New Commitment; Football and Baseball Notes

RECRUITING


LSU picked up their 10th commitment of the Class of 2011 on Monday when Breaux Bridge defensive lineman Quentin Thomas gave his pledge to Les Miles.   Thomas is 6'4" and a very lean looking 260 pounds.  While most sites have him listed as a defensive tackle, Thomas stated that LSU wants him as a defensive end.

I've only seen a very small amount of film on Thomas, but he looks the part of a big, quick, strong defensive lineman.  He also had an offer from Texas A&M.

I've currently got him ranked #13 in my state rankings, but I hope to update those this week.

FOOTBALL


With spring football over, we won't hear much football news until the fall.  For the most part, no news is good news.  This is the time of year that I like to call "Jackass Season" when players are most likely to find trouble.

LSU will also suffer attrition this summer, in some form or fashion.  By my count, LSU will be at 91 scholarship players when all the freshman report in the fall.  However, LSU can only have 85 scholarship players on the team, so something will have to happen in order to make room for the freshmen.  That could mean that a current player leaves the team for some reason or that an incoming freshman fails to qualify academically.

It appears that the first domino to fall may be sophomore receiver John Williams who apparently has some medical issues that will prevent him from continuing his career.  I haven't heard any other possible names at this point.

BASEBALL


LSU won the series against Georgia by taking two of three games, and they now sit atop the SEC standings with a 7-2 record, tied with South Carolina.  The Tigers are in great shape and with Anthony Ranaudo re-joining the team on a full-time basis, they are poised to start playing their best baseball of the season.

However, we're still going to see some changes this week.

First, Austin Ross is moving to the bullpen after suffering another poor outing on Saturday.  Similar to last year, Ross has shown that he can be awfully good but he just can't find any consistency.  It looks like the starting rotation will be Ranaudo on Fridays, Chris Matulis (pictured) on Saturdays, and Joey Bourgeois on Sundays.   Matulis continues to be one of the biggest surprises of the season.  He's now 5-0 with a 2.57 ERA.

We're also going to see a change at third base.  Neither Wet Delatte or Beau Didier were able to produce at the plate, so the coaches are going to give Kyle Koeneman a shot.  Koeneman came to LSU as a power hitting first baseman out of junior college.  He had some injury issues in the fall, and it looked like he was heading for a redshirt season.  I can only assume that he's been performing well at practice since he's earned an opportunity to win a starting job.  Grant Dozar may also be in the mix.  He started the Sunday game at third.

Unfortunately, left fielder Trey Watkins suffered a dislocated elbow on Friday night while diving for a ball.  His timetable is uncertain, but he'll be out for at least a month.  In the meantime, Johnny Dishon will play left field while Mikie Mahtook will bat leadoff.  Dishon is more than capable to fill in for Watkins.

LSU has Alcorn State on Tuesday night and Southern Miss at Zephyr Field on Wednesday night.  As of now, it's unclear how LSU will manage their pitching for these two mid-week games.