As some Americans sweated out the last-minute filing of income tax returns Monday, LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri reminded his team about what Tax Day represented.
Coming off a series sweep against Missouri, the irregular Tax Day date marked the midway point of Southeastern Conference play. After a 2-4 start in the conference, the No. 5 Tigers (25-11, 9-6 SEC) sit in second in the SEC West standings after 15 league games.
Having won nine of the last 11 games, Mainieri isn’t surprised his team is in the thick of conference title contention.
“I told the guys, ‘When Tax Day hits, we’ll be a better team than we were in March,’” Mainieri said. “We’ll be better in March than we were in February. And, hopefully, we’ll be better in May than we are in April. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. Twenty games left — 15 in this league — and there’s not a single gimme in the group.”
As Mainieri pointed out, the Tigers are only one game back of the 10-5 conference start by last year’s team. Similarly to this year’s team, the 2015 team had a home series loss in its first half of the league schedule.
However, LSU is in spot in the national picture, ranking No. 13 in RPI and No. 7 in strength of schedule, according to D1Baseball.com.
Even with the success LSU is starting to see, Mainieri encourages his players to “purge” the series sweep of Missouri from their memory to focus on what lies ahead.
Wednesday, the Tigers host Southeastern Louisiana, which has already beaten Tulane twice. Then, No. 7 Mississippi State heads to Alex Box Stadium for a three-game series this weekend.
The series against the Bulldogs is followed by a midweek road trip against the Green Wave, which is barely outside Baseball America’s top-25 after a series loss to Cincinnati — a team LSU swept to open up the season.
Then, LSU travels to Oxford, Mississippi for road series against No. 15 Ole Miss. LSU also hosts No. 2 Florida in the last regular season series of the year.
The recurring strength of the SEC, which has eight ranked teams in Baseball America’s current poll, gives Mainieri reason to say that the SEC is the “Major Leagues of College Baseball.” But he cautions his players about the five remaining midweek games, especially because of earlier midweek losses against Lamar, Tulane and McNeese State.
“Those nonconference games in the middle of the week end up having a lot to do with whether or not you become a regional host at the end of the year,” Mainieri said.
Future of Latz, Lochridge still up in the air
Although Mainieri expressed optimism about his team’s direction, the same couldn’t be said about two of his injured players.
Redshirt freshman left-hander Jake Latz and freshman third baseman O’Neal Lochridge are still not healthy enough to play, and Mainieri is unsure about if, or when, either player will return this season.
Latz, who sat out his entire true freshman season and had surgery on his throwing elbow in the fall, made his collegiate debut against McNeese State, where he started and threw 1.1 innings. But Latz, once again, is feeling discomfort in the area of the surgery, Mainieri said.
“It’s just the most baffling thing I’ve ever dealt with as a coach, honestly,” Mainieri said.
Mainieri wasn’t certain if Latz would see a doctor soon. The only thing the 10th-year coach could say definitively is Latz isn’t yet ready to appear in another game.
“I don’t know exactly what he’s going to do, honestly,” Mainieri said. “I shouldn’t even speak because he’s not ready to pitch. He’s not going to be pitching in a game right now. So, I’m just going to have to wait and see. I wish I could tell you a good answer, but I don’t have one.”
Meanwhile, Lochridge seemed be on the mend after suffering a flare up in a back stress fracture, but Mainieri said the Lafayette, Louisiana native has “not improved.”
Lochridge practiced last week prior to the McNeese State game and went through warmups before the April 12 matchup, but he isn’t game ready and will be out all week, Mainieri said.
Lochridge has not appeared in a game since the series opener against Ball State on March 11.
“I’m concerned that we’ll see him back this year,” Mainieri said. “We have to go with how he feels. We tried to push it last week. He was feeling great. He went through a full practice, and then he hit in pregame the next day. It’s just when he’s hitting that he feels it. So, we have to do what’s right for the boy. It’s not as bad as it once was, but it’s still preventing him from being able to play.”