Following an 8-4 elimination loss to TCU in last season’s College World Series, LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri came to a sobering realization.
On top of his 54-win team falling short on the biggest stage, Mainieri went into the offseason needing to remodel the Tigers’ lineup, including finding a replacement for the critical piece to much of the team’s success.
“I just don’t even want to think about life without Alex Bregman,” Mainieri said after the June 18 defeat in Omaha, Nebraska.
The former LSU shortstop and No. 2 overall draft pick highlighted the plethora of veterans expected to compete for the program’s seventh national championship. Despite a veteran pitching staff, many fans held guarded expectations going into this year, and Mainieri was most anxious about his infield.
Fast forward to early March — 12 games into the 2016 season — and Mainieri has found some chemistry amongst his front-line fielders, flashing abilities to make both the routine and spectacular play.
Finding replacements for the three other infield positions was just as important as finding Bregman’s successor. By now, the opening night infield has been reshuffled and altered to what is now the current starting four.
Although sophomore infielder Bryce Jordan, who is recovering from an ankle injury, has split time with sophomore Greg Deichmann at first base, Jordan has been errorless in six starts at first base, demonstrating a capability to leap for errant throws and apply tags.
After not starting in the first two games of the season, freshman O’Neal Lochridge has established himself as the everyday third baseman and provides power near the bottom of the lineup, homering twice while recording the second-most RBIs on the team.
Junior Kramer Robertson’s return to his high school position, shortstop, and junior Cole Freeman’s final move to second base, rounded out Mainieri’s infield experiments in the nonconference slate.
The trial runs with Robertson and Freeman have paid off as Mainieri believes Freeman is playing second base as well as Robertson was in the first seven games.
While Freeman and Robertson have showed their range as a tandem in the middle, sprinting over and snagging balls appearing to be base hits, the simple catch and throw is still the most important, Freeman said.
“We understand we got to make the routine plays and how big they really are,” Freeman said.
While Jordan’s status for this weekend’s series against Ball State remains unclear, Mainieri has no concern about him reheating his bat, sitting on a four-game hit streak and a .344 batting average.
“The thing about [sophomore left fielder] Beau [Jordan] and Bryce is they just love to compete,” Mainieri said. “So, when you love to compete, you’re not into making excuses or anything like that. They’re going to be ready to go.”
You can reach James Bewers on Twitter @JamesBewers_TDR