NCAA Super Regional Notebook: Chants’ Beckwith no stranger to LSU

Andrew Beckwith has put together an incredible season for Coastal Carolina by keeping batters off-balance with his deceptive delivery, and he managed to surprise with a curveball even at his media session Friday when he revealed that this wasn’t actually his first time inside Louisiana State’s Alex Box Stadium .

“I’ve been here before,” he said. “I came with my parents and cousin a couple years back and I think the gate was open, I think before I was at Coastal. My granddad went here so I kind of have a history through my family [with] LSU, so it’s going to be awesome pitching against the Tigers. The stadium was all that I expected, and I think it will be tomorrow too.”

Beckwith said his grandfather attended LSU and that much of his family is from Louisiana, which makes it even more special to him to be taking the mound Saturday night as the Chanticleers’ starting pitcher in the opener of their best-of-three NCAA super regional series with the Tigers.

Beckwith, 12-1 with a 1.82 earned-run average, faces his toughest challenge yet while pitching against an LSU team (45-19) ranked No. 5 in the country and in front of what should be a raucous crowd inside the 10,326-seat stadium.

“We went to [Texas] A&M last year and I pitched at A&M. We live for these moments as juniors and seniors, and I think we’re really going to bring it this weekend,” he said.

The junior right-hander, who throws both sidearm and over the top, couldn’t be much different from his mound counterpart Saturday night as LSU announced that sophomore righty Alex Lange will start for the home team.

Lange, who throws in the low to mid 90s as a more prototypical front-of-the-rotation starter, comes in with an 8-3 record and 3.46 ERA.

Chants coach Gary Gilmore chuckled when asked what makes Lange so good.

“Ha. Pretty much everything he does,” Gilmore said. “He’s got a power fastball, great command, throws his breaking ball over when he needs to pretty much at will and has fantastic ability to get guys to chase out of the zone. His fastball and breaking ball come out of the same tunnel. He’s one of those unique guys that has that ability to do that, and it makes it very difficult to hit off of. And on top of that, he’s a fantastic competitor so we have our hands full.”

LSU coach Paul Mainieri had not revealed his pitching plans until Friday, but there was no surprise when he finally did.

“[It’s] probably the worst-kept secret in America,” he said. “First of all he’s rested, and he’s our Friday night guy, he’s our No. 1 dude and hopefully he can go out there and pitch great and get us off to a good start. ...

“There’s no secret how Alex Lange pitches. He’s going to throw 92 to 94-mile-per-hour fastballs, he’s going to throw a hard overhand curveball, he’s going to mix in some change-ups and the key for him is to be able to get ahead in counts, mix his pitches well and hopefully when he gets in jams he’s going to rise up.”

Mainieri wasn’t ready to say for certain who would then throw Sunday, though Jared Poche’ (9-4, 3.26 ERA) is certainly the favorite for that assignment and his preference even though he pitched six innings of relief on Tuesday in the team’s regional finale.

“Obviously I would like to go with Poche’ if we can. I just have to wait and make sure he feels 100 percent,” Mainieri said. “He’s pitched on four days rest a couple times before, and he’s pitched well when he’s pitched on four days rest – he’s had really super command and his stuff was good. But he had never done that following a time on three days rest where he did come out of the bullpen the other day on three days rest.

“So we just have to make sure he feels good. He threw a bullpen today and he said he felt great, and he thinks he’s going to be ready to go.”

LSU no stranger to the supers

It says something when a coach has to pause and recount his super regional appearances before answering a question, as Mainieri did Friday.

So yes, he and his LSU baseball program are plenty familiar with this stage of the season as he leads them into their sixth super regional in his 10 years here.

“I had one at the other school I worked with, that’s why I was confused,” he clarified. “Super regionals are so much fun, I mean they really are. You’re so close to getting to the ultimate prize, which is going to Omaha that you can practically smell it, but those last two wins to get there are the hardest to get.

“We’ve been successful four of the five times here at LSU. The one time we weren’t, obviously everybody wants to talk about it and they’ll talk about it until the day I die and long after I’m gone for sure.”

That was 2012 when the Tigers lost in the super regionals to upstart Stony Brook. The comparison has been made by local media this week between that Seawolves team and this Coastal Carolina team, in regard to the Chants being an opponent that could pull off the same kind of upset.

“I remember that summer when I would go out and speak to groups I would be introduced and I would say to people, I’m surprised that they didn’t introduce me as ‘Here’s the guy that lost to Stony Brook’ and leave it at that. Seemed like that was going to be my legacy,” Mainieri joked.

Truth be told, though, having delivered LSU its sixth national championship in 2009 and four College World Series berths so far, Mainieri’s legacy is pretty well secured with the Tigers no matter what happens this weekend.

No shared history, but shared respect

LSU and Coastal Carolina have never met on the baseball field, and Mainieri and Gilmore have never coached against one another, but they at least talked about it in the past.

“He’s got the respect of all the college baseball community,” Mainieri said. “I’ve never coached against him. He and I talked when I was at Notre Dame about one time working out something where we could come down to Myrtle Beach. It never panned out or worked out, but that was about the only time I ever had any interaction with him in those discussions.

“But I’ve always wanted to coach against Coastal Carolina because it’s a program I have a great deal of respect for from a distance.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 6:48 AM with the headline "NCAA Super Regional Notebook: Chants’ Beckwith no stranger to LSU."