Yes, LSU’s baseball team was able to pull out the brooms over the weekend in a sweep of national powerhouse Cal State Fullerton.
But it wasn’t pretty, and two games could and should have gone in favor of the Titans.
Just look at this: The Tigers had eight of their 24 runs gift wrapped to them by Titan errors during the weekend.
In a sense, I suppose you have to give the Tigers credit for pulling out three wins. However, things must change this upcoming weekend when No. 1 Florida visits Baton Rouge for what may be the best series the new Alex Box Stadium has seen since its birth.
The Gators are a much better defensive team than the Titans as they enter the weekend with a team fielding percentage of .976 (No. 5 in the SEC). They won’t be giving up many easy runs.
On the flip side, LSU must play better defense than they have been.
The Tigers have a rubbish .959 team fielding percentage. And on top of that LSU catchers have thrown out two of 22 runners in the 16 games so far this season (9 percent).
Let that sink in.
Last season in 63 games, the Tigers threw out 17 of 81 (21 percent).
In other words, if Florida has done any scouting whatsoever of this LSU team, it should run. Often.
The interesting thing, though, is Florida hasn’t been running often this season, stealing only 19 of 27. In comparison, LSU has stolen 34 of 43 bases.
LSU’s bullpen is also going to have to pitch more along the lines of how it performed in Sunday’s 10-2 victory against Cal State Fullerton in which a pair of relievers combined to give up no runs in 2 1/3 innings.
On Friday and Saturday’s late-inning 7-6 nail biters, it was a different story. Relievers in the two games combined to give up seven earned runs in just five innings’ work.
There’s no doubt these games against Florida will be some of the best, closest and most competitive games LSU will have all season.
That means middle relief and closers will be of utmost importance.
It will be interesting to watch how Florida’s pitching staff (the best in the league with a 2.31 team ERA) fares against one of the best offenses in the SEC.
The Tigers enter the game hitting .318 as a team and lead the league in runs scored with 151.
This series could be far removed from the west coast, small ball series the Tigers were involved in during the weekend against the Titans in which only one home run was hit.
Instead, one or more of these games could turn into a slug fest that LSU fans have become accustomed to see in Alex Box Stadium with “gorilla ball.”
Then again, Florida’s pitching staff could keep the Tigers’ bats in check.
As long as Florida can keep itself from committing the insane amount of errors Cal State threw around during the weekend, it should hold a slight edge in the series.
But LSU will have one thing the Gators won’t — home field advantage.
It’s going to be an interesting series. And I wouldn’t expect anything less.
 
Andy Schwehm is a 21-year-old psychology and English senior from New Orleans. You can follow him on Twitter @TDR_ASchwehm.
 
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Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]