We're up against the Mighty LSU Tigers in a best-of-three winner moves on, loser goes home.
The #10 ranked Tigers are 44-17 on the season after going 18-12 in the SEC. They rolled through their Regional last weekend with 3 quick wins to boost their home record to 27-9 on the season (.750). Overall they are 6-4 over their last 10 games played.
Some History
Looking at my ever handy Aggie media guide I found that these two teams have not met up since 1995. Their first meeting was in 1910 and since then the Ags are 15-10-1 against the Tigers. It is interesting to turn around and read in the 2003 LSU media guide that our first meeting was in 1907 and we're really 11-8-1 v. the Tigers in 20 games. It goes on to show the results of our games:1907 A&M 3 v. LSU 2 (@LSU) 1910 A&M 2 v. LSU 0 (@LSU) A&M 6 v. LSU 1 (@LSU) 1913 A&M 11 v. LSU 9 (@A&M) 1916 A&M 1 v. LSU 0 (@A&M) A&M 6 v. LSU 3 (@A&M) 1917 A&M 3 v. LSU 3 (@LSU) A&M 6 v. LSU 3 (@A&M) 1977 A&M 15 v. LSU 0 (@LSU) A&M 2 v. LSU 1 (@LSU) LSU 9 v. A&M 2 (@LSU) LSU 4 v. A&M 2 (@LSU) 1978 A&M 4 v. LSU 3 (@LSU) A&M 5 v. LSU 4 (@LSU) A&M 6 v. LSU 2 (@LSU) 1989 LSU 13 v. A&M 5 (College Station Regional) LSU 5 v. A&M 4 (College Station Regional) 1990 A&M 4 v. LSU 2 (@A&M) A&M 5 v. LSU 2 (@A&M) LSU 5 v. A&M 2 (@A&M) 1991 A&M 3 v. LSU 1 (@LSU) LSU 13 v. A&M 8 (@LSU) LSU 5 v. A&M 0 (@LSU) LSU 7 v. A&M 1 (Baton Rouge Regional) 1993 LSU 13 v. A&M 8 (College World Series; Omaha, NE) 1995 LSU 7 v. A&M 6 (Winn-Dixie Showdown; N.O., LA)I count that up as 15-10-1 in A&M's favor, which means both media guides are wrong in some aspect of it.
It is nice that regardless of which media guide you look at A&M holds the all-time series advantage but it's tough to forget that the Tigers have handed the Ags some of the most painful L's in school history.
In 1989 the Aggies rolled into the postseason ranked #1 for 11 weeks during that spring. With a season record of 58-5, it all came crashing down in a Sunday DHer as LSU beat A&M 13-5 in the opener and squeaked by 5-4 in the second game after 11 innings. One of the greatest teams in NCAA history were ousted without having a chance to play for the Championship in Omaha.
Four years later the Ags made it to the promised land only to find the LSU Tigers again who mounted a 13-8 come-from-behind victory sending the Ags into the loser's bracket as the Tigers went on to win their second of five national titles in a 10 year time span. The Ags led 8-6 after the 6th inning but gave up a run in the 7th and then fell apart allowing LSU to score 6 unanswered runs in the bottom of the 8th inning.
I suppose you could say that there is a little history between these two teams....
On a pretty insignificant note....while researching all that you just read, I found out that fellow Westfield High School Alum, Mike Sirotka, is also an LSU Tiger alum as he led the Tigers to their 1993 CWS Championship throwing 2 complete games during the CWS (he also pitched for the 1991 CWS Championship team). He broke the school record of career IP, with 372.0, and he tied the school record with 10 complete games, 8 of which came in his last 9 starts as a Tiger. His career CWS games looked like this:
Date IP H R ER SO/BB GSc 6/02/91 v. CSF 6.0 5 2 2 2/2 54 W 6/04/93 v. LBS 9.0 3 1 0 9/0 88 W 6/09/93 v. LBS 1.0 4 3 3 0/0 - L 6/11/93 v. LBS 9.0 9 5 2 8/6 57 W 3-1 record and a 2.52 ERANo one other than me got anything out of that last paragraph, but it's my site and I wanted to include it.Offense
LSU can flat out rake at the plate. As a team they hit .334 with a .513 SLG and a .401 OBP (if there was a player on the Ag roster with those exact stats they would rank #4 on the team in BA, #2 in SLG and #5 in OBP). Here are their offensive stats....LSU Tigers Hitting (>15 AB) Player AVG GP-GS AB R H HR XBH RBI SLG% BB SO OB% SB-ATT OPS GPA 1 J.C. Holt...... .396 61-61 255 69 101 5 26 48 .549 31 37 .467 20/91 1.016 .347 16 Jon Zeringue... .389 61-61 239 54 93 12 33 54 .636 26 35 .446 3/60 1.082 .360 3 Blake Gill..... .344 58-56 218 39 75 5 20 40 .500 25 15 .407 3/75 .907 .308 43 Nick Stavinoha. .341 55-54 217 44 74 8 26 42 .539 15 27 .382 3/60 .921 .307 12 Ryan Patterson. .341 61-61 276 67 94 13 36 61 .572 14 41 .384 6/86 .956 .316 25 Will