Wrapping up LSU baseball's 4-0 week in Houston, 11-1 record

LSU finished its week with a 10-5 win over Texas State on State in Minute Maid Park in Houston, capping a stretch with four wins in six days with a total of 37 runs scored and just 16 allowed to some high-level competition.

The road win over Rice came first, then three straight games from Friday through Sunday included three tournament-caliber teams in Texas, ULL, and Texas State, challenging the Tigers before Jay Johnson’s team pulled out the wins.

LSU remains No. 3 in the latest D1Baseball poll, but it was a massive weekend for Johnson and LSU fans to see this team step up to high-level competition early in the season.

“I thought it was great. It was a good step forward,” Johnson said. “No matter how it went, we have a long way to go to be as good as we want to be, but we identified things we need to do to be really successful. It’s nothing new, but they should build a lot of confidence in being able to do those things. I’ll remember this weekend for a long time. Just being together for six days, being in a venue like this, in game atmospheres like these, and to finish it off against a great team, and we got better. No one thinks about that except for me, but we improved and we’re more connected which is a big step forward for us.”

Let’s take a look at the updates stats and standouts from the weekend.

At the plate

The Tigers are currently top 30 in the country in runs per game, walks, on base percentage, and batting average through 12 games. The lineup has changed from game to game, but the consistency has overall been impressive as LSU continues to navigate some challenging pitchers. 

Freshman Steven Milam has become a staple in the order, now with a team-high .405 batting average in 37 at bats also with eight walks. Hayden Travinski had a strong weekend as well, bumping up his average to .366. Sophomores Brady Neal and Jared Jones have become two of the more explosive bats on the team, with three and five home runs, respectively. Both have slugging percentages over .800.

Star third baseman Tommy White is still settling into the year, with a .327 batting average and just four extra base hits (two home runs, two doubles) in 49 at bats, but he had a massive home run against Texas to help keep the Horns at a distance in the seventh inning.

Ten players currently have over 25 at bats this season, then Alex Milazzo and Ethan Frey have 14 and 13 at bats, respectively. It’s an order that will continue to shuffle, but Johnson sees the development on hand and the talent to work with for the oncoming SEC season.

“Some days guys will bat in the three hole then not play or not play then hit in the four hole the next night,” Johnson said. “I like the pieces. I just wish there were more at bats for them. There will be over the course of their career at LSU and we have some good players and if they keep getting better we’ll be in a good spot.”

LSU’s Fielding

After two errors on the road in a blowout win over Rice, LSU bounced back with just two errors over the course of three games in Minute Maid Park, putting the Tigers at just seven total errors in 12 games and two were from pick off attempts earlier in the year. Statistically, shortstop Michael BRaswell has three errors in 30 attempts, dropping his fielding percentage to .900, but the defense has still been trustworthy for Johnson to the point where he’s hardly asked about it. 

Milam continues to shine at second base, with one error in 39 plays. Braswell, Milam, Jones, and Tommy White continue to build chemistry with one another, and plays like the double play against Texas State to halt momentum go a long way in developing confidence.

On the mound

It was more of the same from Luke Holman and Gage Jump, two pitchers who remain untouchable so far this season. Holman is up to three starts with 18 innings pitched and still zero earned runs allowed, just eight hits and two walks to go with 30 strikeouts. 

Jump has only thrown 8.1 innings with two starts, but has yet to allow a run and only given up three hits with 11 strikeouts.

On day three, Thatcher Hurd faced a quality Texas State lineup and went five innings only allowing two earned runs and seven hits with five strikeouts and a walk. It wasn’t a perfect outing, but it was more than enough with the way LSU was swinging the bat on Sunday.

“What a luxury to be able to roll him out there in game three of this tournament,” Johnson said of Hurd. “He was an outing or two away from being an All-American last year if you look at the full body of work and I think the best is yet to come. I don’t know where we’re going with the rotation, but if that’s your closing starter on a weekend, it’s good for the Tigers.”

The three relief pitchers to get multiple innings were Nate Ackenhausen vs. Texas, Justin Loer vs. ULL, and Javen Coleman against Texas State. Johnson has talked about the depth of options in the bullpen, but this weekend was a great example for how Johnson could approach SEC series in the coming weeks. 

Here’s the full stats outlook.

What’s next for LSU

LSU is back at it with another road mid-week game, this time a short drive over to Southeastern on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.

Then, the Tigers come back to face Xavier on Friday-Sunday in a three-game series.

Johnson talked at length about how great he feels with his pitching, but it’s clear as the competition continues to rise, the bats will need more timely hits and consistency for LSU to push for the top spot in the country. A lot of questions were answered this weekend in the Tiger’s first weekend of high-level competition of the season and now it’s about building from here with SEC play just 11 days away.

“There’s always room for improvement, we know that,” Josh Pearson said. “We have to get back to practice and we have a big game against Southeastern and then Xavier on the weekend, so we just have to come prepared every single day. Guys know their roles and you don’t hear any complaints because they’re all just ready to go.”