A Nike commercial during the 1990s once proclaimed, “Chicks dig the long ball.”If that proclamation is true, then it’s possible not many chicks are digging the LSU baseball team right now.The Tigers (32-10, 11-7) have seen a decline in their home run total through 42 games this season compared to what they had through the same number of games in the 2008 and 2009 seasons.LSU has hit 52 home runs this season. Through 42 games in 2009, the Tigers hit 72.The Tigers hit 58 home runs through 42 games in 2008 and finished with 100.”I would love to see them hit more home runs,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “I love home runs. Home runs make up for a lot of ills on a team. The reality is we’re not hitting as many as last year or the year before that.”The days of gorilla ball are seemingly gone, when Tigers would routinely knock more than 100 balls over the fences.Now, the Tigers rely on speed and contact hitting in place of power to manufacture their runs.”We knew that coming into the year we weren’t going to hit as many home runs as last year,” said sophomore right fielder Mikie Mahtook. “[Former Tiger] Ryan Schimpf hit 22 last year. He’s not on our team anymore. We lost a bunch of power guys from last year’s team.”Schimpf led the Tigers in home runs last year.Three more players hit more than 10 home runs during the ’09 season.Only two players have 10 or more home runs this season — Mahtook with 10 and senior designated hitter Matt Gaudet with a Southeastern Conference-leading 14.”You can’t really attribute [the decline] to just one thing,” Mahtook said. “It’s just the different personnel.”Junior catcher Micah Gibbs agreed the decline could be blamed mostly on the departure of power hitters from last year’s team, but he also added other reasons that could be to blame.”We had some big time power hitters last year,” he said. “Some people make a fact out of the bats we used last year were the composite bats and how they would go farther. Another thing is the wind. It hasn’t been blowing out as much as it usually does this time of year because obviously it’s a little cooler than it usually is this time of year in Baton Rouge.”The NCAA placed a ban on composite bats in the summer of 2009. The bats had been around since the 1990s prior to the ban.Composite bats are bats that are broken in and tend to have more “pop” and can create a trampoline effect when the ball comes off the bat, according to ESPN.com.The bats are also noted for the speeds at which they can be swung.”We would hit [at batting practice] sometimes, and the balls you got well would be balls that would go well over the stands and off the scoreboard.” Gibbs said. “Now, if you hit a ball that far, people are looking around like, ‘Oh wow.'”LSU is not the only team facing home run woes this season — the Tigers are actually outplaying their opponents in that category. LSU’s tally of 52 home runs is four more than the number they’ve given up.Mainieri said as long as home run totals are low, his team will have to rely on other facets of the game to score.”The bottom line is we don’t hit as many home runs, and when you don’t, you better string a lot of things together,” he said.—–Contact Johanathan Brooks at [email protected]