The line on SR LHP and Golden Spikes Finalist
Daniel Bibona is just insane. 2.10 ERA 15 walks to 100Ks in 90 innings. He's only given up 5 dingers and 21 earned runs. As mentioned he was sidelined in early May with a rib injury and this will be his 1st appearance in nearly a month. Gillespie is probably hedging his bets here, hoping that
Bibona has made a full recovery while saving his current ace for UCLA. And even if he's wrong, that bullpen is strong enough to depend on.
I'm really split on this one. You see small park dimensions and how well we did in Hoover and you think "perfect" and then you see
Bibona's numbers and realize that this is going to be very difficult. Excluding outcomes like "
Bibona isn't fully recovered and gets lit up" or we have another day like the series opener against Pomeranzbot at Ole Miss, this is going to be a nailbiter the whole way. If he's ready, just getting a few hits off of
Bibona is going to be difficult, though I think the short field will help us make the most of those hits. I need some more time before I would think about giving a prediction, but if we play sound defense, and Ross has a good night, and we are patient at the plate with
Bibona, we can win this one. Tall order? Sure, but we didn't come to Beverly Hills to sit poolside at the hotel.
Pitching Matchup
LSU - Jr. RHP
Austin Ross (5-4, 5.07 ERA, 81.2 IP, 19 BB, 93 SO)
UCI - Sr. LHP
Daniel Bibona (9-2, 2.10 ERA, 90.0 IP, 15 BB, 100 SO)
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