2017 NCAA Super Regional Preview: Mississippi State-LSU

MISSISSIPPI STATE-LSU

Hosted by LSU • Alex Box Stadium • Baton Rouge, LA
Follow the action on Twitter: @LSUbaseball | @HailStateBB

Mississippi State (40-25) at LSU (46-17)
Saturday
9 p.m. (ESPN2)
Sunday
9 p.m. (ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Monday
TBA

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LSU

Greg Deichmann (Photo by John Korduner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Coach: Paul Mainieri
Postseason History: 13th super regional appearance (third straight). Seeking 18th trip to Omaha.
Postseason Route: No. 1 seed in Baton Rouge Regional (No. 4 national seed). Went 3-0, defeating No. 3 seed Rice 5-0 in regional final.

Scouting Report
(anonymous coach breaks down the Tigers)

“You’ve got a lot of experience on the field. They’re an older club that understands how to win. From the first pitch, they’re wide open and they’re coming after you. When you look at them from the defensive side of baseball, their position players are athletic, can really defend. It bleeds over to the plate, where they all have really good approaches, they’re tough to strike out, they’re competitive, they have flat swings that stay in the middle of the field. And when they get on the base paths, whether it’s hit-and-run, straight steal, there are some guys who can create some havoc. Of course, you’ve got Deichmann in middle that can hit the ball 500 feet. It’s a good mix of some guys that are athletic guys that can run, they’ve got some guys that can hit the ball out of the yard and a team defensively that’s really, really strong and can make plays and make a difference with their glove.

“On the mound, obviously it starts with Alex Lange. He’s a winner, he’s a competitor. Obviously, toward the back end of the season, he really hit his stride where he was commanding his fastball and his breaking ball for a strike. Two plus pitches and when he’s doing that, he’s as good as anyone in the country if you want to run out somebody out there to win a baseball game. In the back end, they have the experienced closer, Newman. The stuff isn’t overwhelming, but the situation is never too big. I think the key to their bullpen is (Zach) Hess. It’s real stuff. I think he’s going to be a guy for the next couple years in this league. It’s quality stuff and it’s tough. You go to the rest of their weekend rotation, Poche’ has been around, has a ton of experience, a ton of starts, pitched in regionals, super regionals, Omaha, all that kind of stuff, and is as tough a kid as you’ll find. Their Sunday starter, Walker, a freshman, has done a tremendous job for them. A really athletic kid who has a feel for pitching, has a feel for disrupting hitters’ timing. When you look at the complete package, you’ve got three guys that can walk out there and give you a chance to win, obviously a very good chance with Lange.

“Get everybody else out around (Deichmann). The biggest thing for me is he started handling left-on-left (matchups) better this year. I think he has a better approach as far as a feel to hit as opposed to coming out of his shoes on every swing. I think he realizes he has power and doesn’t have to create it. Like a lot of good, older hitters there’s not a pattern. You have to pitch him different each time and you have to make adjustments because he’s smart enough to guess with you. He’s smart enough to figure out what you’re trying to do to him and he’ll get you. He’s a mature guy who understands himself, has power and you really have to mix up the ways you’re going to attack him each at bat.

“The thing about Alex Box Stadium is you talk about the crowd, but the one thing the crowd does is the crowd gives the team energy. The crowd, they cheer to make things happen and to create opportunities for the kids and for the teams. The older players understand how to feed off that.”

Pos.	Name	Bats	Yr.	Avg.	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB
C	Michael Papierski	S	Jr.	.255	.411	.443	8	31	37	41	4
1B	Nick Coomes	R	Jr.	.296	.396	.400	2	24	17	23	1
2B	Cole Freeman	R	Sr.	.333	.435	.426	2	39	25	18	18
3B	Josh Smith	L	Fr.	.29	.411	.416	4	43	32	28	5
SS	Kramer Robertson	R	Sr.	.317	.418	.504	8	41	34	25	7
OF	Antoine Duplantis	L	So.	.319	.364	.403	1	54	15	25	18
OF	Zach Watson	S	Fr.	.316	.372	.519	8	34	14	35	9
OF	Greg Deichmann	L	Jr.	.322	.430	.614	19	69	47	51	5
DH	Beau Jordan	R	Jr.	.275	.350	.380	3	25	13	26	0
Pos.	Name	Throws	Yr.	W	L	SV	ERA	IP	BB	SO	AVG
SP	Alex Lange	R	Jr.	9	5	0	2.87	103.1	34	124	.240
SP	Jared Poche’	R	Sr.	10	3	0	3.13	95	32	63	.231
SP	Eric Walker	R	Fr.	8	1	0	3.46	93.2	23	78	.232
RP	Hunter Newman	R	Sr.	1	1	10	1.11	24.1	14	25	.193

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Brent Rooker

Mississippi State

Coach: Andy Cannizaro
Postseason History: 7th super regional appearance (second straight). Seeking 10th trip to Omaha.
Postseason Route: No. 2 seed in Hattiesburg Regional. Lost first game to South Alabama. Won four straight, beating Southern Mississippi 8-6 in regional final.

