June 18, 2025
DSHS FOOTBALL IS AROUND THE CORNER!
We will be broadcasting Denham Springs HS Football games, both on the air (91.9 FM), on the net (JonFineProductions.com) and on YouTube (@dsjacketvision). Coach Brett Beard’s team is getting prepared for the 2025 season and so are we! More info in the next newsletter.
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THIS WEEK’S COLUMN
Scott Osborne takes an extensive look at LSU Baseball, in a column written last Sunday, 6/15. Please scroll down below for The Wizardry of Os.
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
It is Father’s Day weekend and LSU is playing baseball in Omaha. All appears to be right in the world.
Of course, Tiger fans should never take this experience for granted. Baseball is a crazy game where the unexpected happens all the time and unseeded teams make it to Omaha regularly.
Yet, as I typed the last paragraph, something triggered in my head. While teams like Arizona, Louisville, and Murray State make it to the CWS without being seeded, it seems as though LSU has to be seeded to reach this point. I think there are good reasons for this reality, and maybe that will be a discussion for another day.
For now, I want to focus on this year’s team and how they are similar to the best teams in LSU history. As always with baseball, it starts on the mound. Anderson and Eyanson give LSU the 1-2 punch needed to win in Omaha. Since moving from the hitter friendly Rosenblatt Stadium to Charles Schwab, this fact has become even more prominent.
With the event taking place over a short 9-10 day period, ending in a best of three series, the pitching staff has to have some depth as well. Usually, it means someone who has not been great during the season has to pitch their best in the highest pressure moments. In 2000, it was Trey Hodges who always had the talent, but never put it together in college, pitched as well as he did all year to push LSU to a national championship and win Most Outstanding Player.
In 2009, Chad Jones was the late season pitching star out of the bullpen. In 2023, it was Nate Ackenhousen helping LSU out of the loser’s bracket with 6 shutout innings against Tennessee and then Thatcher Hurd pitching like an ace in the championship game.
This year’s team has many candidates who are very talented with a bright future that can be very effective in the pitcher friendly conditions at The Schwab. Shores looks like he is going to be a dominant setup man. Like Zack Hess was out of the bullpen, when Shores is letting it rip for one inning, his fastball moves 100mph and much harder to hit. Noot, Williams, Rizy, Cowan, and Schmidt are just a few of the other candidates. Going in you never know who it will be, but one of them will be needed.
Pitching and defense are the key ingredients in Omaha now, and LSU’s defense has been outstanding. The outfield is very fast and in the infield has been brilliant.
I think I am probably like most LSU baseball fans and I am wondering if the offense will be able to generate the runs needed. The strikeouts can be discouraging. Also, there have been times during the year where the top of the lineup carried the offense and then there was a stretch where it seemed like nobody was hot.
Coach Johnson did a tremendous job of creating lineups in the regional and Super Regional that set the stage for runs to be scored from any part of the lineup. One of the keys to that success was Steven Milam rounding into form and being able to hit third. While many LSU fans don’t like how much Coach Johnson tweaks the lineup, I love it. It’s baseball, so nothing works all the time, and when hitters are sputtering, nothing works.
Nevertheless, the strength of this offense is how it can score in different ways as we saw against Arkansas. Jones, Frey, and Brown can hit it out of any ballpark. Curiel, Brown, Frey, and Stanfield can get infield hits, score from first on doubles in the gap, and advance 90 feet on balls in the dirt. Most everyone in the lineup can sacrifice and get a runner to third with less than one out. I would not be surprised if anyone gets hot this weekend, but as is always the case in Omaha, the bottom half of the lineup is going to have to extend innings and come up with clutch hits.
LSU has been to the CWS so many times, we know we are in store for some memorable moments (good and bad) and great baseball. It always takes some good fortune to get over the hump and win it all. This year’s team has all the tangibles and appears to also have the intangibles.
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