Peterson earns starter status for LSU

Tigers begin postseason with bye

Presumably LSU’s Todd Peterson passed the audition to be the Tigers’ No. 4 starter should the situation arise in the NCAA postseason.

In fact, Peterson will be LSU’s No. 1 starter when the Tigers open the Southeastern Conference tournament play Wednesday, head coach Paul Mainieri said Monday.

It’s not an unusual move for Mainieri, who has a first-round bye after a weekend sweep of Mississippi State gave the Tigers (38-17, 21-9 SEC) a share of the conference regular season title with Florida.

The tournament in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover, Ala., starts today, with LSU awaiting the winner of the play-in game between Texas A&M and Missouri to learn its opponent for its 1 p.m. (approximately) game on Wednesday.

Peterson will be on the mound for the Tigers. He warmed up for the task last week with just his third career start in a midweek game against Northwestern State in which he went five innings while allowing just one run on four hits with five strikeouts.

It’s not an unusual move for Mainieri. Last year, even without the luxury of a first-round bye, he opened the SEC tournament with Jake Latz, who was making his first career start and had thrown only 3 1/3 innings.

After the opener, depending on how far the Tigers advance in the double-elimination tournament, Mainieri will revert to his usual rotation of Alex Lange, Jared Poché and Eric Walker.

The Tigers, who open the postseason after winning 11 of their last 12 SEC games — 12 of 14 overall — moved up Monday in all of the major polls.

LSU vs. winner of Texas A&M-Missouri 1 p.m. Wednesday SEC

They were all the way up to No. 3 (from No. 5) in Collegiate Baseball, No. 7 (10) in D1Baseball, No. 8 (10) in Baseball America and No. 7 in Perfect Game (8).

Also on Monday, LSU had two players, Lange and rightfielder Greg Deichmann named to the All-SEC first team, while shortstop Kramer Robertson was on the second team.

All three of LSU’s freshman starters —third baseman Josh Smith, centerfielder Zach Watson and Walker — were named to the conference’s all-freshman team.

Smith, Robertson and catcher Michael Papierski, who leads the SEC in runners thrown out, were named to the all-defensive team.

Mississippi State’s Brent Rooker was the SEC player of the year, with Kentucky’s Sean Hjelle named the league pitcher of the year.

Braden Shewmake of Texas A&M was the freshman of the year and Kentucky’s Nick Mingione the coach of the year.

Robertson was named the SEC player of the week after going 6-for-14 against Mississippi State with a home run, a triple and two doubles while scoring eight runs with three RBIs.

LSU righthander Zach Hess was the SEC freshman of the week. He made two relief appearances against Mississippi State, not allowing a run in 3.2 innings with six strikeouts.

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