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Like our players, we're driven by the details. Highlights make the real, but the work behind them makes it count. Stay tuned for this week's moving the game forward. The all new Mazda CX-5. More to move every side of you. LSU and Ole Miss set for a three game series at Swayze Field in Oxford. And this really feels like a pivotal weekend. Both teams got massive series wins on the road last week. LSU took two out of three against Tennessee to move to six and six in conference. Ole Miss, after being swept by Mississippi State, went on the road to Florida and took two out of three. That after Florida had swept Arkansas in Fayetteville. So both teams got really significant series wins. Ole misses it five and seven. LSU is at six and six. This feels like a swing series as you hit the halfway point. Just think about it. If LSU goes to Oxford and gets a series win, they hit the halfway point of conference play above 500. If Ole Miss loses this series, let's say they lose two out of three, you're talking about a team that's going to be sitting there at six and nine, three games below 500 at the halfway point of conference play, which means you will have to do a heavy lift in the second half to get your head above water and get above 500. So a really significant opportunity for both teams this weekend in Oxford. Now, we know lots about LSU, of course, and what's going on with this LSU team so far. They're 22 and 12, six and six in the conference. It's a four way tie for seventh place. Basically a big log jam of teams right in the center of this conference. Well, LSU sixth in the SEC in batting average, but they're 13th in staff ERA. Ole Miss, meanwhile, has really struggled. They're second to last in batting average at just 256, but they're fifth in the conference with a three seven O team ERA. They pitch it pretty well, especially in their rotation, but they haven't hit a lick this year, except when they leave the ballpark. So I had a chance to visit with my buddy Chase Parham from Rebels two, four, seven. For my money, I think Chase is as good as it comes when it, as they come, when it comes to covering SEC baseball. There's a few that I think are outstanding. Hunt Palmer from Louisiana sports.net, 104, 5 ESPN, Baton Rouge, I think is one of the great ones. Chase is in that class as well. So whenever I have a chance to talk SEC baseball and Ole Miss baseball with Chase, I always take the opportunity. So I asked Chase about Ole Miss's pitching staff and Ole Miss's offense. Let's start with the Ole Miss pitching staff. So Hunter Elliott has been good, not great. He never gets knocked out of games early where it gives up eight runs. He's been around this world a long time, but he doesn't have the pure stuff that you typically see at the front of rotation. So he gets into pitch count problems, takes him a little while to work through batters from time to time. And he stresses the bullpen more than you definitely would have seen 10 years ago with an ace. Now things have changed. It's a much smaller, you know, sample size on how long starters stay in even front of the rotation. But Elliott's going to keep you in games. And then Cade Townsend survived the scare a few weeks ago. He had a shoulder flare up at Texas. It really looked bad. I was out there in Austin and we thought, oh, no, this is a problem. But instead, he was excellent. And his first really kind of start back after that last week against Florida, one run, six innings. He was, I think, mocked eight in Keith Law's athletic first round draft for the summer. And then the third spot's been a little weird because I was hearing you talk. Right before break about LSU missing on some guys out of the portal and Ole Miss is dealing with the same thing. One offensive, one defense, one on the mound. Two of their top three paid guys on this roster just simply haven't panned out. And one of those is Will Liburd, who was supposed to be the Sunday starter, supposed to be a transfer from Missouri that really gave you a front line action. And instead, he's been taken out of the rotation. He's in the bullpen. I think he can do that with two pitches. He has a role, but it's not as a number three starter, but they're really living off a guy named Taylor Rape. Big development guy. He's throwing 98, 99 miles an hour when he came into Ole Miss as a strike thrower. Joel Mangrom has changed the projection of this program. He was brought in from the Cleveland Indians as the pitching coach two years ago or before last year, I guess you have to say. And he has really developed niches. He has put a different structure on this entire staff. Mike Bianco has gotten out of the way. And they have enough armed depth for me to make that comment to you where I do think if you get any offense, they could be a dangerous team in the post. I tend to agree. We saw Ole Miss in 2022 ride the aforementioned Hunter Elliott and Dylan DeLusia to a national championship. Those two guys were front end, awesome in the post season. And then Tim Elko was great. They went all the way to a national championship. It can happen in baseball and Ole Miss is a great example of that. Now, when you look at the pitching matchups for this weekend, Friday, it'll be case and Evans against Hunter Elliott. Elliott's the, he's a junior. Obviously he's had injury issues, but he was one of the guys that emerged as a freshman in that 2022 national championship run. Elliott is interesting because as you heard Chase say there, he doesn't extend deep into ball games. He's only gone 40 and a third. For context, case and Evans has gone 41 and two thirds. It feels like Evans doesn't extend much. Well, Elliott's gone less than Evans has 60 strikeouts, 26 walks in those 40 and a third innings pitch. So Elliott's a very good pitcher, but he's not overpowering. But again, from the left side, do we see J Johnson maybe load up his lineup with right handed bats? This could