GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
That Jay Johnson touch has LSU smelling Omaha steaks after a sizzling, 16-9 win over West Virginia at Alex Box Stadium on Saturday in the best-of-three Super Regional opener with the winner reaching the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
LSU (47-14) can advance on Sunday with another win over West Virginia (44-15) in a 5 p.m. game on ESPN2. Junior right-hander Anthony Eyanson (10-2, 2.50 ERA) will start for the Tigers.
Should the Tigers make the CWS, they will play the winner of the Super Regional between Tennessee (46-17) and No. 3 national seed Arkansas (46-13) on Friday or Saturday. Tennessee and Arkansas opened Super Regional play on Saturday at 4 p.m. on ESPN at Arkansas and will play game two at 2 p.m. on ESPN.
.@LSUbaseball right now…… pic.twitter.com/ztsBzvnofY
— Peter Burns (@PeterBurnsESPN) June 7, 2025
Johnson dropped season-long lead-off, left-handed hitter Derek Curiel from first in the order to seventh before the game, and Curiel was not close to slumping. He came in hitting .341 after hitting .400 in the NCAA Regional (6-for-15).
But Curiel had been been struggling mightily all season against left-handers at 19 for 88, which is a .215 average. And WVU started a left-hander in ace Griffin Kirn (5-2, 3.13 ERA).
But the No. 7 hitter came up in the fourth inning with one out and two on, and the Tigers had zero hits at the time and were trailing, 1-0, against the lefty Kirn.
Curiel then launched his 7th home run of the season – an opposite field swing off a Kirn slider that cleared the right field wall by about 20 feet and gave the Tigers a 3-1 lead. Curiel finished 3-for-3 with five RBIs and three runs scored, including a big 1-for-1 with a three-run home run against the one lefty he faced. Curiel also stayed strong in the box and got a walk in his first appearance against Kirn in the second inning.
“It speaks to good players and their mental strength and them doing their job,” Johnson said when asked about pushing the right buttons.
Curiel downplayed his move to seventh in the order, which was easily the lowest he has batted all season. He has usually been first or second, mostly first.
“Nothing was different, honestly, first or seventh,” he said.
Not exactly. There was a lot different.
“He’s not hit seventh this year. That’s for sure,” Johnson said. “It’s just in a game like this against a pitcher like that, it’s very different from what we’ve seen, even relative to SEC left-handers. I really think the guys did a good job of what they needed to do. You really have to stay in there on him the way he steps, and where he delivers the ball – it’s almost completely out of the batter’s eye. So, he can really be tough on lefties. Derek stayed on that slider and hit a bullet. That’s impressive to be able to do that.”
Kirn lost his no-hitter to Curiel, unless you count the two LSU hit batsman – Luis Hernandez and Daniel Dickinson – before Curiel in the inning.
That’s how you get your team’s first hit of the game. 7th? batter in order Derek Curiel hits 3-run HR to put LSU up 3-1 in 4th on WVU.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 7, 2025
Johnson’s best batting order adjustment was inserting left-handed hitting platoon right fielder Josh Pearson at lead-off for Curiel. Pearson singled off Kirn to start the fifth and sent him to the showers. Then all he did was hit a grand slam home run in the sixth for a 16-5 lead. Pearson finished 2-for-5 with the four RBIs.
Those two Johnson’s moves came just five days after he moved designated hitter Ethan Frey from the middle of the order to No. 2 in Jared Jones’ spot last Monday before the NCAA Regional title game against Little Rock. And Frey delivered a three-run double to get the Tigers within 5-4 in the fourth before finishing 4-for-4 with four RBIs in a 10-6 win.
LSU DISPLAYS PROWESS IN THE PINCH
Johnson has also showed an uncanny ability to pick the right pinch-hitter at the right time this season.
“I don’t think it really had a lot to do with shuffling the deck and the order today,” Johnson said modestly. “It was about our players executing.”
In all, Kirn (5-3) allowed just the hits to Curiel and Pearson and one walk in taking the loss. But he hit three batters and gave up four runs as he basically melted in the 103-degree heat index, throwing 87 pitches with just 47 strikes.
WVU coach Steve Sabins ended up hurting his own cause by calling for review of hit batsman Daniel Dickinson. Umps took way too long to see if DD leaned in. He didn’t, though he also didn’t try to dodge it. Meanwhile, P Griffin Kirn melted in the heat. Then gave up 3-run HR.
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 7, 2025
And WVU coach Steve Sabins didn’t help him by asking for a review of Kirn’s hit on Dickinson in the fourth. Umpires took way too long to decide that Dickinson did not lean into the ball as Kirn just stood out there in the horrendous heat.
Then Kirn’s relievers kept the heat going, so to speak. Right-hander JJ Glasscock came on after Pearson’s single in the fifth and immediately walked Frey and Jones to load the bases. Left-hander Cole Fehrman came on, and Steven Milam took him over the right field wall for a grand slam and his 11th home run of the season for a 7-1 lead.
Fehrman hit Luis Hernandez and walked Dickinson before right-hander Tyler Hutson replaced him. It was Curiel’s turn again, and he singled in a run for an 8-1 advantage. Chris Stanfield later added a two-run single, and it was 10-1 before the seven-run inning ended.
The Mountaineers touched up LSU starter Kade Anderson for four runs on four hits with a walk in the sixth inning to get within 10-5, but Anderson got out of it. And LSU scored six in the bottom of the sixth to take a 16-5 lead.
Pearson’s grand slam off right-hander Luke Lyman that was his seventh home run of the season closed the scoring in that frame. The first two runs scored on bases-loaded walks to Curiel and Ashton Larson by Lyman, who was WVU’s fifth of six pitchers.
LSU scored its second most runs on the season on just eight hits. The Tigers beat Xavier, 18-4, on March 11.
Anderson went to 10-1 on the season with the win after shaking off a hit ball to the fleshy part of his left, throwing arm in second inning when WVU took a 1-0 lead. Johnson said he was fine as the arm did not swell during the game or cause him much pain. Anderson allowed nine hits and six earned runs over seven innings. The left-hander struck out seven with two walks. He threw 113 pitches – 77 strikes.
“Very few guys have all of it, and he’s got all of it,” Johnson said of Anderson, a draft-eligible sophomore because of his early birthday (July 6). MLB.com just listed him last week as its projected No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft this summer.
“Proud of Kade for gutting through that,” Johnson said. “That was not easy.”
And because he did, Anderson has a very good chance now at more gutsy pitching in his last game or games at LSU in Omaha.
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