OMAHA, Neb. – LSU junior first baseman Matt Clark was coy Monday about his future with the Tigers, but his final game in Omaha, Neb., this season could be his final game in the purple and gold.
“He’s done everything that he can do here to improve his stock with the pro draft and command a good signing bonus,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I’d love to have him back, but I don’t expect that to happen. I expect him to sign professionally and start his career, and I totally support him doing that.”
The San Diego Padres drafted Clark in the 12th round earlier this month. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted him in the 28th round in 2007 before he came to LSU.
Clark said he’s not thinking about the major leagues until after this season is done.
“As of now, I’m not trying to think about it,” Clark said.
If he decides to forego his senior season, the Fontana, Calif., native could leave college at the top of the 2008 home run list.
Clark’s second-inning shot Sunday pushed him into first place with 27 home runs this season, breaking a tie with Florida State’s Buster Posey, Georgia’s Gordon Beckham and College Of Charleston’s Michael Harrington.
“It’s a pretty cool accomplishment,” Clark said. “I can’t really say a whole lot because they’ve still gotta play a couple games, and someone could pass me or tie me.”
Neither Posey nor Beckham hit home runs Monday.
Former LSU catcher Brad Cresse is the only Tiger in history to lead the nation in home runs. Cresse hit 30 long balls in 2000, the Tigers’ most recent national championship year.
Former LSU first baseman Eddy Furniss tied two other players for the most home runs in 1996 with 26 bombs. Furniss played at least six more games than each player he tied with that season as the Tigers went on to win the national championship.
Furniss’s former teammate, shortstop Brandon Larson, holds the record for most home runs in a season by an LSU player with 40 in 1997.
Larson finished second in the nation in home runs in 1997. Rice’s Lance Berkman hit 41 that season, but Larson’s Tigers defeated Berkman and the Owls in the College World Series en route to another LSU national championship.
PITCHING PRESSURE
Mainieri and the Tigers will again put the ball in the hands of senior pitcher Jared Bradford with the season on the line.
Bradford started LSU’s second game of the Baton Rouge Super Regional nine days ago against the University of California Irvine, helping the team turn things around after dropping the series opener.
“We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve felt like our backs are against the wall, and we need to have a tremendous effort now,” Mainieri said. “And it seems like so many of those games over the course really of these two years I’ve been at LSU, we’ve given the ball to Jared Bradford, and he’s responded with a tremendous effort. So hopefully we can get more of the same [today], and maybe he can do that one more time for us.”
Bradford is one of only two seniors (along with third baseman Michael Hollander) on the Tigers’ active roster. He said he cherishes the chances he’s received to help his team win high pressure games.
“I love that, honestly, I really do,” Bradford said. “I know coach Mainieri’s got a lot of confidence in me, as well as the position players, and I really love that fact. And I feel honored to be able to take on that role.”
Mainieri used six pitchers in Sunday’s 8-4 loss to North Carolina, but he said he expects most of his bullpen to be available to relieve Bradford – including junior Louis Coleman, who pitched two innings and picked up two strikeouts Sunday.
Mainieri said he pulled Coleman after two innings to assure he would be available tonight. He also said one reason he used so many pitchers was to give them experience pitching in the College World Series before they might have to pitch later in the week.
MAN BEHIND THE MASK
Freshman center fielder Leon Landry started Sunday in the Tigers’ first game since he was hit in the face by a fly ball off the wall in LSU’s super regional victory June 2 against UC Irvine.
The Baker native did so with the help of a face mask on his batting helmet – similar to the mask his outfield mate Jared Mitchell wears on the football field on Saturdays in the fall.
Landry said fans can expect to see him in the mask again tonight, although he is feeling much better than he did a week ago.
“I feel good,” Landry said. “I feel a lot better. The swelling went down a lot. I got my stitches taken out.”
Landry, who was no longer wearing a bandage under his right eye at Monday’s practice, received three stitches this past week to help heal the injury.
He said fans can expect to see the bandage back for Tuesday’s game – jokingly saying the bandage was a fashion statement.
Landry, who has recently made a name for himself with acrobatic, diving and jumping catches, said the injury will not make him tentative or slow him down.
“That was a freak accident,” he said. “But I’m confident in the skills I have, and I’m going to hustle hard out there to go make a play if I can. I’m not going to change anything up. You know, obviously the injury was kind of a shock to me, took me kind of my surprise, but I’m not going to let that affect my play.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]