shortstop Alex Bregman said he is more than confident in the staff’s ability to get the job done, even in the wake of Nola’s absence.
“These guys have came in and competed since day one, and the biggest thing, to be honest, is they’re not scared,” Bregman said. “They’re not scared at all. They’re ready to compete and ready to try and win games for LSU. If we just prove to them that we can pick up the ground balls and catch the fly balls, I think they’ll even have more confidence and just go in there and pound the zone as they should.”
Bregman and the rest of the team’s confidence has been felt and admired by the newly acquired players expected to become the future of the Tigers’ program.
Godfrey said since he arrived on campus, he has felt welcomed and trusted, and he can’t wait to get on the mound to show the Tiger faithful what he can do.
“The camaraderie in the locker room is really good, so when we get in there it’s not like, ‘You’re a freshman, you’re nothing right now.’ Everyone’s part of a team,” Godfrey said. “The older guys have really helped out.”
How the Tigers’ rotation will be structured at the end of the season remains to be seen, but each pitcher, no matter his role, understands what needs to
be done.
“I just told them to go let it rip,” Bregman said. “You guys are the man. You guys are the best players in the world. You got to think that. You got to think you’re the best player ever to play, and when you’re pitching or when you’re hitting, you got to think you’re the best.”
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @Chascin_TDR.