Tonight is the night.
The No. 2 LSU baseball team is set to begin its 2015 season with a weekend series against Kansas tonight at 7 p.m. at Alex Box Stadium. It’s a long time coming for the Tigers since their collapse to Houston in the Baton Rouge Regional eight months ago.
“[I’ve been waiting for this] since the last pitch of last season. I’m very excited,” said junior shortstop Alex Bregman. “We have a great group of guys this year, a great coaching staff, best fans in the country, so we’re looking forward to having a great year.”
The Tigers head into 2015 with its star-studded defense mostly intact, but many questions surround the ability and poise of the Tigers’ revamped rotation after the loss of ace right-hander Aaron Nola.
Nola’s absence left a void in veteran experience among the starting three, with only sophomore southpaw Jared Poche’ having started at the collegiate level.
Poche’, the veteran in the weekend rotation, will take the mound Friday night, followed by freshmen Alex Lange and Jake Godfrey to finish the weekend.
The weekend series against the Jayhawks goes a long way in evaluating the stance of LSU’s inexperience, but coach Paul Mainieri said he has full confidence in Lange and Godfrey, just as he did with Poche’ a season ago.
“I told them, ‘When you think about it, a year ago you were preparing to pitch in high school, and now you’ve been told that you’re in the starting rotation for a top-ranked college baseball program,’” Mainieri said. “‘That in itself is a significant accomplishment, something you should be proud of. Now let’s come back to reality: You haven’t done anything yet.
“‘You haven’t pitched a real pitch for LSU baseball. You haven’t won a game, so now the real challenge is to continue gaining the confidence of the coaches and your teammates. The way you perform in real games will determine whether or not you get to hold on to that roll,’ and they understand that this is a performance business.”
While many eyes will be fixated on the Tigers’ pitching staff, Mainieri is left still with plenty of opportunities beyond the mound. The Tigers’ have tremendous depth in the field, led by their battle-tested outfield and Bregman, who was named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.
With many of LSU’s key position players returning and a No. 1 ranked recruiting class, Mainieri has been given multiple options in his lineup. The Tigers’ depth is best examined at catcher, where Mainieri has the option of two veterans in senior Kade Scivicque and junior Chris Chinea, or the highly touted freshman Michael Papierski.
Three capable everyday players all vying for the same position puts Mainieri in an exasperating position. The expectation is to have Scivicque catch two games, with Papierski catching the other. Chinea, who’s known for his power bat, picks up the designated hitter spot.
Mainieri said the depth he has this year is tremendous, but said he will try to take a seniority approach to his lineup early on to get freshmen acclimated to the collegiate environment.
“There’s probably a little more depth here than most years,” Mainieri said. “We do have several options, and I do think it’s going to be somewhat of a challenge for me to make sure I manage the team personnel-wise to keep everybody sharp and ready.”
The Tigers have plenty of questions that need answering as they begin a possible journey to Omaha, but one thing remains constant in their long voyage: It all starts under the bright lights of the Box.
“I wouldn’t say [this season] feels any different,” Bregman said. “My freshman year, I was so excited to get here and play, and I feel like a freshman all over again. I feel like this is a brand new year back in Baton Rouge getting ready to go, and I feel like the whole team feels that way. Opening day, it’s like you’re a little kid. It’s the best feeling in the world to get going again and get on our journey, and I can’t wait.”
You can reach Jack Chascin on Twitter @Chascin_TDR.