By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
CHAPEL HILL, N.C – Tommy White’s two seasons as LSU’s big bat bopper have flashed like a streaking meteoroid burning across the college baseball universe.
Just 16 months ago after he transferred from North Carolina State, White ripped the first pitch he saw in a Tiger uniform for an RBI single.
Since then, despite a labrum injury that bothered him all last year until he underwent surgery in the off-season, White, a junior, has developed into a complete third baseman projected as a top 15 pick in July’s major league baseball draft.
But as he makes his 128th start of his LSU career today when the Tigers (41-20) open NCAA tournament play vs. Wofford at 11 a.m. in the Chapel Hill Regional, White’s total focus is the here and now.
“LSU is everything to me, it’s been there from the start when they (his teammates) just accepted me,” said White, a.k.a. Tommy Tanks, who leads the Tigers with a .337 hitting average with a team-high 69 RBI, 24 homers and a mere 3 fielding errors. “I just want to play as long as possible. It’s what everybody should want to do being here.
“This is the last time I’ll wear an LSU jersey making a postseason run and I don’t want to take it off yet. I wanted to fight to get to that spot.”
In the Tigers’ last-gasp push to earn an SEC bid by winning 7 of their last eight games, White is batting .416 (15 of 36) 13 RBI and 4 homers.
His fight has proven contagious since LSU scored 43 runs in winning its first four SEC Tournament games before losing 4-3 in the finals to No. 1 and NCAA tourney top-seed Tennessee.
“I just think that the whole team wanted it just as much as I did,” White said. “It was pretty cool to see that it wasn’t one guy stepping up. It was everybody stepping up. It was like we said, `We can do this, let’s just do it.’
“You all saw where we started (a 3-12 start in SEC play) to where we’re at now. It’s completely different.”
Though most of White’s batting numbers are down from a year ago when he led the nation with 105 RBI, he also had the luxury of being situated just behind Golden Spikes winner Dylan Crews in the batting order.
Crews, the No. 2 overall pick by Washington in last July’s MLB draft, was third nationally in batting average (.426) and second in on-base percentage (.567).
Because Crews reached base in all 71 games last season, 18 of White’s 24 homers drove in multiple runs. With no Crews to set the table this season, only 10 of White’s 24 homers have scored multiple runs.
It hasn’t deterred White from doing things his way, like slamming 15 first pitches in his LSU career for home runs and leading off an inning 10 times with a homer. He’s also continued to spray the ball all over the park. Of his 48 career homers as a Tiger, 18 have been to left field, 17 to right field, 5 to center field, 5 to right centerfield and 3 to left centerfield.
White has 75 career homers, the first 27 at North Carolina State where he set the NCAA single season freshman home run record. He is No. 8 all-time in NCAA history in career home runs and is just the fourth player in NCAA history to reach the 75-homer mark in three seasons.
“I really look at a game one pitch at a time,” White said.
No. 2 seed LSU (40-21) vs. No. 3 seed WOFFORD (41-18)
WHAT, WHERE: NCAA baseball Chapel Hill (N.C.) Regional
SCHEDULE/PITCHING MATCHUP
Game 1: Today, 11 a.m. CT ESPNU
LSU –TBA
WOFFORD – TBA
LSU’s all-time NCAA tournament record: 174-72 (.707) in 35 appearances, 7 College World Series championships (1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2023 in 19 CWS appearances.
Wofford’s all-time NCAA tournament record: 0-2 (.000) in one appearance.
LSU PLAYERS TO WATCH 3B Tommy White (.337, 24 HR, 69 RBI, 3 errors in 99 chances), 2B Steven Milam (.328, 6 HR, 36 RBI, 5 errors in 211 chances), SS Michael Braswell III (.304, 3 HR, 33 RBI, 13 errors in 203 chances), DH Hayden Travinski (.278, 15 HR, 52 RBI), P Luke Holman (9-3, 2.54 ERA in 85 innings, 116 strikeouts, 32 walks), P Gage Jump (6-1, 3.42 ERA, 73.2 innings, 89 strikeouts, 20 walks), P Griffin Herring (4-1, 6 saves, 1.88 ERA in 43 innings, 57 strikeouts, 13 walks).
WOFFORD PLAYERS TO WATCH
3B Dixon Black (.368, 13 HR, 75 RBI), 1B Tyler Hare (.327, 12 homers, 62 RBI), C Daniel Jackson (.362, 12 HR, 67 RBI), CF Marshall Toole (.383, 9 HR, 64 RBI), P Zac Cowan (9-2, 3.55 ERA in 104 innings, 118 strikeouts, 18 walks), P Camden Wicker (4-3, 4.14 ERA in 16 appearances, 51 strikeouts, 43 walks), P Kenny Michaels (3-1, 2 saves, 4.20 ERA in 45 innings, 56 strikeouts, 22 walks).
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com