LSU Baseball Holds Steady in Latest Polls After Up and Down Week
After a strong finish to a week that started very poorly for LSU baseball, the Tigers held steady at the No. 11 ranking that it entered the week with.
LSU took the last two games from Eastern Kentucky by a combined score of 16-5 to end the week with a 5-3 record. The Tigers ranked behind SEC schools Florida (No. 1), Vanderbilt (No. 2), Georgia (No. 4), Arkansas (No. 6) and Mississippi State (No. 8).
Other SEC schools to rank in the top-25 were Ole Miss (No. 15), Texas A&M (No. 18), Auburn (No. 20) and Tennessee (No. 24).
The Tigers finally found some consistent offense in the final two days against Eastern Kentucky, something coach Paul Mainieri hopes can continue into this week. LSU has a midweek game against Louisiana Tech on Wednesday and then travel to Houston for the "Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic," where the team will take on Texas, Baylor and Oklahoma.
""It was nice to get some big hits today and put up a big crooked number," Mainieri said of the offense. "I think it'll be coming here, we're still early in the season and guys are still getting their swings down and their confidence down but today I think was a big step in the right direction."
"I think we finally showed what we are capable of at the plate today," Beloso said. "Hitting is contagious and that's what Eddie [Smith] preaches everyday is just to believe and compete in yourself and that's what we did today. When things weren't going well none of us freaked out but we all felt great today. We stuck to the plan and good things happened."
LSU dropped one spot in the Baseball America poll to No. 14 and fell from No. 20 to No. 22 in the Perfect Game poll.