LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri would not have wanted Tiger fans to see the infielders practice on Feb. 9.
In an uncommon occurrence, the mostly fresh-faced infielders didn’t perform the fundamentals well a mere 11 days before first pitch at Alex Box Stadium, he said.
“Yesterday, for some reason, they just didn’t catch the ball and throw the ball very well,” Mainieri said on Feb. 10. “If you just came out for one day and watched us, you’d be concerned.”
The recent sloppy practice wasn’t the first or the last time the Tigers on the dirt had a rough outing. As Mainieri acknowledged, two solid practices on Friday and Saturday yielded way to a subpar day on Sunday.
For the most part, though, the 10th-year coach hasn’t had to shield his eyes much. For a group needing to replace all four players from last year’s College World Series team, Mainieri said the infield has been mostly consistent in preparation for the season-opening series against Cincinnati.
“They’re taking a lot of pride in their play,” he said.
The sporadic careless performances give Mainieri another opportunity to school a new unit, which makes the 58-year-old coach feel like he has the energy of a 40-year-old. Mainieri said he felt more like a professional manager with sage veterans like former shortstop Alex Bregman and third baseman Conner Hale manning key positions in the infield.
This infield, however, required some teaching, even if isn’t entirely young.
Freshman shortstop Trey Dawson is the lone collegiate rookie who will start in the infield, while JUCO transfer third baseman Cole Freeman is the only other starter who is a new roster addition. Still, significant experience can’t be found among the other two infielders.
Sophomore first baseman Greg Deichmann played in just 10 games with no starts last season after breaking his foot in the preseason, and he didn’t play first base in any of those appearances.
“I never touched a first baseman mitt [last year],” he said. “But just getting to watch [former LSU first baseman Chris Chinea] out there every day picking balls, and the emphasis coach puts on making such a clutch play with a picks, the short hops, it showed in [game one of] the [NCAA] Super Regional [against UL-Lafayette]. He picked that big ball in the late innings to keep it going, and [former LSU designated hitter Chris] Sciambra was able to hit that home run. Certain areas of emphasis are put on at first base is what I was really able to picked up on.”
While he’s been on the team the longest of any infielder, junior second baseman Kramer Robertson was leap frogged by former power-hitting second baseman Jared Foster for the starting job before SEC play began in 2015. He then missed the rest of the season after injuring his elbow before the April 23 game against Texas A&M.
The inexperience or irregular playing time in the infield is coupled with two new starters in the outfield. But even for Robertson, there’s value to his previous stints on the field, making him a natural leader in the unseasoned infield.
“For me personally, just showing the young guys the ropes,” Robertson said. “What it’s like to play here. There’s only a few of us who’ve actually played in a good number of games here.”
One of those players learning the ropes is Dawson, the successor to the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2015 MLB draft. Much like Bregman, though, the Hurricane, West Virginia native has already shown the moxy needed to command the critical middle infield position.
Yet he feels his biggest area of progression in the off-season has come at the plate with hitting coach Andy Cannizaro.
“Staying on top of the ball and working to the right side, [Cannizaro] has been the biggest help with my hitting,” Dawson said. “Coach Mainieri in the field, as well, working on my range every day.”
Freeman, a junior who comes to Baton Rouge from Delgado Community College in New Orleans, may not look like a professional prospect, Mainieri said. But the Mandeville High School product is similar to sophomore twins Beau and Bryce Jordan because “they’re scrappers.”
“They’re just gamers, ballers, whatever term you want to use,” Mainieri said. “They’re just going to lay it all out on the field. When the game is over, those kids are going to be physically and mentally exhausted because they laid it all out on the field for you. I love those players.
“Cole Freeman is like that. He practices endless hours. He’s got that kind of Bregman quality. I’m not saying he’s Bregman. He doesn’t have Bregman’s arm, his bat or some of the other talents that made Bregman the second pick in the draft. But he’s got that same work ethic and love of baseball.”