Harris.... .329 51-44 155 34 51 6 15 35 .503 21 29 .416 0/00 .919 .313 14 Matt Liuzza.... .326 56-56 215 35 70 9 23 45 .516 20 32 .383 0/00 .899 .301 21 Clay Harris.... .295 61-61 234 48 69 7 23 49 .466 33 26 .383 2/100 .849 .289 7 Ivan Naccarata. .275 55-46 189 44 52 5 11 32 .386 27 28 .368 5/83 .754 .262 -------------- 9 Dustin Weaver.. .347 25-10 49 8 17 1 4 12 .469 3 3 .382 0/00 .851 .289 30 Bobby DiLiberto .333 13-1 18 4 6 3 4 8 .889 0 4 .333 0/00 1.222 .372 2 Derek Hebert... .278 32-21 90 22 25 1 6 6 .367 6 18 .320 1/100 .687 .236 34 Matt Horwath... .246 26-17 57 11 14 1 5 9 .368 11 16 .411 0/00 .779 .277Like I said, they're pretty good with the stick.Outfielder, Jon Zeringue, is their main man, as the numbers show. He was named by USA Today to their 1st Team All-American team.
Pitching
Their pitching staff gets cut a bit of slack when they get an average of 8.05 runs/game but they're still very solid....LSU Pitching (>10 IP) Player ERA W-L-S G/GS IP H R ER BB SO HR OppBA 13 Clay Dirks...... 3.35 8-2-1 16/13 80.2 79 40 30 17 66 5 .249 41 Nate Bumstead... 3.51 10-3-0 14/13 89.2 98 43 35 17 51 10 .275 35 Justin Meier.... 3.75 6-2-0 17/15 100.2 118 56 42 26 75 6 .294 46 Lane Mestepey... 3.80 6-3-0 18/12 85.1 102 41 36 25 40 11 .301 33 Jason Determann. 4.02 5-4-1 18/5 65.0 62 31 29 14 42 7 .259 -------------- 27 Greg Smith...... 2.43 2-0-1 21/0 29.2 26 8 8 12 33 1 .226 29 Jordan Faircloth 2.50 3-3-3 24/0 54.0 49 16 15 10 38 2 .253 28 Michael Bonura.. 4.59 4-0-0 13/3 33.1 33 20 17 22 29 4 .254As a team they are far from a push-over, but there doesn't appear to be a standout stud on the staff that will just throw lights out consistently....conversely there doesn't seem to be a guy on the staff that just comes out to clean up in messy games either. As indicated by their OppBA, they are hittable and by looking at their HRs allowed you can see that they have a tendency to give up the long ball.Here is what each of their pitchers has done over their team's last 10 games (listed by # of IP):
Nate Bumstead, Sr, RHP, 6'2", 210 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/16 5.0 6 3 3 4/0 19 19 64 47 5/22 7.2 6 4 1 6/3 29 33 60 6/05 9.0 8 2 2 6/2 35 38 126 67 Lane Mestepey, Jr, LHP, 6'0", 195 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/21 9.0 10 7 6 5/1 33 35 45 6/06 7.0 12 3 3 2/0 30 33 96 43 Justin Meier, So, RHP, 6'0", 215 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/26 6.1 8 4 4 9/2 23 28 48 6/04 9.0 7 0 0 9/0 32 37 117 82 Jordan Faircloth, Jr, RHP, 6'3", 210 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/19 1.1 1 0 0 2/0 5 5 18 - 5/22 1.1 1 0 0 0/1 5 6 - 5/26 0.2 0 0 0 0/0 2 2 - 5/27 8.1 7 1 1 2/1 31 33 66 6/06 2.0 1 0 0 0/1 6 7 21 - Jason Determann, So, LHP, 5'11", 175 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/23 4.1 4 2 2 3/1 15 17 - 5/26 3.0 1 1 1 3/1 9 11 - Clay Dirks, RS-Fr, LHP, 6'4", 230 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/16 1.1 4 4 4 1/0 7 9 37 - 5/19 2.0 2 0 0 3/2 8 11 48 - 5/23 3.1 6 2 2 2/2 15 20 40 Michael Bonura, Fr, RHP, 6'2", 170 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/16 1.0 1 1 1 1/0 4 4 12 - 5/19 4.2 6 2 2 2/2 20 23 77 44 Greg Smith, So, LHP, 6'2", 190 lbs Date IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc 5/16 1.2 1 0 0 0/1 7 8 40 - 5/23 1.1 3 2 2 2/0 7 7 - appearance during RegionalsLSU v. A&M Statistically
Let's look at a team comparison between the Tigers and #19 Texas A&M:Hitting G AB R HR XBH SB/% BA SLG OBP LSU 61 2233 491 76 232 43/78 .334 .513 .401 TAMU 62 2139 447 41 177 52/68 .303 .434 .384 Pitching G IP H R ER HR SO/BB ERA LSU 61 546.1 577 261 217 46 381/148 3.57 TAMU 62 545.1 528 278 239 26 481/207 3.94LSU in Regionals
In the Regionals LSU pretty much just rolled their competition (outscored'em 26-5 on the weekend). Those runs, however, were split up like this:
6/04 v. Army; W 9-0 6/05 v. Southern Mississippi; W 6-2 6/06 v. College of Charleson W 11-3Southern Mississippi was really their only competition but LSU handled them pretty well.Their players took 8 of the 12 spots on the Baton Rouge All-Regional team (P J.Meier, P N.Bumstead, C M.Liuzza, 1B W.Harris, SS B.Gill, OF J.Holt, OF J.Zeringue, & DH N.Stavinoha) including the Most Outstanding Player (Gill).
