GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson is a detail guy in every sense of the word – maybe too much at times. But so far it’s working. At just 48, he won the national championship in 2023 with the Tigers in his third trip to the College World Series in seven seasons with two at Arizona in 2016 and 2021.
He is two wins away from his second trip in three years with the Tigers. LSU (46-15) hosts West Virginia (44-14) in a best-of-three Super Regional at Alex Box Stadium with the winner advancing to Omaha. Game one is at 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. Game two is at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2. Game three will be at some point Monday, if necessary.
“We’ve been able to pour everything into making sure every detail is buttoned up with every player,” Johnson said Friday afternoon at a press conference outside the Box.”
And he did not appear overly concerned about one of his hottest pitchers – freshman right-hander Casan Evans who threw a career-high 109 pitches to win an elimination game over Arkansas-Little Rock late Monday night. He struck out 12, including nine straight, in a four-hitter over six innings with three walks to go to 4-1 on the season with a miniscule 1.90 ERA.
Evans’ previous pitch-count high was 93 on May 4 at Texas A&M. If he pitches in relief Saturday for starter Anthony Eyanson (10-2, 2.50 ERA) or left-hander Kade Anderson (9-1, 3.28 ERA), he will do it in on four days rest.
“Cason’s good,” Johnson said. “Feels great. His recovery was important, but he threw seven innings every week in high school for four years and expects to take the ball and go deep into games and did it this year.”
CASAN EVANS PITCHED A LEGENDARY POSTSEASON GAME MONDAY
Evans, a power pitcher with 65 strikeouts in 47 and a third innings, did pitch twice in three days in February against Dallas Baptist and Kansas State, going two innings twice and allowing no runs on three hits with one walk and earning a save with five strikeouts. He also pitched twice in five days and twice in six days in March and notched two more saves with seven strikeouts and then 11 over those two spans.
“He’ll be ready to go,” Johnson said.
Evans has gone six innings twice in his last five appearances. On Monday, it didn’t seem like he went six innings and threw 109 pitches, because he works so fast.
“I think tempo is the best thing you can have when you’re on the mound,” Evans said. “It’s one of the big factors that a lot of pitchers don’t have. When you don’t have tempo, you won’t be able to get dudes out.”
Little Rock coach Chris Curry tried to slow Evans down unsuccessfully.
“He was timing it really well, where we couldn’t get into our timing and rhythm all the time,” he said. “He was throwing his fastball in the mid-90s. Then his split-finger changeup in the mid-80s was hard, straight down and tumbling. That was the pitch you were getting all the swings and misses on. When a guy throws like that, you have to make a swing decision very early. When a split finger comes out of a hand like that, they were reading it as a fastball. And it wasn’t.”
Evans also did an excellent job of keeping the ball low as instructed by pitching coach Nate Yeskie.
“He was like, ‘As long as you keep the ball down in the zone, through your off speed, you’ll get batters out real easily,” Evans said. “When I got the ball down, they got themselves out.”
WEST VIRGINIA COACH CONFIDENT COMING INTO ALEX BOX STADIUM
West Virginia does not know when it will see Evans and does not know if Eyanson or Anderson is starting Saturday as Johnson has made no pitching announcements. WVU coach Steve Sabins named senior left-hander Griffin Kirn (5-2, 3.13 ERA) as his starter for Saturday.
Kirn has 100 strikeouts in a team-high 95 innings and has also allowed a team-high 12 home runs. The Mountaineers top reliever is senior right-hander Reese Bassinger (7-1, 4.28 ERA, 5 saves).
“Good starters, a couple of good bullpen pieces, great team, championship team,” Johnson said. “Playing with a lot of confidence right now.”
WVU trailed Kentucky, 6-1 and 12-7, on Sunday, but won 13-12 to capture the Clemson Regional. On Saturday, the Mountaineers scored four in the top of the ninth to beat Clemson, 9-6, in front of 6,475. On Friday night, Regional MVP Armani Guzman’s sacrifice fly gave WVU a walk-off 4-3 win over Kentucky.
LSU is very confident as well as it trailed Little Rock, 5-1, in the Regional title game early before battling back for a 10-6 win.
“My biggest takeaway was the ability of the team to respond in such an appropriate fashion in a high-stakes game,” Johnson said. “Should give them great confidence that they can win any game they play.”
LSU BASEBALL NCAA TRANSFER PORTAL UPDATE
The Tigers have lost three more deep reserves to the NCAA Transfer Portal, though players can exit the portal and return to their team. But that is rare.
The latest players to look elsewhere are junior transfer catcher Blaise Priester, who transferred to LSU from Meridian Community College for this season, junior transfer right-handed pitcher Chandler Dorsey, who came in from South Florida, and redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Dylan Thompson from Sam Houston High in the Lake Charles area.
Priester went 0-for-7 in 13 games. Dorsey threw five innings in five appearances, and Thompson made one appearance.
Earlier this week, freshman first baseman Ryan Costello of Howell, New Jersey, and freshman infielder David Hogg II of Mansfield, Texas, entered the portal. Costello was 0-for-8 in 15 games, and Hogg was 0-for-2 in 12 games.
LSU has signed one new player – junior third baseman/first baseman Brayden Simpson of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina.
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