Scouting Report
(anonymous coach breaks down the Bulldogs)

“The pitching staff is Pilkington and whoever they feel is the hot guy after that. (Pitching coach Gary) Henderson deserves a boatload of credit for what he’s done with the situation they were in with all the Tommy John (surgeries), all the guys that went down. I think it’s really helped Cannizaro to have a guy that’s been a head coach in the SEC for so many years in that dugout. You can’t put a value on the experience that he brought over there and then essentially piecemealed on games two and three and bullpen-wise with that pitching staff.

“Get lucky. I don’t know if there’s any one way to pitch (Rooker). You’ve got to kind of outthink him a little bit. There’s a lot of times guys will sit offspeed and they still won’t hit it. He’s a guy if he sits offspeed looks like with his timing and everything he’s hitting a fastball. If you make any kind of mistake and he’s sitting on it he’s going to murder it. He’s so strong. The way to get him out is he has to get himself out. You hope you can throw a pitch around the zone and get him to chase. You can’t pattern him, because if you pattern him he’s going to eventually figure it out and he’s going to kill it. You need to be a guy who has at least three pitches that you can effectively make the odds really low that he’ll guess right. A three- or four-pitch mix. I can’t let that guy beat me. If I had to walk him with a runner on first, first and second, game on the line, I would do it. He’s going to sit on his pitches and if you make a slight mistake with the pitch he’s sitting on he’s going to kill it. He doesn’t seem to miss. And that’s obviously what’s made him so good. He can get a little pull happy at times. If he’s hitting balls up the middle, then you better think about walking him. If he’s pulling everything then you’ve got a chance because he may be a little overanxious. But if he all of a sudden smokes one into right center or center field, he’s turning on the offspeed stuff and hitting fastballs (up the middle), you’re in trouble.

“Mangum was that guy who is just scrappy. He’ll put a bunt down when he needs to. It just seemed like every time he hit a ball he found a hole. MacNamee was starting to go. It’s the top of the order, if they can get some runs they kind of piecemeal it from there at the bottom.

“They’ve got some guy sin that lineup that can scare you. They can run into some balls. But they’re going to have to score runs because outside of Pilkington they’re going to need that. LSU right now seems like they’re clicking on everything. Lange’s got it figured out, Poche’ isn’t as hot as he was in the beginning of the year and (Eric Walker) may be pitching the best of the bunch. Their lineup is just relentless. They’re going to get to your bullpen and then they’re really going to put up numbers. Every inning it seems like they can put up a crooked number.”

Pos.	Name	Bats	Yr.	Avg.	OBP	SLG	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB
C	Josh Lovelady	R	Sr.	.223	.311	.299	1	21	12	37	0
1B	Brent Rooker	R	Jr.	.395	.498	.827	23	82	45	54	18
2B	Hunter Stovall	R	So.	.300	.359	.387	2	18	12	24	4
3B	Cody Brown	L	Sr.	.321	.427	.538	9	40	37	45	9
SS	Ryan Gridley	R	Jr.	.331	.393	.464	6	39	19	37	7
OF	Elijah MacNamee	R	So.	.267	.317	.349	2	21	11	48	4
OF	Jake Mangum	S	So.	.327	.380	.390	0	24	8	33	14
OF	Hunter Vansau	L	Jr.	.315	.392	.378	0	14	10	35	0
DH	Harrison Bragg	R	Jr.	.276	.323	.431	2	8	3	25	0
Pos.	Name	Throws	Yr.	W	L	SV	ERA	IP	BB	SO	AVG
SP	Konnor Pilkington	L	So.	8	5	0	3.26	102	43	107	.198
SP	Jacob Billingsley	R	Jr.	2	3	0	4.44	52.2	37	52	.216
SP	Cole Gordon	R	So.	2	3	1	5.57	51.2	28	54	.241
RP	Riley Self	R	Fr.	5	1	8	3.59	47.2	19	60	.239