The weather is warmer, the sun is brighter and Alex Box Stadium will soon be packed. It’s baseball season in Baton Rouge.
Senior pitcher Ben Alsup will start Friday as the No. 22 LSU baseball team opens the year against Wake Forest.
“It’s going to be electric,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “The big tiger in the sky is certainly taking care of us with the weather.”
Alsup, one of two seniors on the LSU roster, went 5-1 last season with a 3.88 ERA.
He will pitch against a Wake Forest team coming off an 18-37 season in coach Tom Walter’s first year as head coach. The Demon Deacons went 8-22 in the Atlantic Coast Conference and had a 2-20 road record in 2010.
Mainieri had only 29 wins in his first season at LSU and at least 41 wins in every season since. He said he knows a coach can’t be judged based on one year.
“There’s no doubt in my mind he’s going to have an outstanding ballclub coming here to Baton Rouge this weekend,” Mainieri said. “It’s going to be certainly the toughest opening series we’ve had since I’ve been at LSU.”
Walter, who coached the New Orleans baseball team for five seasons before his arrival at Wake Forest, made headlines in the offseason after donating his kidney to freshman outfielder Kevin Jordan.
“We’re all ready to turn the page and get to baseball,” said Walter, who is still recovering from the Feb. 7 surgery.
Mainieri, a former UNO baseball player and a friend of Walter’s, said LSU will honor the Wake Forest skipper with an introduction and will post a photograph of Walter and Jordan on the Jumbotron.
“I know our team will be standing on the top step, giving him an ovation,” he said. “Then we’re going to turn around and try to whip their team.”
Walter said he plans on starting junior left hander Austin Stadler against Alsup. Stadler finished 3-4 with a 5.26 ERA last season and led the Demon Deacons with 70 strikeouts.
“Austin had flashes of brilliance last year for us but was very inconsistent,” Walter said. “He had a good summer up on the Cape [Cod Summer League], so hopefully he’s turned the corner.”
LSU freshman pitcher Kevin Gausman is scheduled to start Saturday. Gausman was a sixth-round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers but opted to attend school.
“For the price tag he was asking, I think people didn’t feel he was of that value, so he came to college with the idea he wanted to prove that he is,” Mainieri said. “I think he has a chance to do that.”
Junior college transfer Tyler Jones was originally scheduled to start Sunday but is suspended for the weekend series for a “disciplinary issue.”
Mainieri said either freshman Kurt McCune or freshman Ryan Eades will be the likely replacement. He said he has seen vast strides from Eades, who committed as a tenth grader from Northshore but injured his shoulder his junior year.
“He’s back up to 93 to 95 miles per hour with a pretty good breaking ball and a pretty good whipping action with his arm,” Mainieri said. “I wouldn’t personally want to hit against him.”
Mainieri said he will not overwork his pitchers. He said 75 to 80 pitches and six innings will be the limit for every starter.
Junior shortstop Austin Nola said the Tigers have to come out firing after missing the College World Series last year.
“We’ve got to prove to our fans we are for real,” he said.
 
 
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Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]