9:15 p.m. -- Tulane game wrapup

The day after

Everyone seemed to have a spring in their step today at practice after the 7-5 win last night against Tulane. That's what ending a five-game losing streak will do for you.

"It was huge," LSU first baseman Matt Clark said, "especially against Tulane, because they're a good team. To go out and win a game felt really good."

Coach Paul Mainieri said he found himself wondering when more of LSU's batted balls would find their way through the holes and into the gaps like those off opposing teams' bats during the Tigers' losing streak.

"It can turn around," he said. "This game ... honest to goodness, sometimes you ... "

He was on his way to a variation of the familiar baseball refrain about how the game itself beats you, not the opponent. Then he personalized it.

"I think my family and friends have had me on suicide watch, you know?" Mainieri said. "We didn't know if we'd ever win a game again. You know, you win 900 games in your career, and you don't know if you're ever going to win another one.

"But, sooner or later you know the breaks are going to go your way."
 
Ryan Schimpf

If you accept the premise that Wednesday's game was critical for the Tigers for a number of reasons, then the three-run triple by LSU's sophomore second baseman for a 6-5 lead in the sixth inning was the biggest hit of the season to date.

Schimpf, who had four RBIs, is batting .364, tops on the team among players with at least 40 at-bats. Mainieri said there's no secret to Schimpf's success.

"I think it's a very simple formula of hard work and maturity," he said. He added that hitting coach Cliff Godwin has done some great work with Schimpf, and he noted Ryan's work ethic.

"Ryan is easily the hardest-working guy on the team," Mainieri said. "Sometimes I think he works too hard, because he works so hard that sometimes he doesn't just let his instincts take over."

Mainieri said he took Schimpf aside before the game Wednesday and told him to understand how good of a hitter he is.

"Let the game come to you," he recalled telling Schimpf. "Don't try to do too much. Make it simple. See the ball, and hit it as hard as you can wherever it's pitched. If it's pitched the other way, drive it the other way. If it comes inside, then pull it.

"Don't think too much up there. You're too good of a hitter to paralyze yourself by thinking too much."

Eight Men Out (On the Mound)

LSU threw eight pitchers in nine innings against Tulane, using a midweek game to get the staff some work while also trying to do everything possible to win the game.

Mainieri didn't call upon guys who haven't seen the mound much; instead, he mostly used pitchers who have been in and out of the starting rotation, plus his two late-innings stoppers, Daniel Bradshaw and Jared Bradford.

Could the Tigers pitch like that again at some point this weekend vs. Arkansas, by design?

"We could," Mainieri said. "We may end up having to do it. I thought it kind of worked pretty well, actually. It keeps (the other team) off balance. It keeps giving different looks. Everybody's ready to pitch."

Tulane coach Rick Jones said it was an effective strategy by the Tigers.

"They mixed and matched well, changing the look," Jones said.

Tulane wanted to do the same in the last four innings, he said. Reliever Nick Pepitone, noted for inducing ground balls, didn't get the double-play ball Jones expected.

"Bruce Sutter said it best," Jones said. "You go out there enough, it ain't gonna happen every time you want it to, the way you want it to."

Jones gave LSU credit for much of that.

Mainieri said in hindsight he should have had left-hander Shane Ardoin ready to pitch to Anthony Scelfo in the sixth inning. Scelfo, a left-handed batter, went the opposite way against LSU right-hander Jordan Brown for an RBI single to left field.

"I should have had him ready, and I didn't," Mainieri said of Ardoin. "That was my own fault. I knew later in the game I wasn't going to use Ardoin. I was going to stick with Bradshaw. I was going to stick with Bradford.

"So, that was the time. I had him up earlier for Scelfo, but I should have had him ready right then. That was my fault."

More on Bradford

Jones didn't seem to realize Mainieri had decided earlier in the week to change Bradford's role from Friday night starter to a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

"I was a little surprised to see their Friday night guy in the closer role there on a Wednesday night," Jones said right after the game, "but he did a good job against us."

I told Jones about Bradford going back to his multiple roles for weekend games, like he did last season, and that it looked like LSU wanted to have him come out of the bullpen once before the Arkansas series.

It also seemed like one of those moves -- of many Mainieri made in the game -- a coach will do to end a losing streak. Did Jones agree with my theory?

"The way I look at that," Jones said, "is I coach my team and let somebody else coach theirs. I really don't have an opinion on that, because I don't have anything to do with their club.

"When they gave it to him in the ninth, I knew it was going to be a challenge for us, and it was."

More on Bradshaw

Mainieri reiterated his confidence in Bradshaw. He said the freshman right-handed reliever has "tremendous poise" and throws good pitches for strikes.

"To be honest with you, I think the kid'll be a heck of a starting pitcher for us maybe next year," Mainieri said. "Maybe this year if we need to."

Jones complimented the way LSU used Bradshaw along with seven other pitchers.

"He was one of those guys that changed the look and made it a little more difficult for us than we'd like to have had it offensively," Jones said.

He said Tulane batters took some called strikes that should have swung at, but Jones said he had to give LSU pitchers credit, especially Bradshaw.

"I thought they were tough pitches -- good break, pitchers' pitches, not necessarily an easy pitch to say as a hitter, 'I've got to sit on that.' He was one of eight they ran out there. They kept changing the look on us. I thought that was nice (for LSU)," Jones said.

More from Jones

Tulane's coach didn't seem overly concerned immediately after the loss and said his team should be fine if it keeps playing the way it did against LSU.

"What happened tonight doesn't happen very often to our bullpen," Jones said after the Tigers scored five of seven runs against Tulane relievers.

"I was encouraged with some of the at-bats we had," Jones added.

LSU did its part to get Tulane starter Jonathan Garrett to throw 99 pitches in five innings.

"They ran his pitch count up, and you've got to give LSU credit on that," Jones said. "They had some quality at-bats, especially in the second inning. They only had one run to show for it, but that ran his pitch count up."

Jones said he debated after the fourth inning, with Garrett at around 90 pitches, taking him out. Garrett pitched a good fifth inning, but the Green Wave didn't want to take a chance after that "because he'd had to make so many quality pitches under the gun, and a fresh, deep bullpen was available," which had been a strength for Tulane, Jones said.

He pulled him.

"The percentage move just didn't work the way we wanted it to tonight," Jones said.
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Got a comment or question for Carl? E-mail him at cdubois@theadvocate.com.

Got a comment or question for Carl? E-mail him at cdubois@theadvocate.com.