A LSU fan's perspective. I stole this from the rant. Some good statistics here.

[Saltydog]

Thought some of you may enjoy this.


MSU was 20/41 (.488) with 2 outs on the weekend. These 20 hits produced 22 runs. Twenty two! two out runs. They scored 33 total.

MSU hit 31 singles. THIRTY ONE singles. in 3 games. LSU had more extra base hits (12) than state (11) on the weekend.


Obviously, our performance at the plate, in the field and on the mound left a lot to be desired. But I think we really ran into a team that just wasn't going to be beaten this weekend. That said; the way MSU scored runs this weekend simply isn't sustainable - and I don't think any team will do that to LSU again this season (nor will MSU do that consistently). I'm not saying I don't think we'll be beaten, but it won't be by 31 singles and 20 2 out hits.

To add insult to injury, LSU was 7/32 (.219) with 2 outs. We also left 26 on base on the weekend.

There wasn't much LSU did well this weekend, so I know it's hard to be optimistic. Holman didn't have his best stuff, and without 3 unearned runs he gets through 5 innings with us up 3-1. Ack shut the door quickly in a save situation. Tommy seems to have gotten back on track after a slow (for him) start to the season - 5/13 3 HR, 7 RBI. Braswell had a nice weekend at the plate - 4/10 with 2 doubles and 3 walks.

[Santiago]

They are probably better than this weekend , but not nearly as good as they thought they were on last Friday morning before the series.
The HC tactics of talking to his batter to slow down our pitcher's rhythm, etc. Also the HC trying to force the umpire to make our pitcher on Sunday switch back to right hand, after Parker had the initial mound visit to discuss with arm to throw with.
All their chirping at our players.

All that - I am glad to just see our team answer all that with hits and gritty play.

[msstate7]

He has a good point on sustainability. It's very unlikely (basically impossible) that we hit over .400 with 2 outs. I do think we have improved immensely though, so hopefully we keep finding ways to win

[confucius say]

He has a good point on sustainability. It's very unlikely (basically impossible) that we hit over .400 with 2 outs. I do think we have improved immensely though, so hopefully we keep finding ways to win

Agreed. But we could hit better with 0 or 1 outs.

I personally don't think lsu finishes above .500 in sec play. They are lucky not to have gotten swept.

[MaroonFlounder]

I've been against the tapping the chest thing with 2 strikes, but for the first time since what seems like 2021, we got several hits with 2 strikes (and 2 outs)

I've been down on Gaut, but we've also seen years that the hitting got better and better as the season went along. Hope the trend continues

[TNDawg35]

We played with swag. We coached with swag. We played Mississippi State baseball. Period…

LSU is lucky Cheese sent Larry Sat and gave them that out or they would have gotten swept. Don’t get me wrong, they are a good team, but we were just better. That’s baseball. I haven’t seen the emotion we played with this wknd In a long time.

[Commercecomet24]

We played with swag. We coached with swag. We played Mississippi State baseball. Period…

LSU is lucky Cheese sent Larry Sat and gave them that out or they would have gotten swept. Don’t get me wrong, they are a good team, but we were just better. That’s baseball. I haven’t seen the emotion we played with this wknd In a long time.

100%!

[Santiago]

100%!

I missed seeing this play, but was it a good call to send Larry home?

Playing A&M , we just need to play without errors, and run bases well, and we compete with anyone.

[Commercecomet24]

I missed seeing this play, but was it a good call to send Larry home?

Playing A&M , we just need to play without errors, and run bases well, and we compete with anyone.

With Dakota coming up they probably wouldve walked him to pitch to Hines. I'm sure a lot of folks would've wanted us to hold him at thrid, but I coached third a lot of years and I would've sent him, it was a tough throw and a great play by the catcher. With one out I would've held him but with 2 outs, you only get so many opportunities to score late and it's hard to pass up that chance, IMO. If you're aggressive(not stupid) on the bases you're gonna create more runs than you lose

[Coach34]

With Dakota coming up they probably wouldve walked him to pitch to Hines. I'm sure a lot of folks would've wanted us to hold him at thrid, but I coached third a lot of years and I would've sent him, it was a tough throw and a great play by the catcher. With one out I would've held him but with 2 outs, you only get so many opportunities to score late and it's hard to pass up that chance, IMO. If you're aggressive(not stupid) on the bases you're gonna create more runs than you lose

I likely hold him there because of who we had coming up plus the throw was just at the front of the bullpen. It wasnt a hard throw from 125 feet. Butttt if he had scored then Cheese is a genius. Thats the way it works.

