It started with a two-hand follow through during batting practice before the Baton Rouge Regional.
“I asked [hitting coach] Micah [Gibbs] before we took [batting practice], I said, ‘Hey, Coach, do you think I should swing with two hands all the way through?,’ He said, ‘yeah, give it a shot.’”
For freshman center fielder Zach Watson, it worked out pretty well compared to his usual one-handed follow through.
The native of Ruston, Louisiana finished the NCAA regional tournament with four home runs, matching the four home runs he had during the entire regular season.
No one has hit four home runs in a regional tournament for LSU since Zeph Zinsman in 2001.
After Watson hit his second home run against Southeastern Louisiana, the fourth in two games, he was greeted outside the dugout with a cup of water to his face from senior shortstop Kramer Robertson, because “he was on fire.”
“Coach said he had a feeling about Zach Watson at the beginning,” Robertson said. “Honestly, I didn’t know. He was a freshman. Coach saw something in him before anyone else did. To his credit, once Micah [Gibbs] became our hitting coach, Zach really took off. He told him, it’s okay to hit the ball. You don’t have to hit the ball on the ground. Try to hit the ball with your speed.”
Since entering the lineup on March 11, Watson has made himself comfortable in the 9-hole spot.
He comes up big at the plate when he has to and has impressed coach Paul Mainieri with how much he has improved.
“Offensively,” Mainieri said, “he’s got a little bit of that ‘it’ factor. He doesn’t have the most picturesque swing, but he has risen up and gotten an awful lot of big hits for us.”
Watson moved to the 5-hole spot against Southeastern Louisiana as junior first baseman Nick Coomes, who typically hits fifth, was out with an injury.
And it doesn’t look like Watson will make his way back to the bottom of the order any time soon.
Like Robertson said, Mainieri saw something in Watson before everyone else on the team did and he remained optimistic about what Watson could bring both to the plate and on the field.
He was right all along.
“I said that he wasn’t going to start the season in the starting lineup,” Mainieri said, “But I felt, if there was one player on our team that at some point would be inserted in the lineup and would really spark our team, it would be Zach Watson. I think I was pretty prophetic on that.”
Before Watson was hot at the plate during regionals, he was making big plays in center field that Mainieri says has made all the difference for the team.
“I don’t know if we would be in the position we are as a team right now if we hadn’t inserted Zach Watson into the lineup,” he said. “Specifically into center field.”
Watson has utilized his speed and has no issue chasing down fly balls that come anywhere near him.
Most importantly, he gives reassurance to his pitchers on the mound.
“He saves a lot of doubles,” senior pitcher Jared Poche said. “He turns doubles into outs. That flips an inning right there. He gives us confidence that we know if any ball is hit in the air to center field, it will most probably be caught.”
Watson has earned the starting spot in center field for 46 games, and counting, after sophomore outfielder Antoine Duplantis dabbled in the position before permanently moving to left field.
“Antoine Duplantis is a really good center fielder as well,” Mainieri said, “But I just thought Zach had a little bit more of that electric speed and closing speed to be able to make some catches. He’s starting to make great plays look routine.”
With Watson in the defense, pitchers are able to attack more aggressively and feel they don’t have to strike every batter out.
Mainieri said if a ball is hit in a gap, the team is confident he will make the save.
What might be even more impressive is that Watson didn’t step foot in the outfield before he wore an LSU jersey.
During his high school career, he played all over the infield and even pitched as a closer his senior year at West Ouachita high school where he was a four year starter.
“I’ve told the story about Zach so many times,” Mainieri said. “I sound like a broken record. This fall, when he came here, he was very raw as a baseball player. He made a lot of mistakes and didn’t really know how to play the game at this level, but you could see him being a sponge for learning and getting better every day.”
