Perhaps last season for LSU baseball could be summed up in one simple exchange from the Tigers’ media day Friday. One reporter asked Head Coach Paul Mainieri if there were any silver lining takeaways from the 17-game season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, prematurely ending any hopes of the team continuing its road to Omaha.
Mainieri paused, pondered and looked back at the camera. “No,” he said and laughed.
It’s been an extremely long road, now some 10 months later since all spring sports were canceled just before LSU opened SEC play against Ole Miss. It was a devastating blow to each player and coach who worked hard to get ready for the season, to see all of the results they had previously put up squandered and to never get to know what the rest of the season held in store for them.
Senior and No. 8 honoree Matthew Beck knows exactly where he was when it all happened. He and former LSU pitchers Cole Henry and Eric Walker had gone to play a round of golf at Santa Maria Golf Course in Baton Rouge. Suddenly, phones buzzed, and all three received text messages alerting them that their brief hiatus had turned into something much longer. The season was over.
“We took a rain check on the back nine and just went home,” Beck said.
Some players never got to play in Alex Box Stadium again. Henry, Walker, Zack Mathis and Saul Garza, to name a few, all moved on from the program and started new chapters.
But, it is February, and that means the wait is almost over for those who decided to come back. LSU still returns talented players, accompanied with a special recruiting class. There is serious reason for optimism that starts with the vaunted pitching staff. LSU’s three projected weekend starters — Jaden Hill, Landon Marceaux and AJ Labas — are each seasoned, menacing pitchers that make up possibly the best rotation in Mainieri’s tenure. The 15th-year Tiger skipper has gone on record to say every pitcher of the three is a Friday night caliber starter.
“I believe Jaden Hill has the capability of stepping in and picking up for Cole Henry as a big time starting pitcher,” Mainieri said. “I think we’re going to see him improve as the season goes. Obviously, Landon Marceaux and AJ Labas give us a veteran rotation, and then we’ve got so many guys coming out of the bullpen that have had experience with us and done a tremendous job. Add that to some of the young, freshman pitchers, and the pitching staff gives so much to be excited about.”
Two pitchers were named to D1Baseball.com’s Oreseason All-American teams: Devin Fontenot (1st team) and Hill (3rd team). The bullpen holds back a swarm of veterans like Fontenot, Beck, Ma’Khail Hilliard, Trent Vietmeier, Brandon Kaminer,and Aaron George, each hungry for innings and opportunities to make impacts. Freshman contributors include Garrett Edwards, Will Hellmers, Ty Floyd and Blake Money. Fontenot has emerged as the team’s closer.
“It’s amazing that a kid that’s a Preseason All-American and has done the things that Devin has done can seem to be underrated by most people,” Mainieri said of Fontenot. “People want to emphasize one poor outing, or one inconsistent outing, but Devin is now a fourth-year player. He can throw the ball up to 95 mph, his slider is better, his command is outing and he has such a better understanding of what he is as a pitcher and what (pitching coach) Alan Dunn and I expect out of him. Absolutely, he’s our closer. There’s no question about that.”
If the pitching staff is as good as the billing and references say, the upside of this team will be determined by the offense. It will be a tall task to ask of a lineup that brings back exactly five players who have ever played a full college baseball season (Cade Beloso, Giovanni DiGiacomo, Drew Bianco, Gavin Dugas and Braden Doughty).
Cade Doughty, Collier Cranford, Maurice Hampton and Alex Milazzo return, but each of them only played the short 17 games last year. That means it’s up to the freshmen to step up and assume large roles.
The good news for Tiger fans is there are already a few that have large enough reputations to fit the pegs left open. Dylan Crews and Tre’ Morgan will almost certainly be everyday players, as they’ve hurdled every lofty expectation thrown at them thus far. Crews has been tabbed by Mainieri as one of those special players to come through LSU, comparing his makeup as “Alex Bregman’s passion and DJ LeMahieu’s swing.”
“Dylan is one of those kids that arrives at LSU and you know there’s something different about him,” Mainieri said. “LeMahieu had that same aura, Bregman had that aura, Duplantis had that aura. Not only is Dylan an extremely talented player, but he has a tremendous attitude. He’s as coachable as anybody we have.”
Morgan’s play at first has made such an impact so far that LSU had to make adjustments and find veteran first baseman Beloso a new home in left field to keep both in the lineup. His defensive prowess has been a big reason why Mainieri wanted to keep him in the infield, citing him as one of the top-five best defensive first basemen he’s ever coached. Morgan attributes his defense, along with everything else that makes him already so special, to the work he put in with his father.
Whenever Morgan needed help, his dad was there, whether it was throwing him balls to help Morgan practice his defense or motivating him against critics who said he should play something else.
“Me and my dad have been working on my glove since I was about four years old,” Morgan said. “He would back up to shortstop and throw picks at me, as hard as he could. Then, when I’d take groundballs, he’d go to home plate and hit the ball as hard as he could at me, no matter how old I was.”
Accompanied by additional freshmen position player talents like Will Safford, Brody Drost, Jordan Thompson and two-way player Will Hellmers, the kids will have to be successful if LSU wants to achieve its yearly expectation of reaching and winning the College World Series.
Should the pitching live up to the expectations and the bats, literally and figuratively, step up to the plate and produce, Tigers fans should have plenty to be excited about come summertime. The wait is almost over for a chance to make what was taken away right.