OMAHA – In baseball, you often get beat over the head with clichés.
It happens in all of sports, but it especially happens on the diamond. Whether it’s a coach, player, analyst, writer or any random fan, you will hear some phrase or sentence that pretty much only applies to baseball. America’s game is selfish in that way.
If you’ve spent any time around the sport, one of the clichés you hear is “hitting is contagious.”
It essentially means that a player is more likely to get a hit following a base hit on the previous at-bat. But there’s no definitive reason behind this idea.
There’s actually been research on the subject, and some say a hitter’s brain plays a part in “mirroring” the actions of the hitter before him. Ultimately, though, each at-bat is independent, and numerous factors play into whether or not a player is successful at the dish.
Not to mention, at least one or two players have to start the hitting in order for it to become contagious.
While it’s sometimes annoying to hear, I still find myself using it every now and then. If you ever played baseball, a lot of things in between the white lines best go unexplained. And if there’s one team capable of finding some hitting magic that becomes contagious, I’d like to think it would be this year’s LSU baseball team.
Throughout this season, it felt easier to nitpick LSU’s flaws than appreciate how well they have played. Nevermind the fact that the Tigers ended the regular season with single-digit losses and lost only one series all year. Nevermind the fact that they had the lowest ERA and the highest batting average in the SEC, which also happen to be in the top 10 in the nation.
Critical questions were still asked in the regular season. Who will be the third starter in the postseason? Is the bullpen good enough? Can any reliever be trusted to be the closer? Then, in the postseason, the question changed.
Where did the offense go?
No player or coach on the team will be able to give you a solid reason behind the vanishing bats. As coach Paul Mainieri points out, the pitching is significantly better in the postseason, which is undeniably true. But even against good pitching in SEC series, the Tigers have had success a large portion of the time.
Some fans have said it has been a lack of patience at the plate. But the team lives by aggressiveness, so that probably won’t change as long as the Tigers are in the College World Series.
So, will LSU rediscover its once-potent form to survive against Cal State-Fullerton and beyond? It’s baseball — anything can happen (there goes another dumb cliché).
But, honestly, if the offense resurrected itself in a big way tomorrow, it wouldn’t surprise me. It also wouldn’t surprise me if it struggled again but rode freshman ace Alex Lange to victory.
Eventually, though, LSU will need that moment at the plate to change the outcome of the game. It came in Game 2 of the Super Regional through Kade Scivicque’s solo blast in the top of the seventh. It might be as a simple two-out double in a long at-bat tomorrow. But you usually can tell when the momentum changes on offense.
After all, it’s so noticeable it’s contagious.
James Bewers is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from New Orleans. You can reach him on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR.

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Javier Fernández

LSU freshman pitcher Alex Lange (35) runs towards his teammates during the Tigers' third practice at the NCAA College World Series on Monday, June 15, 2015 in Creighton University Sports Complex.