LSU baseball landed its first series win in SEC play against Kentucky over the weekend. The storylines coming out of the games can be told through the statsheet, and three numbers in particular stood out.
11 – Runs allowed in the first three innings
The Wildcats plated 11 runs across the opening three frames of last weekend’s games, and they accomplished that despite being blanked in that same timeframe in Saturday’s game.
The early starts from Kentucky in two of the games, a four-spot off of Casan Evans in the first two innings of its lone win in the series on Friday and seven runs off of four pitchers to get Sunday’s game underway — it all reinforces just how perplexing LSU pitching has been.
Evans’ start came after a gem against Oklahoma eight days prior, and while the four runs were all that the sophomore would allow, it served as a less-than-desired encore. This start could’ve been a ramp for him to live up to the billing as a top arm in the country.
Gavin Guidry was tabbed as the opener on Sunday and made a poor case for being the solution to the loss of Cooper Moore in the rotation. He got hit around and allowed six runs, only getting one out in the second inning before getting pulled.
Three more arms would be required in order for LSU to get out of the Kentucky third inning, trailing by seven. It’d work itself out of the hole to eventually win, but it continues a pattern of LSU having to dig its way out of early deficits rather than protecting leads.
When the former is happening more than the latter, it’s hard to find sustained success.
3 – LSU home runs on Sunday
LSU climbed out of that early hole through three long balls, all very timely.
John Pearson clubbed a grand slam to make it a two-run game in the third, Derek Curiel found the seats on a solo shot to get it back to that deficit in the sixth and Seth Dardar would cap off a rally started by Curiel in the inning to belt a three-run homer that gave LSU an 11-10 lead.
Timely hitting has been lacking in LSU’s hitting profile this season, something that has held them back in a number of games. The Tigers signaled a turnaround in their midweek victory against Louisiana Tech on the prior Tuesday, and the results in Sunday’s affair against Kentucky are another step in the right direction.
The faces behind the homers are also promising.
Pearson has continued to slug exceptionally well and indicates that the search for an everyday third baseman may be coming to a close. Curiel’s second homer of the year continues a power streak for the LSU centerfielder, and Seth Dardar put the bow on a great bounce-back weekend with the long ball.
8 – LSU runs off of walks
LSU learnt firsthand the damage that walks can do in its series against Vanderbilt a few weeks ago. Its pitching staff issued 21 in the two losses it suffered in Nashville.
Though the staff had a problem with walks on Sunday, LSU’s bats started to weaponize discipline in the series win.
The Tigers leveraged the free baserunners to their advantage, posting four runs from runners who reached via bases on balls in each of their two wins during the weekend.
Disciplined approaches have been fleeting for LSU this season, and when it has managed to get aboard and drive pitch counts up, it usually has been for naught; the offense fails to string those results together to do damage.
The Kentucky series was a reversal of that trend, and, on Sunday, helped to overcome a massive deficit. Those types of results build confidence and set a foundation for an offensive turnaround in the back half of the season.