Common Opponents
The only three teams that both LSU and A&M have played are Texas State and U. of Houston & Arkansas.LSU played a 3 game series v. TxSt from Feb. 27th-29th at "The Box" and swept them 10-1, 2-1, & 13-2.
Here are the pitching performances during that series for LSU:
Friday 2/27 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc J.Meier ..... 7.1 4 1 1 2/2 27 30 101 66 J.Faircloth.. 1.2 2 0 0 2/1 7 8 26 - Saturday 2/28 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc L.Mestepey... 6.2 7 1 1 3/1 26 28 102 58 J.Determann.. 2.1 1 0 0 2/1 8 9 38 - Sunday 2/29 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc N.Bumstead... 6.0 4 2 2 3/1 22 24 85 58 G.Smith...... 2.0 3 0 0 1/0 9 9 31 - C.Smith...... 1.0 0 0 0 2/1 3 4 19 -LSU played Houston the following weekend at home (March 5th-7th) and went 2-1 against them (W 9-3, L 10-5, W 8-2).Here are their pitching performances during those games:
Friday 3/05 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc J.Meier...... 7.1 10 2 2 4/1 31 33 119 53 J.Determann.. 0.2 0 0 0 0/0 1 1 4 - W.Harris..... 1.0 2 1 1 0/2 5 7 38 - Saturday 3/06 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc L.Mestepey... 3.2 9 6 4 4/0 21 21 64 27 M.Bonura..... 2.2 3 3 1 3/4 12 16 68 - G.Smith...... 2.1 2 1 1 3/0 9 10 29 - J.Faircloth.. 0.1 0 0 0 0/0 0 0 5 - Sunday 3/07 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc N.Bumstead... 8.1 9 2 2 7/2 31 33 119 62 J.Determann.. 0.2 1 0 0 0/0 2 3 14 -Arkansas had LSU's number this year, sweeping the series AT "The Box" April 9th-11th (11-8, 11-10 (10), 7-5).LSU's pitching staff produced the following stats:
Friday 4/09 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc J.Meier...... 1.1 6 7 6 0/1 10 12 15 J.Faircloth.. 5.0 7 3 2 2/1 22 24 - L.Mestepey... 2.2 1 1 1 2/1 9 10 - Saturday 4/10 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc C.Dirks...... 4.0 7 6 5 3/0 20 21 81 29 J.Determann.. 5.1 6 3 1 2/2 21 24 77 - G.Smith...... 0.2 1 2 2 0/3 4 7 29 - Sunday 4/11 IP H R ER SO/BB AB BF NP GSc N.Bumstead... 7.2 12 7 6 2/1 35 36 128 30 G.Smith...... 1.1 1 0 0 2/0 5 5 18 -Drafted
Just incase you're wondering....LSU Player Pos Round Overall Team J.Zeringue OF 2nd 56 Arizona J.Holt 2B 3rd 101 Atlanta N.Bumstead RHP 32nd 943 Detroit B.Gill 2B 37th 1097 Cleveland Texas A&M Player Pos Round Overall Team Z.Jackson LHP 1-S 32 Toronto C.Patton OF 6th 177 Toronto J.Ruggiano OF 25th 748 L.A. E.Shindewolf 2B 26th 776 ArizonaGet Rowdy in Louisiana for me Ags! B.T.H.O. LSU! WHOOP!