By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE — For a guy who overcame three knee surgeries in 14 months, LSU senior catcher/designated hitter Hayden Travinski couldn’t have scripted a better ending for his college career last June.
He was happily on the bottom of a College World Series mound dogpile, hugging reliever Gavin Guidry after gloving Guidry’s game-ending 0-2 strikeout pitch in an 18-4 blowout of Florida to clinch the Tigers’ seventh national championship.
It ended the best two months of Travinski’s LSU baseball life, a stretch in which he was full go and able to demonstrate how good he could be when he stayed healthy.
Tigers’ head coach Jay Johnson thoroughly enjoyed it so much he wanted an encore. So why not bring the Shreveport native and former Airline High star back for one more season in 2024 as a grad student?
“He’s been hurt a lot, and I just felt like there was more on the table for him to do,” Johnson said of Travinski. “I told him `I’d like you to come back, this is your time.’”
Travinski didn’t have to think long about returning. His reasoning, though, didn’t necessarily center on hopefully starting and completing an injury-free season full of at-bats.
“Reps were a big part,” Travinski said. “But I was so thankful to be asked to come back because of over the years how I’ve come to love the program and what the program means to me.”
What Travinski means to the LSU program will be on display in Friday’s 2024 season opener vs. VMI in Alex Box Stadium. That’s when as the Tigers’ starting DH, he’ll wearing the coveted No. 8 jersey for the first time.
Since 2009 starting with outfielder Mikey Mahtook, the No. 8 jersey is given each season to the upperclassman who exemplifies the spirit of LSU baseball through his leadership and dedication to the program.
Mahtook, who now hosts a twice-weekly podcast called “Mik’d Up,” said on his show last week when Travinski was a guest he was pleased Travinski was chosen to wear No. 8.
“To me, you epitomize what it was created for,” Mahrook told Travinski. “You stuck it out, you grinded through it. It hasn’t been rainbows and roses for you throughout your career.
“But you’ve put yourself in a position where you’re in a spot right now where you can excel and move forward and impact a lot of people.”
Travinski said he was grateful to be among the select company of past No. 8 honorees such as Alex Bregman, Jake Fraley, Antoine Duplantis and Gavin Dugas.
“I wear it like a badge of honor,” Travinski told Mahtook. “I view it as a representation of our entire team.”
Travinski earned the respect of the LSU coaching staff and the players by being a good teammate when he was rehabbing and then being ready when the time came.
“You could argue that, outside of Dylan Crews, there was not a more valuable player on our team down the stretch of the 2023 season than Hayden Travinski,” Johnson said.
Shortly after he hammered a two-out, pinch-hit three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning on April 23 to lift LSU to a 7-6 win at Ole Miss, he was inserted into the starting lineup.
In 41 games (23 starts), Travinski batted .356 (37-for-104) with five doubles, 10 homers, 30 RBI and 30 runs scored.
He homered at least once in each of LSU’s final five SEC regular-season series versus Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State and Georgia (two HRs). Also, he was voted to the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional All Tournament Team after hitting .429 (6-for-14) with one double, two homers, five RBI and five runs.
With those numbers, it’s easy to see why Johnson wants to see what a healthy Travinski can accomplish. But Johnson also values the leadership of Travinski and Johnson, the oldest players on the team at age 23.
“Our job is to mentor them, help them adjust and help them learn the way that we do things,” Travinski said. “It’s been fun, though some of them (LSU’s freshmen) were born in 2005 which is a little bit outside of my realm.”
Travinski and Milazzo’s senior citizen status is targeted by teammates like potential starting true freshman outfielder Jake Brown.
“I tell Hayden he’s old and can’t keep up with the younger generation,” Brown said with a laugh. “I ask him how his knees are feeling.”
Milazzo said new pitching coach Nate Yeski asked him and Travinski how they liked catching Ben McDonald (the No. 1 MLB Draft pick who starred for LSU in the late 1980s).
Travinski doesn’t mind the verbal give-and-take. He’s just ecstatic to open a season healthy for the first time as a collegiate competitor.
“Due to injuries and unfortunate circumstances, I went two years nearly without consistent play,” Travinski said. “Last fall, other than illness, I didn’t miss a single practice.
“It’s the first time in my career that’s happened. So now, it’s fun just being able to be out there every day.”
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com