LSU Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri Announces Weekend Rotation for Indiana Series

It was a newsworthy Friday presser for coach Paul Mainieri, who after weeks of back and forth, finally decided on a weekend rotation for the Tigers opening series against Indiana.

LSU will roll with sophomore Cole Henry on Friday, sophomore Landon Marceaux on Saturday and sophomore AJ Labas on Sunday. Marceaux and Labas had been battling it out with senior Eric Walker for the weekend rotation and the sophomores ultimately showed Mainieri enough over the last few weeks to earn the jobs.

"They're [Labas and Marceaux] are both so close in abilities that it could've easily been the other way around but we ended the season with Landon in game No. 2 so he's got a little bit more big game experience," Mainieri said. "I just thought that game two is such a pivotal game in a weekend series that we ought to go with a guy that had a little bit more experience."

Mainieri said that the team obviously won't trot out its starters and throw them 120 pitches right off the bat but the hope is they can go four or five innings before turning it over to the bullpen.

What was interesting is that Mainieri also said the team hasn't decided on a midweek starter. It was presumed that whichever pitcher lost out on the weekend rotation would slide into the midweek starter role but that doesn't seem to be the case yet.

LSU is in a tricky spot to start the year as it has midweek games on both Tuesday and Wednesday after the Indiana series when normally there's only one midweek game. With LSU planning to use most of its bullpen over the weekend against Indiana it could lead to some tricky maneuvering come the Tuesday and Wednesday games.

"We're going to have to get through this weekend first. You don't expect your starting pitchers to go deep into the game opening weekend. So I have a feeling we're going to be using virtually everybody out of the bullpen necessary. Then after the weekend is over, we'll just kind of re-evaluate where we are as to who's available and who isn't."

Mainieri also dropped some hints about what a potential lineup could look like come Feb. 14.

LSU is toying with the idea of three different potential lineups. Mainieri said there is a lineup based on experience, a lineup that consists of the Tigers best defensive infield and offensive outfield and a lineup that consists of LSU's best offensive infield and defensive outfield.

"I generally like to play the most experienced lineup on opening day just because for some of the young kids, they get here on opening day and 12,000 people are here, it's kind of an eye opener for them," Mainieri said. "We'll probably end up playing at least one freshman, possibly two and then a new player with Zack Mathis so it'll be a little bit unavoidable."