In the Baseball America Poll, Tigers are up to #19 from #20 last week. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/top25/2006top25.html 19. LOUISIANA STATE Last Week: 4-0. Overall: 6-1, 0-0 in SEC. (0-0 vs. Top 25). NOTES: Jrs. Clay Dirks (5 IP, 3 H, ER, 8 K) and Derik Olvey (7 IP, 3 H, ER) threw well, and Sr. 3B Will Harris totaled seven hits on the week, including two home runs in Sunday's win. Jr. C Matt Liuzza went 6-for-9 with five runs on the week. RESULTS: Feb. 14: Centenary: W 15-3 Feb. 17-19: Tennessee Tech: W 9-6, W 7-2, W 8-3 UPCOMING: Feb. 21: Southeastern Louisiana Feb. 24-26: Temple In the Collegiate Baseball Poll LSU is #15, up from #16 last week. http://www.collegiatebaseball.com/polls/divI/currentpolldivI.htm
This could shape up to be our best team we've had since '00. We may be weak on power but our hitting is much more solid all around, hopefully dirks, olvey can keep it together for the whole season.
It'll take time for the fans to get acclimated to a new style of offense. Long gone (no pun intended) are the days of "Gorilla ball". It's not that we aren't capable of getting those "heavy-hitters" to play for us--it's the fact that since they put regulations on the aluminum bats (alloys, weight/length, etc.--I honestly don't know all the specifics), the number of HR's are down for everyone. And teams like Texas and Cal State-Fullerton are showing that speed, defense and pitching is the new way to win a CWS. Since the bat changes, we can't just muscle our way to victories any more...we have to play defense and run the bases. We've been just behind in recruiting those types of players due to the old makeup (filled with HR hitters). Personally, I like the way they've been playing thus far--even if it's against North Florida, Tenn. Tech and Centenary....it's a step in the right direction. Seems like convidence is everything and with a young team like we have this year, getting off on the right foot and in the habbit of winning is the biggest key to success.
I'm not trying to be negative, but it seems like this is the same line we hear every year - "This is the best team we've had since X year." Over the years, I really haven't been sold on Smoke, but, like Les Miles, he's got some HUGE shoes to fill. Obviously, Smoke has had a longer time to fill them, but still. It's hard to follow in the footsteps of the man who practically made college baseball what it is today. Regardless, I'm eager to see Smoke prove me wrong. I'd like to see more of LSU in the CWS as opposed to just the first two games or, even worse, in the highlight reels of past years.
I remember that LSU's record breaking season was the reason for the bat change. I'm leaning towards home runs being down because of that.
The crackdown on roids in College is not as bad as you think. It would cost way too much to test all these kids. It is definitely the bats and the balls.
not only were the bats made smaller, but now its hard to get good power hitters, the majors draft just about every good power hitter straight from HS.
