Just when “rebound” seemed as if it was only a term reserved for basketball, the LSU baseball team finds themselves in dire need of one.
The Tigers ended a four-game road series with a shocking 6-1 loss to Centenary College Wednesday night.
After returning from Shreveport at 2 a.m. Thursday morning, LSU found themselves with only one day to prepare for its three-game weekend series against the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
“We hit a lot of curve balls — did a lot of hitting; we’re trying to be more aggressive at the plate and get some swings off,” said senior first baseman Clay Harris. “Our focus was pretty good [Thursday at practice], and we have to just forget about the loss and go into this weekend and play hard.”
Harris leads the team in hitting with a .395 batting average including five doubles, two home runs and eight RBIs. Despite his efforts, the leading slugger — with the majority of the team — could not come up with a hit in Wednesday’s contest, limiting the team to only two hits on the night.
“Thursday’s practice had a lot to do with hitting,” said junior Quinn Stewart, who was among one of the two hitters in Wednesday’s contest. “We only had two hits Wednesday night so we had to work on hitting especially the big loopy curveballs.”
While hits seem a bit doubtful for the Tigers, coach Smoke Laval remains confident in his weekend pitching rotation.
Senior left-hander Lane Mestepey (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season last weekend but will take the mound tonight for the Tigers. Mestepey leads the school in most-career innings standing at 401.1 in his college career. Nineteen of those innings came this year along with a .046 ERA on 11 strikeouts and three walks.
Sophomore Clay Dirks and junior Greg Smith still remain undefeated on the mound — both stand at 3-0 on the season.
Dirks begins Saturday’s contest hoping to add to his impressive 14 strikeouts in 16.2 innings of work.
Smith will conclude the series with Sunday’s start. Smith has 17.2 innings of work under his belt with 21 strikeouts and only walking six. He currently holds a 2.55 ERA.
While the Tigers give the start to three lefties, the UAB Blazers will put their faith in three senior right-handers who each are 1-0 on the season.
“All I know about them is they’re going to throw three right-handers,” Laval said. “We are just going to control what we can control and get a little better there.”
The weekend series is the first for UAB on the road after winning six out of nine games at home.
“We haven’t heard much on them, just that they have a really good pitcher, but we’re not sure what day he is pitching,” Harris said. “We just have to come out and play.”
Tonight’s game starts at 6:30 p.m. in Alex Box Stadium. Game two is set for noon Saturday, and game three begins at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s always good to play at home in front of the home fans in our home surroundings,” Harris said. “It’s more comfortable, so I’m excited to be back here.”