OMAHA,
Neb. – It's hard to come up with new words to indicate just how
dominant Alex Lange has been during his freshman year, once again
carrying LSU to a victory with a complete game effort in a 5-3 win
over Cal State Fullerton to stay alive for another day in the 2015
College World Series.
It
didn't take Lange very long to make a strong first impression. The
Tigers coaching staff was already excited about what the young man
could do before he even arrived on campus. But when fall practices
began he immediately made an impression and put his name in the
conversation of those being considered to be handed the ball on
Friday nights.
That's
a pretty daunting task for any pitcher, especially in the
power-packed SEC, not to mention for a freshman. Lange quickly proved
he was up for the challenge with the coaching staff believing he
could follow in the footsteps of recent LSU greats such as Anthony
Ranuado, Kevin Gausman and Aaron Nola.
“Hes
done better as a freshman than any of these guys that have gone
through the program,” LSU Head Coach Paul Manieri said about his
star freshman hurler. “Anthony Ranuado, Louis Coleman; big
leaguers. Kevin Gausman; big leaguer. Aaron Nola; will be a big
leaguer. And Alex has done better than all of them did their freshmen
years. But he's a wonderful young man. He's very poised, composed, a
very confident kid. He's (also) very humble, extremely hard working.
“And
he has the best pitching coach in the world working with him, Alan
Dunn. I know I'm biased in saying that, but Alan's just terrific,
cleaned up his mechanics and Alan and Alex together have made a great
team. He's been just terrific for us all year. He's a great
competitor, he throws strikes, he's got an awesome curveball, he's
got a good arm velocity-wise with his fastball. I think the future's
very bright for this kid.”
And
Nola's empty spot in the rotation was the most glaring. On a team led
by former PG All-American and the No. 2 overall pick in this year's
draft, Alex Bregman, no one questioned LSU's ability to score runs.
Preventing them however, that was another story, especially after
Nola entered pro ball as the No. 7 overall pick of the Philadelphia
Phillies last summer.
Lange
of course stepped up and provided a big boost for the Tigers,
settling into the Saturday role, as did other freshman arms including
Jake Godfrey and Austin Gain, both who had a taste as the team's
Sunday starter. Jesse Stallings, another freshman, leads the team in
saves with 12.
Together,
along with numerous holdovers including sophomore lefthander Jared
Poche, who received most of the Friday night assignments this year
and started LSU's first game of the College World Series,
collectively posted a 2.90 ERA, which led the Southeastern
Conference.
“I
know they've been talking to the young guys all week since we
clinched the Super Regional last Sunday night,” Manieri said of his
young staff. “It's still a baseball game. It's where you want to be
at this time of year, in Omaha Nebraska in the College World Series.”
Lange
was no stranger to Perfect Game events in high school, attending 16
of them, including five showcases highlighted by his performance at
the 2013 Perfect Game National Showcase where he pitched in the 89-92
range mixing in his usual slider/changeup secondaries.
The
other 11 PG events were tournaments, playing with the powerful
Marucci Elite program based out of Louisiana despite hailing from
Lee's Summit, Mo., southeast of Kansas City. His peak velocity
occurred at the 2013 17u WWBA National Championship in Marietta, Ga.,
where he touched 94 multiple times. His final event was the WWBA
World Championship in Jupiter, where the 6-foot-3, 210-pound righty
peaked at 90 mph while working in the upper-80s.
All
of this led to Lange being ranked 134th in the high school
class of 2014. He had a smooth and easy delivery, and always showed a
power breaking ball, but the pieces had not fully come together for
him at that point in his career.
Something
clearly clicked at LSU.
“That's
something big that Coach Dunn and I have worked on,” Lange said of
his improved fastball command. “As a pitcher at this level you have
to have good command of your fastball. I've kind of decided that I'm
not going to throw the pitch at 95. I'd rather hit my spot at 92, 91
or even 90 miles per hour. If you hit your spots there you're not
going to get beat, but if you're missing over the middle with 95
these hitters are good enough, that's pretty much soft tossing.”
