LSU baseball coach Smoke Laval said he could have an all-American starting at second base this season.
But he said first he would need to combine the skills of freshmen Jason Ogata, Buzzy Haydel and Nicholas Pontiff into one person.
Of the Tigers’ first eight games this season, Ogata has started four games. Haydel and Pontiff have each started two.
Laval said each player has his own specific strengths and weaknesses, which makes the decision of who plays difficult.
“Ogata, offensively and [in terms of] speed, is better than the other two but not glowingly better,” Laval said. “I think Pontiff’s [defense] is his strength over the other two, and [Haydel] is in between them.”
Ogata, a 50th-round pick in the 2005 Major League draft, and Pontiff both have .333 batting averages, but Ogata has 15 plate appearances compared to Pontiff’s 6 at-bats.
“Going through a whole red-shirt year, you miss a whole year of at-bats,” Pontiff said. “You can’t see live pitching, so it takes you a good long bit to step up next year and get in tune with all these guys who’ve been playing a year.”
Laval said Pontiff is his most-improved player, especially on this offensive end.
“He found an approach, stuck with it,” Laval said. “It’s made him better and better each day. That is a pleasant surprise.”
Haydel, who is batting .250 in eight at-bats, said he wants to work on hitting the ball harder and avoid being known as an easy out.
“To me, it’s more about knowing the strike zone and making a lot more contact,” Haydel said. “I’m not one who’s going to hit a lot of homers or steal a lot of bases.”
Defensively, Pontiff and Haydel have made no errors, but Ogata leads the team with three errors.
“I need to slow the game down,” Ogata said. “When I made the errors I felt like I rushed myself when I didn’t need to.”
Laval said he may make a decision on a permanent starter after this weekend’s series, but nothing is guaranteed.
The Tigers open up a three-game series against Temple tonight in Alex Box Stadium at 6:30 p.m. The Saturday and Sunday games will both begin at noon.
 
MEIER & MAYER INJURY UPDATE
Laval said senior right-hander Justin Meier may make his first appearance this season on Sunday.
Meier had minor back spasms, which have given him control problems recently.
“[Meier] changed his rhythm trying to pitch through it and got him in a bad habit,” Laval said. “He was mislocating, but he’s fine now.”
Laval also said sophomore first baseman Jordan Mayer is close to 100 percent healed after breaking his left thumb during spring practice.
Mayer will likely wear a removable cast on his thumb at the plate for another week.
 
Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]