Three appearances into his freshman season at LSU, not much was going right for right-hander Cole McKay.
Despite entering games with sizeable leads, he’d given up four hits, walked four and surrendered two earned runs in 2.1 innings. McKay even had a throwing error in the one inning he pitched against Fordham on March 4.
It was a similar trend to what occurred throughout fall and spring practices. His velocity was still trying to climb back to the low 90s range it sat at Smithson Valley High School and his confidence was wavering.
“I was pretty down on myself,” McKay said. “Me being a guy that I like to control everything, you kind of have to give it up, saying ‘I’m doing all that I can to fix this, and it’s not doing it.’ … It’s tough to keep confidence up there while you’re doing it, but thank the Lord that He got me through it.”
But LSU coach Paul Mainieri and pitching coach Alan Dunn are seeing changes in McKay.
With a better inning under his belt against the University of New Orleans, where his fastball touched 93 miles per hour, Mainieri is giving the former top-100 draft prospect the start against Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Zephyr Field in New Orleans.
Mainieri is expecting to only use McKay for roughly two innings at most against the Ragin’ Cajuns, but he’s hopeful McKay proves to be a guy the Tigers can lean on against Texas A&M out of the bullpen.
“McKay has really made great strides in his time here,” Mainieri said. “Alan has worked so much with him, and he comes in every day after working with him, and he tells me, ‘Boy, McKay is really coming along. He’s really getting better.’ And if you look at the radar gun reading on the [scoreboard], you can see his velocity is back up to 90 plus, which is obviously very encouraging.
“But he also has a really good breaking ball, and I feel like his poise is growing, his confidence is growing. We want to see if he can be a guy that we can really count during the weekends.”
Even though there’s natural pressure that comes with pitching in front of a large crowd during an in-state rivalry game, Mainieri wants to see McKay in a “comfortable situation” against the top of UL-Lafayette’s order.
For McKay, he’ll be trying to keep his energy levels in check.
“I think there’s something wrong with you if you don’t have adrenaline going out there, with that crowd and the team that we’re playing,” McKay said. “I also think it’s extremely important to keep a good head on your shoulders and not let the adrenaline get the best of you. I just pray that it goes well
No “dramatic” changes despite shorter week
Mainieri immediately realized the postponement of Friday’s Southeastern Conference opener against Alabama would leave him in a pitching predicament.
With recently named Friday night starter, sophomore right-hander Alex Lange, having his next start pushed back to the first half of Saturday’s doubleheader, Mainieri would have to choose between Lange and junior left-hander Jared Poche’ for Thursday’s series opener against Texas A&M.
Essentially, whoever he picked would be pitching on four day of rest, far from the norm for a collegiate pitcher. Knowing Lange is a power pitcher, whose arm may need more rest than Poche’s finesse-like arm, Mainieri will call on the third-year southpaw for Game 1 in College Station, Texas.
“Had we played on Friday [against Alabama], [Lange] would have started on Thursday,” Mainieri said. “It’s only because of the rest factor.”
Even with less time between each starts for Poche’, Lange and Game 3 starter John Valek III, Dunn said the preparation will be relatively similar. The biggest difference will be the absence of two normal off days.
But the “plan” is the same, he said, including when each starter throws his weekly bullpen and what pitches Dunn calls.
“It’s not anything dramatic that you change,” Dunn said. “It’s still going to be preparing them to go out and pitch us deep in the game. So, it’s not anything you change other than just the amount of work they’re going to get in this week because it’s shorter.
Even though the four or five-day rest period is more common in professional baseball, Poche’ said he pitched on four days of rest in his senior year at Lutcher High School and felt he could have thrown Monday if it was required.
“I felt really good,” Poche’ said. “We stretched it out pretty far and then got on the mound, and everything was working well.”
Like Poche’, Lange feels like he can pitch the day after his bullpen – the fifth day of his weekly routine – but there’s value to the extra work days after the bullpen, he said.
“You’re ready to pitch, and you take the two works days as time to get better, time to improve on something we need to get better for the weekend,” Lange said. “The short rest doesn’t really affect me because I feel like I’m ready a couple of days in advance all ready from all the all arm care, all the strength and conditioning that we do.”