Friday March 10th 6:30PM Central
LSU - Paul Skenes
Samford - Jacob Cravey (RHP)

Saturday March 11th 6:30PM Central
LSU - Ty Floyd
Samford - Brody Westbrooks (RHP)

Sunday March 12th 1:00PM Central
LSU - TBD
Samford - Will Lynch (RHP)

This is not the same Samford program that put multiple guys on SEC rosters last year. The coach that built that program and recruited those guys is now at UAB. They will still be competitive in the SoCon, but maybe won’t be the same type of SEC portal feeder they were during that coaching transition.

One of their top hitters is Delgado alum Stephen Klein. The primary firstbaseman cuts an imposing figure at 5’9” 190. What he lacks in stature he makes up for with the bat, as he’s second on the team in SLG and OPS. Klein is originally from Metairie and prepped at DeLaSalle before a spell at Delgado alongside Brayden Jobert. He’s their top returning hitter from last season and was 2nd team all SoCon last year.

Shortstop Garrett Howe is their top hitter so far this year, by average. Outfielder/DH/C/1B Lucas Steele has been their top slugger so far. Howe is a Junior from Georgia that has played his whole career at Samford. Steele is a switch-hitting freshman from Hoover that looks to be the offensive centerpiece of the future, or at least until 45 days after their conference tournament ends.

Their likely Friday starter is Jacob Cravey. He’s started each Friday so far. He’s a big kid at 6’6” 215 and strikes out a decent number of guys. He’s a little prone to walks, but his last outing was 7 inning complete game with only a walk, a hit, and a single earned run. His normal pitch count is around the century mark, so it will be another war of attrition for our hitters to see how early we can run him.

They have 4 guys that are primarily relievers that have all thrown double digit innings, so they lean on some of the same guys a lot. Carson Hobbs and Ben Petschke look like their strikeout guys. Trey Sanders and Brody Westbrooks are more of the innings eater types. Petschke comes from JUCO pitching factory Florida Southwestern. Westbrooks is a Georgia Tech Transfer.

Will Lynch is their other primary starter, but he’s been far less successful than Cravey. He seems to have run into some bad luck with an ERA over 8 but and opposing BA of .188. His WHIP is 1.33, which isn’t terrible for a college starter. I guess when people reach against him, they score. He doesn’t seem to be stranding anyone on the bases. Maybe we will help him out with that since the 11.7 podcast guys think we leave too many guys on base.

In their first series, Samford went 1-2 against Memphis in a battle of well run and highly thought up southern cities. They’ve grabbed a couple mid-week wins against in state foes, Jacksonville State being the most notable. They lost last night to Alabama, who has been on a tear against D3 and club baseball teams all over the south so far this year. Seriously, f Alabama. The Pride of Hammond, America took two of three from them in the second weekend, but Samford finally got a weekend series victory against Morehead State last week.

The beer of the weekend is Sweetwater 420. I can’t find any Birmingham based beers I’ve ever had, so I’ll pay homage to Ty Floyd and Jared Jones with this choice. It’s a west coast style pale ale with an upfront bitterness and dank aroma. It’s a little hefty at 5.7%, especially when you drink it in the 16 oz can variety. It’s good for kayaking and otherwise being outdoors.

Pitching matchups, more links, etc coming later.

This post was edited on 3/9/23 at 4:57 pm