be the opportunity where you see Serna, Aaron Beatty, Yaman, all in the lineup at the same time to get a bunch of right handed bats in the lineup. In game two, you heard Chase there talk about K Townsend, who's their elite level prospect. He's a sophomore, righty. Well, he's going against LSU's elite level prospect, the sophomore, righty in William Schmidt. And they're very comparable. Schmidt with 56 strikeouts and 41 innings pitch to 14 walks. Townsend, he's only throwing 29 and two thirds innings. As you heard Chase say, they sort of been a new addition to the rotation, but 46 strikeouts in 29 and two thirds innings pitch to just seven walks. The LSU bats are going to be up against a real challenge in game two. And then game three, again, Taylor Raid, the developmental prospect, throwing 98 sound familiar. Uh, Grant Fontenot is going to go for LSU guy who could push 98, 99 miles an hour. Um, when he's on, he is an incredible talent. And this feels like one of those moments where you're going to a veteran guy who was contemplating giving up baseball, but only continued to pitch for LSU. Well, here you go on the road and what might very well be a rubber match against Ole Miss. It's Swayze field and you're going to need to do it against a younger developmental prospect though, 98, 99. It's very interesting how the, this pitching matchup just really parallels all three days with, uh, with LSU and Ole Miss. Now, offensively, we mentioned Ole Miss has just been an absolute disaster this season. They are 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC with a two 56 team batting average. And Chase Parham kind of gave us a little peek behind the curtain. What's going wrong? They are a team that is really dangerous when they hit the ball out of the ballpark, but they struggle mightily when they do not hit the ball at the ballpark. Matt, you're right about the overall numbers, but, and look, the schedule's been difficult at Florida, at Texas, Mississippi State at home. That's a really tough three out of four series so far in league play, but they are hitting two 12s in league play. They are in the bottom three of the league in home runs, runs and total bases in batting average while leading the league in strikeouts as in the most Allen offense as far as in league play. This is a team that, look, Judd Udermark can hit the ball, the ballpark. They've got a ton of value at a Tristan Becetta, a Clemson transfer, but they just are really struggling one through nine. You had three or four spots that were supposed to give you the move, the baseball action because, look, in college baseball, you can't be as three outcome as in the pros because the defense is just not as good. They're going to make errors if you give them a chance to boot it around. There's ways to manufacture runs and almost hasn't done that. One game against Mississippi State two weeks ago, they were 0 for 16 with runners on base. They've got big two to nothing in the middle game against Florida. They don't manufacture anything. This is up to three or four players to simply hit the ball out of the ballpark. When they do that, they're pretty good, but if not, it's been a struggle. Again, Daniel Pacella not picking on him, but he's transferred Illinois State. He is making the second or third most money on this roster and he is currently hitting 143 with an OPS under 750. It's just not panned out for what you expected. He had 48 career home runs at Illinois State and he has not translated Dom Decker, the Murray State second base transfer. He is hitting under 250, I believe at this point, still walking a lot, but it's just a valuation mistake. There's valuation and Evaluation. There's valuation and there's Evaluation and LSU and Ole Miss seemingly have missed simultaneously on some, some mid major prospects trying to make that leap up. But like we said, big swing weekend, someone's got to win this, this series and whoever does is going to put themselves in a much better position for the second half of conference play. So what's the blueprint for Ole Miss? What's the blueprint for LSU? We'll dive into that as we continue. Locked on LSU at your team every day. This is Mazda's moving the game forward for those who know the score, never tells the whole story. How about Cade Arambiti, when you do something that has never been done in the storied glorious history of LSU baseball, which they have been playing since 1893 and you go out there and hit four homers in a game, something that had never been done. Yep, that qualifies as moving the game forward. There's more to these players than the highlights. The early mornings, the late night runs constantly showing up for their squad on and off the diamond. The all new Mazda CX-5, it moves the same way with more space to connect a bold new design and more intuitive technology. So you can stay connected to the road and every position you play. The all new Mazda CX-5, more to move every side of you. It's tax time, but for a lot of us, the old way of doing taxes is a lot. Trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient, sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade. 