The big key was- and I knew this going in- you want to play LSU early. LSU in March and LSU in May are usually two different animals

[Todd4State]

With Dakota coming up they probably wouldve walked him to pitch to Hines. I'm sure a lot of folks would've wanted us to hold him at thrid, but I coached third a lot of years and I would've sent him, it was a tough throw and a great play by the catcher. With one out I would've held him but with 2 outs, you only get so many opportunities to score late and it's hard to pass up that chance, IMO. If you're aggressive(not stupid) on the bases you're gonna create more runs than you lose

I don't have a problem with us trying to score. Especially in that situation. LSU just made the play unfortunately.

[BrunswickDawg]

With Dakota coming up they probably wouldve walked him to pitch to Hines. I'm sure a lot of folks would've wanted us to hold him at thrid, but I coached third a lot of years and I would've sent him, it was a tough throw and a great play by the catcher. With one out I would've held him but with 2 outs, you only get so many opportunities to score late and it's hard to pass up that chance, IMO. If you're aggressive(not stupid) on the bases you're gonna create more runs than you lose

I agree. Worst case you have bang bang play for an out, then have your 3-4 hitters coming up the next inning. But, I only do that with 2 outs. Plays like that are when I wish you could still run over catchers LOL!

[Commercecomet24]

I likely hold him there because of who we had coming up plus the throw was just at the front of the bullpen. It wasnt a hard throw from 125 feet. Butttt if he had scored then Cheese is a genius. Thats the way it works.

The big key was- and I knew this going in- you want to play LSU early. LSU in March and LSU in May are usually two different animals

If they guaranteed me Dakota would get to hit and not get ibb, I would think about holding him. I'm pretty sure they ibb Dakota and bring in a lefty to face Hines, and even though Hines is hitting better I'd still take my chances sending Larry. I can absolutely understand your thinking on holding Larry, though. Thats another thing that's so great about the game of baseball, you don't have to stick with just one philosphy to be successful. Send or hold him I don't think it's the wrong answer either way. You force lsu you to make a hurried play and they made it. The throw wasn't great but the catcher made a heckuva snag and dive to make that play.

[basedog]

Agreed. But we could hit better with 0 or 1 outs.

I personally don't think lsu finishes above .500 in sec play. They are lucky not to have gotten swept.

As of today, Lsu has pitching problem. I will say it again, they looked kinda like our pitching staff the last couple of years. They like most Sec teams will be ok playing at home, we shall see how the road treats them as well us Msu.

[basedog]

If they guaranteed me Dakota would get to hit and not get ibb, I would think about holding him. I'm pretty sure they ibb Dakota and bring in a lefty to face Hines, and even though Hines is hitting better I'd still take my chances sending Larry. I can absolutely understand your thinking on holding Larry, though. Thats another thing that's so great about the game of baseball, you don't have to stick with just one philosphy to be successful. Send or hold him I don't think it's the wrong answer either way. You force lsu you to make a hurried play and they made it. The throw wasn't great but the catcher made a heckuva snag and dive to make that play.

24 my man, you know you can't think about sending or staying on third base, LOL. Cheese didn't think about it, when the play was over I thought why run with Jordan up? I was thinking but it was ahead of running him., LOL!

[Commercecomet24]

24 my man, you know you can't think about sending or staying on third base, LOL. Cheese didn't think about it, when the play was over I thought why run with Jordan up? I was thinking but it was ahead of running him., LOL!

Oh yeah i know you can't think you have to react or youre dead, however i always played scenarios out from pitch to pitch to already have a plan in mind, but Jordan wouldn't have hit anyways, lol.

Gotta be at least 2 steps ahead. Bobby Cox used to call that going deep.

[Ranchdawg]

Reading the the Tiger rant and to a lesser degree the SEC rant was glorious. They truly believe State is so inferior to them. That we are the bottom dwellers of the SEC. One guy even pulled out that our Natty was not a true Natty because of Covid and N.C. State was robbed. They are only second to ole miss in despising everything about them. I did a lot growing on the west end of the Ms. Gulf coast and have had to listen how superior they think they are most of my life.

[somebodyshotmypaw]

He brings up some very valid points. Our 2-out hitting will not be that good every weekend. It just can't be. We will not score over 30 runs every series. At the same time, we won't start Siary every Game 1 for the rest of the year, and we won't have bad starting pitching every Game 2 for the rest of the year. Things will work out. We just need to keep grinding, keep improving, and keep competing. There is a closer distance between 11-19 and 18-12 than many realize.

