The baseball season is months away, but for the LSU baseballteam it cannot get here soon enough. The Tigers have not steppedinto a game situation since the elimination game against SouthCarolina at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., in June. Thisyear, the team hopes for a better outcome.
Coach Smoke Laval has expressed his hopes to exceed lastyear’s goals and the team, especially seniors, are expectingno less as well.
“Obviously our main goal is a national championship— that would definitely exceed our goals,” said seniorshortstop Blake Gill. “But others include winning the SEC andhave a winning streak of maybe 20 games. We just need to pushourselves to strive to do better.”
The team began its conditioning with a three-week fall practicesession that ended last week. The coaches’ main focus duringfall practice was to help the new players adapt to the system andlearn what kind of team the Tigers will be this season.
“The main thing was to learn about each other and get toknow each other and play together,” Gill said. “We havea lot of new guys and we have a lot of talent. We have to learneach other and get a feel for ourselves — get into a groovebefore the season.”
The team is returning most of last year’s starters andhave several upperclassmen to set the standards for thisseason’s goals. Aside from the team goals, there still ispressure that comes from being a part of the team.
“To play at LSU — the bar is very high,” saidsenior Clay Harris. “You’re expected to win here and ifyou don’t win, things have to change. Losing is not anoption. Old guys know [the expectations] and we need to get itacross to new guys. If your struggling, it’s pretty rough.You’re expected to produce here.”
Expectations have been weighed heavily on LSU’s shouldersfor many years now. After failing to win a national championship inthe years of coach Laval, the team said they hope this year will bedifferent.
“We need to focus on playing together and being close as ateam,” said senior outfielder Ryan Patterson. “We justhave to expect to do better than last year. Sometimes we say wewant to win a national championship, but you have to expect to bethere at the end.”
Patterson added that the amount of seniors on the team will addto the positive aspects of the season.
“Having so many seniors, we’re going to have a lotmore leaders across the board, not just guys looking up to just oneperson,” Patterson said. “We definitely havedepth.”
The seniors will make it difficult for the freshmen to find astarting spot on the team this year. But, with Gill out for thefirst of the season due to surgery in his throwing arm —where he pulled his labrum — freshman Michael Hollander fromJesuit High School may see playing time until Gill recovers.
” [Hollander] could be playing. He showed a lot of talentin the Fall,” Gill said. “There are a lot of guysreturning. Pitching wise there will be a couple of [freshmen] and alot of transfers playing.”
Gill is expected back soon after the opening date.
“I am going to try to get back and get healthy and notcome back too early but come back sooner than they expect,”Gill said. [I just need to be] physically good to go. I hope I cancontribute to the team.”
With over a dozen seniors on the team, this is their last chanceof reaching every college player’s goal of a nationalchampionship. The seniors are all veterans, but they agree there issomething different about this team than the others who came shortof their main goal.
“We definitely have the team to do it,” Harris said.”We lacked some things here and there [in the past]. Ourpitching has to stay healthy this year and consistent. We hit theball good but some guys still didn’t play up to theirpotential. If we can do that we can win the Southeastern Conferenceand the SEC tournament. We’re going to take that into moreconsideration this year. Winning Omaha is big this year. A lot ofguy’s last go round.”