Rooney — formerly a pitching coach at LSU and Alabama, among other places — showed Bucknam a new sinker grip. Bucknam had thrown the pitch at times during the fall but it hadn’t stuck.

But this new sinker lasted. The sophomore worked on the pitch over the following days and then threw it once against Louisiana Tech last week.

He was told afterward by Jamie Tutko — the director of player development/video and scouting for LSU — that the pitch had 20 inches of run (the horizontal movement it made toward right-handed hitters and away from lefties).

“He came up to me and he was like, ‘You’ve got to throw that more,’ ” Bucknam said.

Bucknam threw the pitch more on Tuesday and it produced good results. He threw 1⅓ scoreless innings against Southeastern Louisiana, his third scoreless appearance this season.

“Super proud of him,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said. “He’s really improving. And the best part of what I saw there was (he) gives up that double, another guy hit a ball hard and (so) he made pitches to get out of that inning with no runs (then) came back out and executed.”

Bucknam said the new sinker is an effective pitch because of how it compliments his slider, which has long been his best secondary offering.

While his slider tails away from right-handed hitters, his sinker does the opposite, providing him more ways to keep hitters off-balance. Bucknam also likes how hard he can throw the pitch, saying it’s roughly the same speed as his fastball that is in the low to mid-90s.

“It just keeps hitters off balance,” Bucknam said. “Even today, I noticed I got quite a few more swings and misses on my slider, which was really good.”

Johnson also has seen growth from Bucknam in terms of his ability to locate his stuff in the strike zone. Bucknam hasn’t walked a batter in three of his four appearances and has yet to hit a batter this season.

“There are strikes that are hittable and there are strikes that are pitcher’s pitches,” Johnson said. “He’s making a lot more pitcher’s pitches.

“Breaking ball’s really good and has always been really good. I think it’s a little tighter. He’s throwing his fastball to both sides of the plate, in and out and it’s up to 94. So really pleased with his development.”

Bucknam’s recent improvement comes at a good time for LSU. The bullpen has struggled to start SEC play, posting a 10.57 ERA in 23 innings against conference competition entering this weekend’s series against Arkansas before allowing six earned runs in 5⅔ innings on Thursday against the Razorbacks.

Bucknam’s improvement, along with the positive steps right-hander Aiden Moffett and left-hander Cam Johnson have made recently, give Johnson more potential answers to an issue that’s hurt the Tigers recently.

“We want to keep developing them,” Johnson said at his radio show Monday. “… So if those guys can continue to pitch well, I would like to see them pushed up into more (high) leverage opportunities.”