GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Could he be LSU’s Angel at first base in 2026? Or maybe the Tigers’ Angel in the Outfield.
Arkansas-Little Rock first baseman Angel Cano basically made LSU’s ballpark his own Angel Box Stadium over the weekend as the Trojans took LSU to the limit in the NCAA Regional that the Tigers finally won Monday night, 10-6, to reach the Super Regional round.
LSU (46-15) hosts West Virginia (44-14) at 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN to open the best-of-three series with the winner advancing to Omaha. Game two will be at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. A third game will be played Monday if necessary. Little Rock finished 27-34.
Cano, a junior this past season from Cartagena, Colombia, South America via Western Oklahoma State, has his senior season to remain at Little Rock or hit the NCAA Transfer Portal. The portal window opened on Monday and will run through July 1. Cano hit .526 in his last four games of the NCAA Regional at the Box, going 10-for-19 with 15 RBIs, three home runs and three doubles.
In a 10-4 win over LSU on Sunday that forced the do-or-die championship game on Monday night, Cano went 2-for-5 with five RBIs with a two-run home run and and a three-run double in a four-run third ining that put the Trojans up 6-3. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI in their loss Monday night.
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For 2025, Cano finished with a .247 average in an injury-plagued campaign. He hit seven home runs and 33 RBIs in his only season at Little Rock. He came into Baton Rouge hitting just .227 with four home runs and 17 RBIs. But he caught everyone’s eye and was voted as Baton Rouge NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player.
“Well, I don’t even know if they’re home yet,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said on statewide Tiger Rag Radio on Tuesday night when asked if there is a chance any Little Rock players could end up at LSU. “So, none of them are in the portal. So, the answer to that right now is no.”
Key words – “right now.”
Johnson did first learn of current LSU pitcher Zac Cowan (3-3, 3.09 ERA, 6 saves) when Cowan was pitching for Wofford at the NCAA Regional LSU played in at North Carolina last season.
LSU did just sign a third baseman/first baseman from the portal this week in Brayden Simpson of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina, via the portal. Simpson hit .389 with 22 home runs and 78 RBIs through 58 starts this season for the Panthers, who were 39-19 overall and 18-6 in the Big South Conference.
Simpson will be a senior for LSU and could fill a need at first base, where LSU’s Jared Jones is a junior and likely to enter the Major League Baseball Draft after this season. Simpson hit .300 with 12 home runs and 46 RBIs in the 2024 season when he played 52 games at first base.
In addition to Cano, LSU fans were also very impressed with Little Rock center fielder Zach Henry, who also made the All-Regional team after some terrific catches, as did third baseman Ty Rhoades. Henry, though, is already a senior. Rhoades is a junior.
“I will say this, my hats are massively off to coach Chris Curry, that program, those players and the effort they put forth,” Johnson said. “They played great. Nothing but respect for Little Rock.”
Stay tuned.
“It truly means a lot to me,” Cano said of the Most Outstanding Player award on Monday night. “It just means a lot. We came here, played LSU – one of the best teams in the country. They punched us (7-0 win on Friday). We flipped it up, punched them back (10-4 win on Sunday). And we got to today. We just went out there, battled with them all day long. They got us. So, great team. I’m just happy that it shows that we’ve been putting some work in behind the scenes.”
Cano may stay loyal to Little Rock and not enter the portal.
“They took me when no one wanted me,” he said. “I’m just happy they gave me a chance. I’m just happy they gave me a chance, and I did what finally I was able to do, which I knew I could.”
Cano praised LSU pitcher Casan Evans, who got the win Monday night with 12 strikeouts, including two of Cano before he singled off of him to lead off the eighth.
“He was nasty,” Cano said. “He was spinning it really good. Throwing me some fastballs there that made me thing about it a little bit. Got me. I’m happy that I got him back in my last at-bat.”
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