To say Will Harris has been a hot hitter the last two weeks might be an understatement.
In his last 12 official plate appearances, the sophomore first baseman has nine hits to give him a .750 batting average with six RBIs. Overall, Harris is 12-for-21 and hitting .571 with two home runs and eight RBIs in action in limited playing time against left-handed pitching.
“I’ve kind of found a little comfort zone,” Harris said. “That’s all it is. When you’re swinging good, you just want to keep it going. I’ve been feeling good, and I’ve been fortunate they’ve been throwing left-handers, and I’ve been getting a chance to play.”
Harris shares playing time with Ivan Naccarata, who plays third base against right-handed pitching. When a left-hander is on the mound, Harris plays first baseman and his older brother Clay Harris moves from first base to third base.
Harris has shown tremendous improvement at the plate from the 2003 season, when he hit .233 with two home runs and six RBIs in 60 plate appearances, 23 of those being strikeouts. Harris has only struck out four times this season.
Hitting toward the bottom of the lineup, Harris has an eye-catching .905 slugging percentage.
“At least I know what I’m going to get out of him,” said LSU coach Smoke Laval.
Harris also has spent some time on the mound as a relief pitcher.
He has pitched three innings in three games and allowed one run for a 3.00 ERA. He has allowed four hits, three walks and has two strikeouts.
“That’s been fun,” Harris said. “It kind of came out of the blue with a couple of guys getting injured. I would’ve liked to have done better when I’m in there and hopefully I will next time.”
Still No. 1
For the fourth straight week, LSU remained No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball poll, having won 13 of its last 14 games. Stanford and Texas held their positions at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Seven other Southeastern Conference teams ranked in the poll as follows: No. 4 South Carolina (17-0), No. 10 Auburn (16-2), No. 11 Ole Miss (14-1), No. 12 Florida (18-3), No. 19 Tennessee (16-2), No. 21 Mississippi State (10-2) and No. 30 Vanderbilt (13-2).
1.95 and dropping
LSU’s pitching staff holds a team ERA of 1.95, but that only ranks for third best in the SEC. South Carolina and Mississippi State hold lower ERAs, with the Gamecocks holding a 1.72 ERA and the Bulldogs carrying a 1.92 ERA.
“We haven’t been giving up the big inning,” said junior left-hander Lane Mestepey, who is 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA. “We’ve been leaving the guys on base and that’s been helping our ERA. Our defense hasn’t made a lot of errors, and we aren’t pitching to a lot of batters every inning.”
Freshman left-hander Clay Dirks leads the staff with a 1.42 ERA and a 3-0 record in midweek games. Friday night starter Justin Meier is 4-0 with a 1.83 ERA. Sunday starter Nate Bumstead has the highest ERA on the team at 3.18 with a 2-0 record, but most of those runs came against Central Florida, where he was not 100 percent.
Relievers Greg Smith and Jason Determan carry ERAs of 0.87 and 0.90, respectively, while Jordan Faircloth is at 1.04. Collin Smith is at 2.25 and Michael Bonura is at 3.09.
The Tigers gave up 13 runs the opening weekend against Central Florida and have only given up 27 since then in 12 games. Ten of those runs came in a Saturday game against Houston.
Gooh!
LSU travels to No. 4 South Carolina this weekend to take on the Gamecocks (17-0) after a midweek game against University of New Orleans tonight.
The Gamecocks’ first season series against Charleston Southern is an interesting study. South Carolina won the first game 3-2 and the last game 3-0, all fairly close games. But it is the Saturday game that catches one’s attention.
South Carolina won the second game of the series 38-0.
After the first two innings, the score was 21-0. After the sixth, it was 28-0. Two players for USC had seven RBIs, and the Gamecocks ripped 35 hits. Talk about running up the score.