re: Baseball outlook rest of year

16-14 with a chance to host a regional depending on how we do in the SEC tournament.

The SEC is a warzone. State just beat OM 2-1 and Ark swept Auburn. I seriously doubt anyone in the West wins more than 18 conf games.
Florida will probably win 20 but everyone else in the East won't win 18

I guess our pitching will never be dominant enough to throw shutouts every game.
And from the looks of our hitting these last few weeks, it will have to, to win any games.

Tennessee need a sweep
@Carolina 2/3 but with LSU play on the road it will be hard
@Ole Miss another tough road series 1/3
Arkansas probably best team in west 2 will not be easy
Alabama need a sweep
@Auburn 2/3

I wasn't a proponent of moving Hilliard, but it's time now. Gilbert has been too inconsistent in Sat role. Hilliard gets an extra day rest with Tenn starting on Fri.

No Runs, No Hits ,& No Errors, LSU Pitching will get no help.

If Smith and Brousard come back and play like they should this team will have no problem making a regional. Our schedule is such that it is gonna be tough to win all but maybe two of our remaining series, precluding a host spot.

The SEC is deep as hell, and everyone competes. I feel good about beating Tennessee and Alabama, perhaps even sweeping those. But the road series at SC and Ole Miss are gonna be real tough. Arkansas at home is a plus, but they are the best team in the west. Auburn on the road to close is gonna be a beast. Casey Mize is one of the top pitchers in the nation.

That said, with the pitching this team has they can very easily ruin someone else's regional. Four legit starters and a bullpen as deep as we have would put us in great shape if we need to go five games.

Hell, even as a hypothetical three seed we are throwing Hess against the two seed and then get to throw Hilliard in game two. Not many teams are gonna be able to match that in a regional.

My gut tells me we will make a regional and likely lose in the Monday game 7, but I will be rooting for much more, as always.

I'm pretty indifferent right now, I predicted 17-13 in SEC play back in February and it's just a patient wait for Mainieri to get his best players back in the lineup. It's a bit unfair to place blame on Mainieri or Ochinko when 3 weekend starters were replaced and essentially the entire infield and catcher are first year starters, you just don't see that in SEC.

The thing is LSU hasn't really clicked much at all thus far and they're still hanging around the middle of the pack.

I don't think Gilbert's looked comfortable outside of 2-3 starts this year, he excelled last year as a reliever and it won't hurt to see if he can be a go to bullpen guy. The slider just doesn't seem to have as much break this year and he's forcing himself to throw fastballs which doesn't have as much velocity thus far. I think it's time to give Sanders or Labas a chance, it's not like you can't bring Gilbert in right away if needed.

The lineup has so many black holes right now it shouldn't be a surprise that LSU's only scoring in 1 inning a game. Getting Smith and Broussard back is the key to LSU's season.

quote:

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Tennessee 2W-----8-7 @Carolina 2W-----10-8 @Ole Miss 1W-----11-10 Arkansas 2W-----13-11 Alabama 2W-----15-12 @Auburn 2W-----17-13.

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What has this team shown that would convince you that they take 2 from Arkansas or Auburn?

Before the SEC games began, I had LSU at 14-16. Way to many injuries this year, the sad part is that the Tigers had a schedule break this year in not playing UF, UGA, and UK from the east.

Sticking w my preseason prognostication." Average pitching and some sophomore slumps will have us battling to be .500 in league and get a 2 seed in the south somewhere."