Gorilla ball made a return to Alex Box Stadium, LSU had a walkoff home run to complete the sweep, and a lot of other things happened in the series against Tennessee. Let’s take a look back at the weekend that was and grade out the Tigers’ performance.
Offense: A+
Is Gorilla Ball back for the long term at LSU? Probably not, but what we saw on the diamond this weekend was a throwback to just that. The Tigers blasted seven home runs (three just from Jake Slaughter) and batted .374 as a team. Simply put, this was the best weekend by LSU offensively in some time.
Infield Defense: D-
The infield committing five errors, three of them in the series finale on Sunday was too much for a team of this caliber. If not for the ninth inning collapse, the Volunteers would’ve taken game three.
Outfield Defense: B
Another good weekend for the outfield with no errors.
Weekend Rotation: B+
Paul Mainieri has tinkered around with the weekend rotation and they all had decent outings. Hess was an absolute stud on Friday allowing one run off of three hits and struck out eight on Friday. Hilliard had another good outing that was helped by a big offensive outburst. Devin Fontenot had a good two innings, but it was expected that the series finale would be a Jack/Johnny Wholestaff outing. With that in mind, the total performance by the weekend rotation looked pretty good.
Bullpen: C-
The bullpen on the other hand was a little rough, combining to allow 10 runs off of 12 hits and walked nine over the weekend. If not for the aforementioned offense’s performance, the series would’ve been more competitve.
Overall Grade: B+
-Clint Domingue