LSU Pitcher Todd Peterson’s Clutch At-Bat
LSU faced South Carolina in the third round of the SEC tournament. A hard fought, close game led to extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, LSU had to move their designated hitter to play in the field. That now meant that the LSU pitcher in the game had to bat. That pitcher was sophomore Todd Peterson.
Even after Peterson told LSU Head Coach Paul Mainieri he hit “bombs” in high school, Coach Mainieri was just hoping Peterson didn’t get hurt at the plate. Lucky for Coach Mainieri, he got so much more. Peterson hit a 2-run double off the wall, inches away from clearing the fence for a homerun. Not only did Peterson hit the game winning double, he also got his first pitching win on the season for closing out South Carolina in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Todd Peterson fueled the LSU team and fans with his clutch batting and exciting personality. In his amusing interview after the game, Peterson admitted he was a strong batter in high school. We would soon find out that was a lie. In the press conference shortly after that, Peterson was asked when his last competitive at-bat was and he responded it was in high school like he stated before. He then took a deep breath, and admitted to his coach he never actually batted in high school because he coaches didn’t want him to get hurt. Everyone, especially Coach Mainieri, was very shocked and didn’t know how to handle the news at the moment. Luckily everyone was able to laugh about the situation since Peterson did so well. To Peterson’s defense, he just wanted to swing and didn’t want anyone stopping him. Looks like Coach Mainieri should let Peterson swing more. In the next game, Peterson was in the lineup as the DH batting in the cleanup spot. LSU tweeted the picture of the lineup with the hashtag “pitchers who rake.” Even though LSU would likely have someone come in and pinch hit for Peterson, LSU wanted to keep their team and fans excited for the next few games to come.
