LSU baseball-Southeastern Louisiana scrimmage takeaways | LSU

LSU baseball played its final fall scrimmage on Friday, taking down Southeastern Louisiana 8-3 at Alex Box Stadium.

Here are five takeaways from the scrimmage.

Struggling fall bats

LSU coach Jay Johnson hasn’t been satisfied with LSU’s offense. He believes most of the hitters’ timing, approach and pitch selection in the box has been off throughout the fall.

Even hitters who were stars for LSU last season, like Cade Arrambide and Omar Serna, haven’t been hitting to their standards.

“I think Omar and Cade would tell you they can take a heck of a lot better at-bats than they have this fall,” Johnson said. “And I believe that they can and that they will.”

Some of LSU’s issues stem from the fact that it’s only fall baseball. The scrimmages won’t be registered on LSU’s record, and the stats won’t count toward the players’ season-long numbers. Johnson has therefore tried to create a greater sense of urgency with the hitters.

“I’m trying to get them out of that mode and into ‘Hey, it’s fourth and goal every day,’” Johnson said. “Or it’s bases loaded with two outs. Better analogy.”

Not every LSU hitter has struggled this fall. Notre Dame transfer Bino Watters has excelled since coming back from an upper-body injury, going 2 for 3 with two walks on Friday. Oregon transfer Angel Laya has had a strong fall, and freshman Lucas Nawrocki has played like a three-year veteran despite also pitching throughout the fall.

LSU has too much offensive talent not to improve, and Johnson knows it. Even as the Tigers have struggled, they’ve continued to score runs this fall, putting up 55 runs in seven scrimmages. Johnson sees that as a promising sign in comparison to the past.

“What’s great about it is we seem to score enough runs,” Johnson said, “and I don’t think we’re good yet.”

Kolby Stringer’s fall

Freshman right-hander Kolby Stringer struggled Saturday and has had a shaky fall overall. The Mississippi recruit’s velocity is down roughly 5 mph from where it was in high school, and he’s had trouble honing in on his command. He pitched on Saturday and allowed a pair of runs in the fifth inning.

Johnson has noticed the downtick in stuff as well, but he’s not concerned. He attributes much of what Stringer is going through to physical fatigue. Stringer has been “burnt pretty good in the weight room,” working on his lower body and core strength.

“I think he’s a really good candidate to move into this break and then come out of the break, humming pretty good,” Johnson said. “Because I think he’s made some actually really good physical changes, and he’s got some very unique characteristics as a pitcher that allowed him to be successful even when he hasn’t been as good for stuff standpoint.”

Malachi Washington update

Washington, a freshman, sat out Friday and LSU’s scrimmages last week with a hip flexor injury. The ailment isn’t serious and won’t affect him once the season starts, Johnson said, but Johnson didn’t want him playing with the injury this fall and having it linger into the regular season.

“It’s not worth making it a two-month thing when it’s like a two- to three-week thing,” Johnson said.

Pitchers sitting out the rest of the fall

Right-handers William Schmidt, Cooper Sides, Landon Hood, Diego Velasquez and Coleton Brady have been shut down from throwing for the rest of the fall and get a head start on recovery before the winter break, Johnson said Friday.

Right-hander Casan Evans and left-hander Logan Schmidt didn’t throw on Friday but are set to pitch in an intra-squad scrimmage on Sunday. Right-hander Cooper Moore won’t throw at all this fall as he recovers from an olecranon fracture in the tip of his elbow.

Despite Johnson’s critiques of the offense, he has been pleased with how the pitchers have executed this fall.

“I like the blueprint of how we’ve pitched this fall,” Johnson said. “I think there’s a number of guys that are, there’s gonna be a good fight for innings. And I think that’s a good place to be.”

Jason Wachs’ big blast

Wachs homered on Saturday in the eighth inning to extend LSU’s lead over Southeastern, shooting the ball into right field despite making a mechanical adjustment to his swing just this week.

Johnson has been impressed with Wachs this season, despite dealing with an injury leading into the fall. Johnson said the ailment limited him defensively last season, limiting him to right field. But now that he’s healthy, he’s been impressed with what Wachs can do in center field.

“His ability to go get the ball defensively has been good,” Johnson said. “I’m very optimistic.”