GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU relief ace and new Sunday starter Casan Evans could pitch in relief Friday night when the No. 2 Tigers (37-9, 14-7 Southeastern Conference) play at Texas A&M (25-19, 8-13 SEC) at 6 p.m. on SEC Network+.
And the right-hander could pitch Saturday in a 2 p.m. game as a reliever, too. Or, he could pitch just Friday out of the bullpen briefly or not too long, and then start on Sunday in the 1 p.m. series finale. Or, he could not pitch Friday, pitch a little in relief on Saturday, and start on Sunday.
All of the above also goes for junior relief ace Zac Cowan, a right-hander who was a 10-2 with a 3.35 ERA in 17 starts at Wofford last season.
LSU junior right-hander Zac Cowan and freshman right-hander Casan Evans have formed a dynamic duo out of the bullpen for the Tigers. (LSU photo).
There is a chance, though, that Evans will not be available for Friday night after throwing 85 pitches on Sunday against Tennessee in his first collegiate start, but Johnson is not confirming that for “competitive advantage.” Texas A&M just thinking Evans may pitch, even if he doesn’t, is a weapon.
Evans allowed two runs on six hits in six innings for the win over No. 5 Tennessee, which has been one of the best hitting teams in the country all season. He struck out six and walked none.
Evans and Cowan have put up phenomenal numbers all season. Evans is 3-0 with a 1.09 ERA with six saves and has struck out 47 in 33 innings with only nine walks, zero home runs and a .203 batting average allowed. Cowan is 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA with six saves and has struck out 49 in 40 innings with just seven walks, one home run and a .179 batting average.
Johnson considered starting Cowan against Tennessee on Sunday and having Evans close the game, instead of the other way around, which is what happened. Evans had not pitched yet in the Tennessee series, and Cowan had thrown only 13 pitches in the Friday night win.
HOW JAY JOHNSON FOUND ZAC COWAN
“They’re both great options,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Zac’s done it as a starter (at Wofford). Casan’s done it in high school. It was just a call to go with Casan Sunday – a call in the moment. We made the decision going into Saturday that we were going with Casan, if we didn’t pitch him on Saturday.”
Each can also pitch twice in three days – as a reliever Friday, then as the starter Sunday, or twice in two days as relievers on Friday and Saturday or short relief Saturday and the Sunday start.
Evans pitched twice in three days against Dallas Baptist on Feb. 26 and Kansas State on Feb. 28 during the Tigers’ trek through the Dallas area. He threw 22 pitches through two innings with two strikeouts and no hits or walks allowed for the save against Dallas Baptist. Two days later, he threw 33 pitches through two innings, allowing three hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
Cowan pitched in back-to-back games against Alabama on April 17-18 and got the save each time. He threw just four pitches in his first game in a third of an inning. Then he threw 45 over three innings, allowing two runs on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts the next day.
“They have the durability,” Johnson said. “We’ve worked them up enough.”
It’s late in the season and Evans and Cowan have piled on enough innings to push it now. It’s that time of the season with just three SEC series remaining.
LSU HAS GAINED A NEW STARTER IN CASAN EVANS, BUT HAS NOT LOST A RELIEVER
“It depends on the circumstances. It has to matter,” Johnson said when asked about Evans and Cowan pitching in consecutive games. “They all matter, but it has to matter and fit both for them and for the team.”
The same with one of them pitching in relief on Friday or Saturday and starting Sunday.
“Yeah, that would depend on how many pitches they’ve already thrown,” Johnson said. “It just depends on the guy and how they recover. Conversations, a check-in with them, do some metric testing for recovery. And again, we’re trying to win every game, but I believe a lot of these pitchers have futures beyond here. So, you’ve got to do it right.”
At times, Johnson has to decide in one or both of the first two games of a weekend series if it’s worth using Evans or Cowan in a game in which LSU is trailing close. The Tigers cut Tennessee’s lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh last Saturday, but then the Vols went up 9-2 in the top of the eighth, so Johnson threw six second line relievers.
“Every situation is different,” he said. “Home or away, feel for the game, what the offense is doing? Where they’re at in the order? What do we want to get out of the weekend in totality for the pitching staff? Obviously, you want to win every game and sweep every weekend, but you don’t always get to choose where the game’s at. It’s not just linear, like, ‘Hey, this is what it is.’”
The key is Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie have the pitching depth to finesse their pitchers’ usage and consider all the options – more than Johnson has had in his time at LSU out of the pen.
“There’s a lot to it. It’s never as simple as sometimes it sounds,” Johnson said. “There’s strategy, and winning the game is at the top, but when you’re fortunate to have the guys, you’ve got to pay attention.”
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