BATON ROUGE – Freshmen are eligible in college baseball, but there will not be any in LSU’s batting order when the No. 2 seed Tigers (53-10) play in the College World Series against No. 7 seed Texas Christian University (49-13) at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
Members of one of the more veteran position lineups in LSU’s glimmering history in Omaha, Nebraska, hope their advancing years advances the Tigers to the final days of the CWS.
“As far as the everyday lineup, it’s our oldest team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said LSU assistant coach Will Davis, who is in his eighth season as a coach and played on the Tigers’ 2004 World Series team. “We’ve got four seniors, four juniors and a sophomore in the starting lineup. That’s old in college baseball. We’ve got a lot of young guys on the pitching staff, but as far as the position players that’s a veteran lineup.”
The seniors are catcher Kade Scivique, who is third on the team in batting average at .347 and fourth in RBIs with 45 and home runs with six, third baseman Conner Hale, who is second in RBIs with 56 and fourth in batting average at .343, second baseman Jared Foster, who is second in home runs with nine, and designated hitter/outfielder Chris Sciambra, who is one of eight .300 hitters at .309 and is coming off one of the most dramatic home runs in LSU postseason history. Sciambra’s solo homer in the bottom of the ninth Saturday beat Louisiana-Lafayette, 4-3, in the first game of the Super Regional.
The juniors are led by shortstop Alex Bregman, the highest drafted position player in LSU history at No. 2 overall by the Houston Astros on Monday. He is second on the team with nine home runs, third in RBIs with 49 and first in stolen bases with 37. Junior Andrew Stevenson of Youngsville leads LSU with a .356 average and with five triples while he is second in stolen bases with 26. A second round pick of the Washington Nationals on Monday, he is considered the best center field in the country. Junior first baseman Chris Chinea leads the team with 11 homers and 58 RBIs. Junior right fielder Mark Laird of Monroe would likely be playing center field on virtually every other team in the nation. He is fifth on the team with a .323 average and is third in stolen bases with 23.
The youngest everyday player is sophomore Jake Fraley, who is hitting .308 on the season.
“We’re going to take a veteran approach at it, and hopefully that works out for us,” Scivicque said. “We’re a veteran squad with a bunch of guys who’ve been to Omaha before so they know how it is.”
Of the starting nine, three – Bregman, Stevenson and Laird – started as freshman the last time LSU played in the College World Series in 2013 when the Tigers went 0-for-2 in their first appearance in the spacious TD Ameritrade Park, which had just opened in 2011.
“We have experience this time,” Stevenson said. “That was the first College World Series for all of us in ’13. But for this year’s squad, we have a core of veteran guys who’ve been there. I think that’s really going to help us.”
Foster played as a backup as a freshman at the CWS in 2013 while starting 15 times and playing in 42 games overall. He hit .346 in in SEC games and hit a two-run homer in the NCAA Regional opening win over Jackson State. Sciambra did not play in the CWS, but he started 23 games and played in 46. His pinch-hit single in the top of the 11th beat Vanderbilt, 5-4, in the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game.
“We won’t be as wide-eyed as we all were in Omaha two years ago,” Sciambra said. “TD Ameritrade, it was such a big, massive park with fans way up in the sky. So, it was such a big stage even compared to Alex Box. It’s a different ballpark than we were used to. It’s beautiful and brand new, but it’s not like cozy. We’ll be ready this time.”
LSU’s last two national championship teams in 2009 and 2000 were veteran outfits. The ’09 champions had four juniors in the starting lineup in outfielder/first baseman Ryan Schimpf, designated hitter Blake Dean, right fielder Jared Mitchell and first baseman Sean Ochinko. Starting pitcher and reliever Louis Coleman was a senior as were pitchers Nolan Cain and Ryan Byrd.
The 2000 champions had four senior starters in catcher Brad Cresse, who had the walk-off single in the ninth to beat Stanford, 6-5, in the title game, third baseman Blair Barbier, who had a crucial home run in the eighth inning of that game, outfielder Jeremy Witten, who hit the game-tying, two-run home run in the eighth of that game, and pitcher Trey Hodges, who won two games in that CWS and was named the MVP. Starting pitchers Hunter Gomez and Ben Saxon were also seniors.
There were three junior starters in first baseman Brad Hawpe, center fielder Cedrick Harris and right fielder Ray Wright, who robbed Stanford of a home run in the title game, and frequently used backup outfielder – the late Johnnie Thibodeaux. Staff ace Brian Tallet was also a junior.
“I think if you look at the history of the College World Series, the teams that have succeeded there have had a senior presence,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “But it’s hard to have seniors because most of the good ones get drafted and leave as juniors. So when you have seniors like we have, it’s pretty much a luxury. Our seniors weren’t ready for pro ball last year, but they’ve improved a lot in a year.”
LSU national champion teams in 1997, ’96, ’93 and ’91 were also very junior- and senior-laden.
“When you have that 22-year-old guy that’s not quite in awe of things as a younger player might be, it gives a sense of composure and poise to your team,” Mainieri said. “We don’t have that many guys who have had the experience of playing in the College World Series, but when you have some older presence on your team, that makes a big difference.”
Via- Glenn Guilbeau, Gannett Louisiana