LSU baseball ready to make CWS push

I’m not going to lie – Louisiana summers are pretty boring.

Sure, as a child, there’s the pleasures of sleeping late, eating snowballs and other junk food and watching TV all night with friends at various sleepovers.

But I’m no longer in school, have reached the age where snowballs taste like mush after about two and half bites and Doritos give me a belly-ache. Sure, I can watch TV until 3 in the morning, but TV Land no longer plays the Brady Bunch, nor Happy Days. No Fonzie? No Marcia?

You can count this fella out!

My bones are going to bed!

Heck, even if the Fonze makes a special appearance on the tube, I’d be watching alone, because a lot of my friends are married and some even have children.

Have you ever tried to pull off a sleepover as a 24-year-old man? Yeah, it doesn’t quite work the same as it did when we were 13, does it?

It’s just not the same.

But amidst good, ole-fashioned boredom, there is one thing that can potentially make this summer worthwhile.

The LSU baseball team is one of the best in the country this year and appears prime to make another run at the College World Series.

For a warm-blooded LSU grad like myself, that makes me very happy.

Let me start this story by explaining to outsiders or non-LSU fans the way things work among the Tigers brethren and student body.

Everyone knows we love our football. That’s the main dish. That’s the 16-ounce rib eye cooked just right every, single time.

Likewise, basketball is like the dessert. Sure, it’s tasty. But no one really appreciates it because they are so full from the rib eye that their appetite is down the tube.

But baseball is perfect – it’s the appetizer of the meal. The Spinach dip of the entire evening.

Sure, no one goes to a restaurant just for Spinach dip. They make the trip for the rib eye. But I’ll be dog-gone if they ever sit down at the establishment and don’t order that Spinach dip.

This year’s “Spinach dip” is seasoned to perfection and the Tigers are loaded.

Start with pitching – the strength of the Tigers team.

LSU is able to roll out arguably the best pitcher in America every Friday – sophomore Kevin Gausman.

Possessing a 90-plus mph fastball (that stays in the mid-90s even late in games), Gausman overwhelms opponents.

Heck, he throws so hard that he sometimes gets in trouble and allows a lot of cheap, aluminum bat bloop hits.

The big LSU righty is a sure-fire Top 5-10 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft and some scouts have him tabbed as the top pick if he finishes the season strong.

Dig deeper into the Tigers’ rotation and you can see the rest of the staff isn’t exactly chopped liver.

Arms like Ryan Eades, Aaron Nola and Joe Broussard are all able to provide quality starts in any given outing.

Once in the LSU bullpen, setup guys like Joey Bourgeois, Chris Cotton and Kurt McCune are able to mop things up for the Tigers.

If they do their job effectively and give LSU the lead in the ninth, it’s pretty much game over, as closer Nick Goody has been among the best in the nation so far this season.

With the pitchers getting outs, LSU rolls out a finesse-based, but stingy offense.

The Tigers have a lot of scrappy guys who just produce good at-bats.

Players like Tyler Hanover, Arby Fields and Mason Katz are glittered up and down the lineup.

If they get on base, the “bopper” Raph Rhymes is likely to bring them home safely.

We use quotes around bopper, because, while Rhymes has a slew of RBIs this season, he’s done so mostly with base hits and his lofty near-.500 batting average.

But what sets LSU apart this season is experience – something most collegiate teams don’t have.

Hanover is a senior. His infield mate, shortstop Austin Nola is also in his final go-round in Baton Rouge.

The Tigers also pool from the experience of guys like Grant Dozar, JaCoby Jones and Ty Ross within their lineup – all guys who have been through the ropes and know how to handle pressure situations.

With the season coming to a close and the SEC Tournament already under way, LSU is seemingly locked into the slot of hosting a Regional next week. Heck, they are probably also synched to host a Super Regional if they advance past the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

That’s a good thing – that’s something that is long overdue for a spoiled LSU fan like myself who has seen the Tigers bow out early for two-straight seasons.

Father time has taken away my summer vacations, my taste buds for snowballs and Doritos and also my ability to have sleepovers.

Don’t take away the College World Series from the LSU baseball program.

Without it, we will have nothing left to cherish in this suffocating Louisiana heat.