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May 24, 2010
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LSU Baseball Season: very disappointing
LSU baseball finished a very disappointing regular
season on a losing note Saturday as they lost to
Mississippi State 2-1.
LSU had won the two
previous games with State to clinch the eighth place
seed in the SEC tournament.
It is nice that the
Tigers will be able to advance to post-season play.
And as we all know
anything can happen when you get to the second
season.
However, this is not the
way Tiger players, coaches, and fans thought this
season would play out.
The Tigers started the
SEC season 11-4 and finished 14-16.
That means they went
3-12 in their last five series or the last half of
the season.
Everyone is wondering, “What happened?”
I personally think the
answer is pretty obvious.
They started with two
all-American pitchers from last season, Anthony
Ranaudo and Matty Ott.
Ranaudo gets hurt to
start the season and never comes back to last
season's form.
Most people don't
remember that Ott finished last season with elbow
trouble.
You have to wonder if it
ever completely healed or if he was just
uncomfortable in throwing after the injury.
The other big gun returning was Blake Dean.
When he came back for
his senior season every Tiger fan thought that he
would be the anchor and terror at the plate in the
middle of the Tiger's line-up.
The reality is that he
only hit .275 in conference play and only had five
SEC home runs.
And how many times did
he leave runners on in scoring position this season?
Also, LSU only had forty home runs in SEC play.
That just isn't enough.
The history of LSU
baseball says that you erase a lot of mistakes with
the three-run homer.
This season the
three-run homer was very scarce.
The bottom line is that veteran players LSU was
counting on just didn't produce the way they were
expected to.
That means you have a
disappointing season and have to struggle just to
qualify for the SEC tournament.
Now that LSU is in the tournament, what can they do?
This past weekend Anthony Ranaudo looked as
good as he has looked all season.
If he can throw like that Wednesday against
Florida, the Tigers could make some serious noise in
the SEC tournament.
The history of the tournament says lower
seeds win a lot of first round games.
The higher seeds are already guaranteed an
NCAA invite.
The lower seeds are still trying to impress the
selection committee. My guess is that LSU will
squeak by Florida in a close game.
That should guarantee an NCAA bid if they
don't already have one.
This team does have some talent and hopefully
they can put it together in the post-season in order
to salvage a very disappointing regular season.
Until next time,
may the good Lord Bless and keep you.
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