LSU’s biggest baseball road rally in five years was enough to keep the Tigers ranked in the nation’s top 10 in all but one poll.
But that’s not important now — the polls don’t really mean much by season’s end.
Head coach Paul Mainieri, however, thought salvaging the final game at Florida in what had been an anemic weekend for the Tigers was far more important to the team’s psyche.
“It almost felt like more than one win,” he said of the way his team overcame deficits of 5-0 after five innings and 6-2 after seven to explode for a 10-6 comeback.
LSU, which scored only one run in losing the first two games of the series, got a trio of 2-run home runs — from Josh Smith, Beau Jordan and Cole Freeman — in a 6-run eighth inning, then added two more in the ninth.
It was the Tigers’ biggest comeback on the road since 2012, also in Gainesville, when they rallied from a 7-2 deficit to the Gators for an 8-7 victory.
LSU (18-7, 4-2 SEC) finished the weekend in third place in West Division, but just one game behind Arkansas and Auburn.
The Tigers will host Tulane tonight before resuming conference play with a Thursday-Saturday home series with Texas A&M.
LSU will wear special uniforms for tonight’s game, throwbacks that will recall the ones worn early in the last century.
Mainieri said he will start righthander Zach Hess (3-0, 3.09 ERA), but isn’t sure what kind of pitch count the freshman will be on.
Tulane will also pitch a freshman, Chase Solesky, who beat McNeese last Tuesday in a midweek game.
The Green Wave (9-15) also beat UL-Lafayette 6-4 last week before going on the road to drop two of three to Stetson over the weekend.
Mainieri also came home from Florida feeling better about his often inconsistent — and injury-depleted — bullpen.
“I think (freshman) Matthew Beck has had a lot to do with that,” Mainieri said. “It’s amazing, kids get opportunities for different reasons, in this case Doug Norman’s and Hunter Newman’s injuries.”
Beck retired all four batters he faced Sunday against Florida. In 9.2 innings this year, he’s yet to give up a run and has allowed only one hit as opponents have batted .038 against him.
“I always thought he was poised, competitive, and threw strikes,” Mainieri said. “All of sudden, we just had to give him a chance because of limitations with the bullpen.
“He’s been almost perfect since we’ve counted on him. He’s been tremendous.”
Mainieri also said Newman, the closer who injured a hamstring two weeks ago, could be back as early as the weekend against the Aggies.
Newman tossed Sunday and threw harder in a bullpen session Monday.
“He didn’t feel any pain at all in his back or legs,” Mainieri said. “We’ll see how he feels (Tuesday) and try to progress on Wednesday. If everything goes well, who knows, maybe he can be active this weekend.”
Caleb Gilbert, who threw two perfect innings to get the save after Sunday’s comeback, has been fine in the closer role with Newman out.
But it did leave a gap in getting to the closer for Gilbert to return to.
The Tigers highest national ranking this week was No. 6 in D1 Baseball, down only one spot from last week.
Their biggest drop came in Collegiate Baseball, where they fell from No. 8 to No. 13.
Baseball America had them No. 9 and Perfect Game No. 10.
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