[R2Dawg]

With Dakota coming up they probably wouldve walked him to pitch to Hines. I'm sure a lot of folks would've wanted us to hold him at thrid, but I coached third a lot of years and I would've sent him, it was a tough throw and a great play by the catcher. With one out I would've held him but with 2 outs, you only get so many opportunities to score late and it's hard to pass up that chance, IMO. If you're aggressive(not stupid) on the bases you're gonna create more runs than you lose

We got real weapons with Jordan and Hines back to back. You gonna have to pitch to one of them. Hines had 3 HR on weekend. Just not good answer. Not many teams can line that up. We are talented all over the field. We flat looked like an Omaha team this weekend. We ain't there yet but I can at least see it now. We've sent worse teams to Omaha.

[R2Dawg]

He brings up some very valid points. Our 2-out hitting will not be that good every weekend. It just can't be. We will not score over 30 runs every series. At the same time, we won't start Siary every Game 1 for the rest of the year, and we won't have bad starting pitching every Game 2 for the rest of the year. Things will work out. We just need to keep grinding, keep improving, and keep competing. There is a closer distance between 11-19 and 18-12 than many realize.

Ok so instead of beating them 15-5, we beat them 9-5 with a lower ave 2 out hitting. Just narrative spin on how bad we beat them by LSU.

[Commercecomet24]

We got real weapons with Jordan and Hines back to back. You gonna have to pitch to one of them. Hines had 3 HR on weekend. Just not good answer. Not many teams can line that up. We are talented all over the field. We flat looked like an Omaha team this weekend. We ain't there yet but I can at least see it now. We've sent worse teams to Omaha.

We're starting to get our scrappiness and swag back. We've got some real ballers this year. Need to build on this weekend but love what I saw.

[Mjoelner34]

A few things......

#1: I would have sent Larry home 100% of the time with 2 outs in that situation. As the IB used to say, force the fielders to make the play. Unfortunately they did.

#2: The nuts dropped for Aaron Downs and Nolan Stevens this weekend. Several Dawgs had a great weekend but those two really stepped up and looked good.

#3: To give some credit to the other side, Tommy Tanks still looks like Tommy Tanks but you may can start adding Tommy Leather too. Dude made some incredible plays at 3rd that he wouldn't have had a chance of making last year.

[Commercecomet24]

A few things......

#1: I would have sent Larry home 100% of the time with 2 outs in that situation. As the IB used to say, force the fielders to make the play. Unfortunately they did.

#2: The nuts dropped for Aaron Downs and Nolan Stevens this weekend. Several Dawgs had a great weekend but those two really stepped up and looked good.

#3: To give some credit to the other side, Tommy Tanks still looks like Tommy Tanks but you may can start adding Tommy Leather too. Dude made some incredible plays at 3rd that he wouldn't have had a chance of making last year.

Great minds think alike and all that!

[somebodyshotmypaw]

Ok so instead of beating them 15-5, we beat them 9-5 with a lower ave 2 out hitting. Just narrative spin on how bad we beat them by LSU.

Yep. You are correct. Every series something will bounce your way, and something won't. In this series our 2-out hitting was extraordinary to a point that it won't stay like that for the year. However, we only got 5.0 combined innings pitched (giving up 8 earned runs) from our Game 1 and Game 2 starters. That also won't stay like that for the year. So it tends to even out. The bottom line is that we won 2 out of 3. And we did it without Dohm (our #1 starter), Auger (our closer), Holcombe (great stuff but needs to work out kinks), and Loftin (SEC weekend starter stuff that needs to work out kinks). The LSU guy doesn't mention that.

We have holes. Everyone does. We need Kohler to get some extra base hits. We need Chance/Downs/Stevens to hit in leftfield (they have done so lately). We need Long/Powell to hit enough in the 8 or 9-hole. We need Dohm healthy. We just won 2 of 3, and I think we can still improve a good bit. This team has potential if they keep working and improving.

[The Federalist Engineer]

He has a good point on sustainability. It's very unlikely (basically impossible) that we hit over .400 with 2 outs. I do think we have improved immensely though, so hopefully we keep finding ways to win

I'm glad we got lucky on LSU, it seems they always get lucky on MSU.

In game-2, the LSU throw to the plate was a dropped ball. The LSU kid was fishing a ball under Amani Larry. LSU got super lucky that no camera angle could prove what was obviously the case.

Also, Tommy White looked like a Hall of Fame 3B-man this weekend. He is usually good for 2 errors. That was lucky for them, bad for MSU.