Throughout the last four games, the No. 8 LSU baseball team says it is being reminded of one fact — the game is difficult.
As players and LSU coach Paul Mainieri point out, baseball often doesn’t take into account talent or experience when it comes to consistent success. An All-American can be as likely to have a 10-game hitting streak as he is to going hitless in 15 plate appearances.
The puzzling part of it all, baseball players often can’t describe why they’re in a funk.
Ask sophomore first baseman Greg Deichmann, who has one hit in his last 16 at-bats and has been the culprit of a couple of untimely errors during the Tigers’ recent 1-3 slide.
“It can get to that point where it can get frustrating, [when] both sides [are] not really going for you,” Deichmann said. “But you’ve got to try to separate the two. You’ve got to separate the field, and you’ve got to separate your at-bats. That’s the biggest thing you’ve got to work on, and that’s what I’m working on right now.”
Deichmann, like most of the Tiger lineup, was stymied, again, by the arm of Tulane right-hander J.P. France in Tuesday’s 4-1 road loss. Now, LSU (27-14, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) starts an early three-game series against No. 9 Ole Miss in another hostile environment — Swayze Field.
“I compare Tulane and Ole Miss as very similar places to play,” Mainieri said. “They don’t like us very much at either place. So, you hear a lot of things, and you have to deal with it. You have to have poise and composure. You have to self confidence. And you’ve got to fight through the little valleys that you’re going to deal with through the course of a game.”
The Rebels (31-11) are tied with the Tigers for second in the SEC West standings and boast the fourth-best ERA of conference teams, including sub-3.00 ERA from all three weekend starters.
The weekend rotation is highlighted by project Friday night starter, junior righty Brady Bramlett, who holds a 2.28 ERA and has 71 strikeouts in 55.1 innings.
While he wasn’t familiar with the two other starters, Mainieri said Bramlett’s number of strikeouts wasn’t something he expected.
“[It] surprises me because he throws mostly fastballs,” Mainieri said. “He’s going to challenge the hitters, but he has kind of a deceptive delivery, and the ball is kind of sneaky fast on you. So, it’s going to be a challenge.”
Facing pitchers like Bramlett, whose fastball sits between high 80 miles per hour and low 90s, has been a struggle for LSU hitters as of late.
France, who recorded six of the nine Green Wave strikeouts, doesn’t possess an overpowering fastball like Missouri’s Tanner Houck or Mississippi State’s Dakota Hudson, but players said he alternated his pitches well and the Tigers never found a rhythm against him.
Junior center fielder Jake Fraley said facing pitchers like France isn’t any more, or less, challenging than facing the arms billed to be nationally elite.
In his mind, consistent offense, regardless of what pitcher is on the mound, is part of baseball’s biggest challenge.
“Baseball is a very, very hard sport in itself,” Fraley said. “So, I feel like any time you step in the box, it has its same complications and same frustrations. But, at the same time, it has same success and same enjoying and ecstatic moments with it.”
LSU currently sits tied for second in the conference in runs scored (293) and the fourth-highest batting average (.300), having scored at least seven runs in seven of the last nine games.
In the last four games, though, the Tigers have been held to one run in two of three losses, which came after a five-game winning streak.
Along with better focus on the defensive side, the lulls in the offensive production are what LSU is trying to stay away from, said junior shortstop Kramer Robertson.
“I like the way we’ve been swinging the bats for the most part,” Roberston said. “We just need to try to limit those games where we’re just flat. Nobody’s hitting. It’s baseball. You’re going to struggle. You’re not going to out there every game and have a great game, especially with the pitching in this league.”