New Bats Take Punch Out of Cresse’s Poke

For the last three seasons, Louisiana State has led the nation in home runs. In f

Last year, LSU hit 157 home runs in 67 games, led by catcher Brad Cresse with 29.

This season, LSU has only 73 homers through 46 games, an average of 1.6 per game compared to 2.34 last year. Cresse, who has only six in 39 games, offers an explanation.

“The new bats have definitely made a difference,” said Cresse, the former Marina High player from Seal Beach. “When they cut down the size of the barrel of the bat, they also cut the sweet spot down.”

The NCAA’s new aluminum bat standards, introduced this season, reduced the allowable bat diameter from 2 3/4 inches to 2 5/8. The maximum length to weight differential also was reduced in an attempt to lower the speed of batted balls for safety reasons and to put more defense back in the game.

Cresse’s complaint is how quickly the players were forced to make an adjustment from the old bats to the new ones.

“We practice all fall with one bat, and then they give us the new bats right before the season begins,” he said. “I think they were wrong in doing that. They should have made the change after this season, the way they first said they were going to.”

But the new bats aren’t the only reason for Cresse’s reduced home run total or his current .261 batting average.

Cresse suffered a small break in a bone on the top of his right hand blocking a low pitch during a February workout. He missed seven games and was at less than full strength for several others.

“I went a whole month without being healthy, and it killed my stats,” he said. “I couldn’t even grip the bat for a while. Then I was just happy to get through the zone without it hurting.”

The Tigers, winners of four national championships in the 1990s, are 29-17 this season but only 11-10 and in last place in the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference.

Coach Skip Bertman doesn’t blame his team’s problems on the new bats.

“I don’t think the bats have affected us any more than any other team,” Bertman said. “We’re still hitting a lot of home runs. We’re second in the conference in homers, but we’re just not hitting as many as we have in the past.”

Third baseman/outfielder Trey McClure and first baseman Jeff Leaumont each has 13 homers to lead the team. A year ago, McClure hit 27. McClure, however, has been slowed by a pinched nerve in his neck.

“The injuries we’ve had have been more of a concern to us than the bats,” Bertman said. “Cresse’s numbers don’t reflect the numbers he’s capable of. What we’re not doing is getting hits with runners on base. And we’re not pitching as well as we need to pitch.”

OFFENSE DROPS

NCAA statistics show that the number of home runs, batting averages and scoring are all down this season in Division I.

Home runs have dropped from an average of 1.03 per game at midseason last year to 0.93 at the same stage this season. Teams averaged 1.06 home runs per game for all of last season.

Batting averages have dropped from .305 at midseason last year to .301 this year, and scoring is down from 7.22 runs per game to 7.03. Earned-run averages have fallen from 6.14 to 5.93.

Coaches say they’ve seen a slight difference in the new bats. The ball doesn’t seem to come off them quite as fast as it came off last year’s models. But there still have been plenty of games featuring a lot of offense. Alabama, which leads the Southeastern Conference in home runs, hit 13 in a recent 30-4 victory over Alabama Birmingham.

Cal State Fullerton hit three consecutive home runs against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo three weeks ago.

ONE BIG CONCERN

The Titans are rolling along with a 38-8 record, a 4 1/2-game lead in the Big West Conference race and have a good shot at being one of the eight nationally seeded teams for the NCAA playoffs.

But there is one growing concern.

Sophomore pitcher Jon Smith, who has the conference’s best earned-run average at 1.83, has been forced to leave early in his last two starts because of arm and shoulder problems. He is expected to be sidelined this weekend when the Titans play Sacramento State.

Smith (6-0) came out after only one inning against San Luis Obispo and then pitched only two innings against UC Santa Barbara last weekend. He made five starts early last season, then missed two months because of similar arm trouble.

“He has been having physical therapy, but it doesn’t seem to have helped much,” Titan pitching coach Dave Serrano said. “The tenderness is mainly in the shoulder area, but it seems to move around on him. It’s not isolated in one area. He’s tried to pitch through it, but it has continued to bother him.”

The good news for the Titans is the improvement shown recently by senior right-hander Marco Hanlon. Tuesday night Hanlon improved to 4-0, giving up four hits and one run in four innings as the starter in Fullerton’s 11-10 victory over UCLA.

TOUCHING ALL BASES

Pitcher Brian Manning, a junior right-hander from Anaheim Hills, has tied the Villanova season record for saves with nine. Manning, who played for Mater Dei, is 3-1 with 51 strikeouts in 33 innings. He has appeared in 27 games. The school’s career record for saves is 16, and Manning already has 11. . . . Miami swept a three-game series from Florida State last weekend in a matchup of two of the nation’s top teams. Miami earlier had won two of three games at Florida State. That will be a big boost for the Hurricanes when it comes time to determine sites in Florida for the NCAA regional, and possibly a super regional. Miami will play a three-game series May 20-22 at Long Beach State. . . . USC continues to make a strong comeback despite catcher Eric Munson being sidelined because of a broken hand. The Trojans (29-20) are tied with Stanford for first place in the Pacific 10, each with 14-4 records.