Things
didn't start very well for Lange on Tuesday in Omaha as Cal State
Fullerton jumped on him for three runs in the first inning, as Lange
surrendered four consecutive base hits, one of which was a triple off
the bat of David Almedo-Barrera, as well as a walk.
However,
he quickly gathered himself showing the poise and composure that has
wowed Manieri and his staff all season long, recording eight straight
goose eggs after that rocky first inning. He allowed just two hits
and one more walk the rest of the way while striking out 10 with
Lange seemingly unphased by the scoreboard.
“Playing
at The Box every day, with those fans in Baton Rouge, the best fans
in college baseball showing up 10,000 strong every game, even 12,000
strong,” Lange said unphased of pitching in front of the large
crowds at TD Ameritrade Park. “Super Regionals, that prepared me
for this stage. I try not to let the moment be too big. I did glance
around the stadium to really take it all in and really see it in the
first inning, so after I did that it was off to business and I was
playing baseball.”
The
Tigers hitters came to the rescue of their young ace by putting up a
four-spot in the third inning. Bregman led off the frame with a
single, one of his four hits in the game from the leadoff spot, which
was followed by two more singles off the bat of Jake Fraley and Kade
Scivicque. Two batters later, Chris Sciambra added another RBI knock,
followed by a sac fly off the bat of Andrew Stevenson. Chris Chinea
and Mark Laird joined the fun with singles of their own to close out
the scoring.
Lange
is now 12-0 on the year with a 1.97 ERA. He has a 131-to-46
strikeout-to-walk ratio in 114 innings of work, alowing just 87 base
hits. The win for LSU pushes them into yet another ellmination game
in what we will be rematch against TCU, whle the Titans' season came
to a close.
Wiel's
blast lifts Commodores
Zander
Wiel continues to establish himself as a hero with more late-inning
dramatics in the 2015 College World Series. With TCU lefthander Alex
Young dealing a no-hitter into the top of the seventh inning in a
scoreless game, Wiel yanked a solo shot over the fence in left field
on a 2-1 count to give the Commodores a 1-0 lead.
That
also ended up being the final score of the game.
“He
just did a great job against us,” Wiel said of Alex Young's
performance. “He was locating the fastball in and out. He was able
to backdoor the slider and put them low and we were going after them
today. So he was just really able to keep us off balance.
“In
that at-bat he threw me a changeup and it had been higher than the
rest of the ones he had thrown. It still wasn't a terrible pitch but
it was hittable and I just put a good swing on it.”
Young
was the hard-luck loser of the game, going 7 2/3 innings and allowing
just one run on three hits and a walk while striking out 12. His
command was near impeccable prior to Wiel's blast, as he did a great
job painting the corners with both his low-90s fastball as well as
his low-80s slider.
The
performance of Vanderbilt lefthander Philip Pfeifer shouldn't go
unnoticed, as he may have allowed more baseunners than Young did
(four hits, three walks), and didn't strikeout as many batters (7),
but most importantly he didn't allow any baserunners to score. He
effectively mixed things up while inducing a lot of weak contact off
the bats of the opportunistic TCU lineup.
“I
was just trying to soak in every minute of it that I could while I
was out there on the mound,” Pfeifer said after the game. “I've
been looking forward for this moment for a long time and playing it
over and over in my head and I feel like taking advantage of today's
game was kind of what kept me at peace. I had seen that game before.
So it was just enacting what had been playing in my head.”
Pfeifer
moved to 6-4 with the win, while Vanderbilt Head Coach Tim Corbin
continues to show more and more confidence in his young freshman
hurler, Kyle Wright, who was called upon to close out the final two
innings of the game. Wright struck out four while picking up his
fourth save of the year.
With
the win Vanderbilt advances to Friday's Championship Bracket game at
7:00 p.m., and will play the winner from Thursday night's LSU/TCU
rematch from Sunday that TCU won, 10-3.