The LSU baseball team will be without Sunday starter Bo Pettit for its three game series this weekend against Kansas, head coach Smoke Laval said Thursday. Pettit did not play last weekend due to the flu.
“Health wise I think he’s OK, but now he’s got to get back into pitching shape,” Laval said. “He has to throw a couple of bullpens. This is going on a week without him touching the ball.”
Junior college transfer Nate Bumstead is expected to start again Sunday. Bumstead earned a win last weekend against Northwestern State after allowing only five hits in seven innings.
The rest of the weekend the Tigers will use their regular starters, Jake Tompkins on Friday and Brian Wilson on Saturday.
Laval plans to eventually utilize freshmen Justin Meier and Jason Determann as relievers.
“Justin Meier would have come in this weekend, but he had a little bit of a tired arm,” Laval said. “We figured we’d rest him ten days.”
Determann is working on getting back to his original shape after undergoing elbow surgery. He should be ready in about three weeks, Laval said.
“Both of them are in our plans,” Laval said. “They’re expected to pitch even on the weekends.”
The Kansas Jayhawks (6-3) plan to start three left-handers this weekend at Alex Box Stadium. Junior Ryan Knippschild (1-0, 5.56) will start Friday, junior Josh Duran (0-1, 3.12) will start Saturday and senior Kevin Wheeler (1-0, 0.00) will take the mound Sunday.
In the Kansas lineup, Wheeler is one of six players hitting .360 or better for
The Tigers are coming off a big offensive game against Centenary, in which they scored 15 runs in the game with big hits from Blake Gill and J.C. Holt.
“Our hits were hard, our outs were hard, and that’s what you look for,” Laval said.
Gill is leading the team in hitting with a .500 average, while Holt leads the team in slugging percentage (.917) and on-base average (.533).
Laval said his goal for this weekend is to keep offensive consistency.
The Tigers have played Kansas once before in 1990, and LSU swept the three game series. Kansas has not had a winning season since 1997.