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They're able to ride one or two bullpen arms that can go two, three innings and really have some defined roles to shorten the game through the bullpen. And then it's the LSU gives them a few opportunities. They hit a couple of batters. They walk a couple of guys and then you're a Mark or Bissetta. They run some balls out of the ballpark and absolutely, you know, if they do that Ole Miss, I do expect to win the series. So it's pretty cut and dried. Ole Miss is a team that does not, they're not going to hit for average. They are a team that is going to get on that back foot and try to elevate the baseball. If you're an Everyday Air, you heard me last week complain and moan about the Biddy Ball Park in Knoxville. Well, it's the same exact thing in Oxford. It is three 90 to center. It is three 65 to the alleys for comparison. The box, which plays small is four, oh five to center and three 85 to the alleys. So you're talking about pop flies that changed the scoreboard in that ballpark, which I hate. Now LSU was able to use that to its advantage last week in Knoxville. They're going to need to do the same thing this week in Oxford and prevent Ole Miss from, from changing the dynamic of a game by going walk, hit by pitch, three run Homer. If they ding you for a Homer, it's got to be a solo shot. Make them earn their way on base. That is going to be the key. You want to look at one line in the box score. Look at the walk totals for LSU, the walk hit by pitch. How many bases are you giving Ole Miss? If you make this team swing on Tuesday night, LSU played Bethune Cookman in the second inning, Bethune Cookman hit six singles and an inning. I can live with that. If a team's going to go rattle off six singles, tip your cap. What it means is you're putting the ball over the plate and making them earn it. There's just not going to be a lot of innings where teams get six singles or six hits in an inning. It's baseball. You, you fail 70% of the time. You're in the hall of fame. So make them earn their way on. You've got to find strike throwers this weekend. That's going to be the key for LSU because I think the Tigers offensively will do enough to break through. Now, there's a big opportunity for LSU and every week we talk to Tender Rogers of D1 baseball. And I asked him what he thought his keys and Kendall is the preeminent college baseball writer in the country at D1 baseball. I asked him his keys for LSU Ole Miss. I think for me, if you can't care, be any kind of continue where he left off in Knoxville. And also, what does Ole Miss do for an offensive standpoint? What's kind of crazy about Ole Miss is, you know, historically, in the Mike Bianco era, you know, when you think of Ole Miss, you think of, you know, offensive lineups that you're just like, man, like, you know, it is tough to get through these guys. It's premier power. But I mean, if you look at Ole Miss's offense right now, you know, Matt, I mean, it's 14th in the league. They're hitting 2-12 with the team of conference play. And you've got a guy like Tristan DeSette in Austin, Folly, two premier power hitters, you know, hitting 2-33, 2-100. You've got three more guys in their everyday lineup that literally are playing every day with averages of 114, 150, 167. So, you know, you have 60% of your lineups, each 15% of your lineup that is hitting under, you know, 230 right now in conference play. So I think for Ole Miss, and what would be a little scary to me if I'm Jay Johnson, is the team offensively has underachieved for about a month now. And it's, I mean, it's just a matter of time before they have a week here, where they just all kind of blow out a little bit. And maybe that does happen for Ole Miss this weekend, or maybe the fact is, since they got into conference play and it faced Texas and Mississippi State and Kentucky and Florida, that's shown and revealed who they really are. And offensive numbers in the pre-conference weren't an accurate representation of what this team is, which is probably a large enough sample size to make that determination. But same for LSU, you got to go on the road for the second consecutive and weekend and do it. Now, I also asked Kendall about what's at stake for LSU, because it's about the time where you start looking at the resume, right? You're through all the non-conference weekends, you're approaching the halfway point of SEC, and you start looking at, okay, what is the crystallized picture of what it's going to take to be a regional host? And that's kind of what I asked Kendall. Yeah, I mean, right now they're in a rough shape. I mean, you're looking at the team right now with the 73 RPI. And I mean, I don't want to say there's just totally out of it, because for all we know, they went a series of Ole Miss, they went a series of Mississippi State, they think they're searching A&M, and then they're probably back in the 30s or the high 20s. And they still have to go to Georgia. So, I mean, even though there's a tough pathway, I mean, there's a pathway. It's just for LSU at a 73 RPI. I mean, you just have no room for error. Like, you're going to have to go on a roll the second and a half of the season to be able to host. So, right now, long shot. Is it totally gone? Yeah, not at all. It's the SEC, and I mean, you can go up 30 spots one week in the semesters, especially if you go to Georgia, Mississippi State, you win, you know, one or two of those series. Listen, with six SEC weekends to go, including series against Mississippi State, against Georgia, which you heard Kendall mention there, there's so much opportunity to affect your RPI. There, there's 73 in the RPI right now, but just playing the next six weekends is going to elevate your RPI because you're going to keep playing Quad 1 opponents. What dings LSU is that they scheduled a terrible non-conference schedule, and there are 11 and five in Quad 4 games. That means you got five bad losses, but you're going to start getting lopsided with the number of Quad 1 wins, the more SEC games you play. So, I'm not so much worried about being 73 in the RPI. It's about the number of conference wins, not your conference standing. It's the number of conference wins that is always going to be paramount. So, for LSU, this is a great opportunity against a down Ole Miss team that is struggling to hit, to go throw strikes, win two games on the road, hit the midway point of conference play above 500, and realize you probably will need, if you go win this weekend and you get to eight wins at the halfway point, you're at eight and seven, let's say, then you're looking at an opportunity where in the second half of league play, if you get eight more wins, you are just replicate that eight and seven, then you're on a spot where with 16 conference wins, you're probably in position to be a regional host. So, might seem outlandish, but that's where this team stands right now. Tigers and Rebels three games set this weekend in Oxford. When we come back to wrap up the show, Will Wade is targeting one of the biggest scoring transfers in the portal. We'll give you the update as we continue here. It's locked on LSU, your team every day. 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Just go to indeed.com slash podcast right now and support locked on LSU by saying you heard about Indeed on locked on LSU indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robinhood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So when momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator. Play by play, you decide. So trade every play with Robinhood now available across the U S download the Robinhood app now to begin futures and cleared swap trading involves significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood derivatives LLC, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Will Wade could very well be nearing in on his first transfer portal edition and this would be a really significant one. It's PJ Haggerty. This report comes from on three. So Haggerty was the third leading score in college basketball this season at Kansas state. He averaged more than 23 points per game. And now he's back in the portal and according to on three, LSU is a school to watch. Now this is an interesting one because Wade actually pursued Haggerty hard while he was at NC state. Haggerty even signed with the Wolfpack last year. Well, things fell through once NC state landed Darian Williams, which ultimately, according on three led Haggerty to choose Kansas state again, where he averaged 23 this year. Now Haggerty's an interesting one. Okay. Six, four, one 95. He's a red shirt junior guard. And when you look at his history in college basketball, it is long and tumultuous and winding in this portal era. So in the 22, 23 season as a freshman, he went to TCU played in just six games, no starts, eight minutes a game. He transfers to Tulsa, ends up starting all 31 games at Tulsa that season and averaged 21 points per game. Well, he was able to parlay that season at Tulsa into a better opportunity at Memphis. So three years, three teams, he goes to Memphis in the 24, 25 season starts all 35 games averages 21.7. So 21.2 at Tulsa, 21.7 at Memphis goes in the portal. And as we just mentioned, was in line to start to sign with Will Wade. Well, ultimately NC state moved on to Darian Williams. So Haggerty looked for another option. He lands at Kansas state where he starts all 31 games for the Wildcats this year and averages 23.4 points per game. So in his four year college career, again, having taken a red shirt that first year at TCU, so that was a red shirt junior, he'll be going into his fifth season as a red shirt senior. He has played in 103 games with 97 starts averaging 33 minutes a game averaging 21 points, five rebounds, three assists per game. So you're talking about a veteran player that is instant offense and is going to cost a lot of money for whatever it's worth. You can take this for what it's worth. Haggerty, if you look at the on three NIL valuation, they put Haggerty's NIL valuation at $2.6 million. So you were talking about one of the premier players in the transfer portal, regardless of position. If you start looking at player rankings out of the portal and what this will cost LSU, if they're interested in adding a guy like Haggerty. So ultimately what we know about this LSU team is they are remaking effectively the entire roster. Jaylen Reese and Robert Miller are the only players that have yet to declare their intention to enter the portal. So one would assume at this point, those two will likely be back, four will wade squad in year one, unless if something else were to transpire between now and then, but DJ Thomas, Maisie Moseley, Jaylen Reed, Matt Gilhull, Ron Zipper, Marcus Vaughn's, all entering the portal, PJ Carter, Markel Sutton, Pablo Tombo, Max McKinnon, Rashard King, all out of eligibility. So you are remaking this entire roster. So you're going to need everything. Why not start with one of the best scorers in the portal and a guy that has familiarity with will wade. It's also going to be very interesting watching some of the NC state guys that hit the portal as a handful of them already have entered the transfer portal. We saw this with the Lane Kiffin portal, some a window in January where the portal window opened on January 2nd. We all expected this avalanche of commitments would came were visits and then the commitment started and we know how it ended. So for will wade similarly players with familiarity, there's less evaluation that needs to take place and more valuation, getting the deal done to get that player here. And maybe a PJ Haggerty will be one of them. So one worth keeping an eye on here as we move through this first week of the portal window. Hey, thanks so much for tuning in to locked on LSU. Please make sure you subscribe and follow locked on LSU. So you get all of our latest episodes. And if you never miss an episode, the everyday air club is built for you. You can get locked on LSU at free plus members only discord access so much more. So head to the link in the show notes to join the club and please subscribe on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube and let a friend know if they love the tigers. We got you every single day. It's locked on LSU, your team every day. Introducing the all new Mazda CX-5 featuring more connection. Hey, Google, where's the nearest Pilates class safety that has your back more discovery on the scenic routes more passion in the details and more control in changing weather. The all new Mazda CX-5 more to move every side of you. See it in five films at MazdaUSA.com slash five sides. Google is a trademark of Google LLC. Sequences shortened and simulated.
