Jay Johnson Mulling Over 3rd Weekend Starter With Cooper Moore Out 3 Or 4 Starts

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

As if LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson didn’t have enough on his mind.

-His Tigers (16-9, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) are at or near the bottom in virtually every significant statistical category in the SEC going into Tuesday’s home game (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+) against Louisiana Tech (15-10, 4-2 Conference-USA).

-The former No. 1-ranked Tigers are not ranked for the second straight week.

-LSU (16-9) is one game out of last place in the SEC standings at 2-4 after losing back-to-back home games to Oklahoma over the weekend.

-The Tigers are 0-for-4 in one-run games this season with three of those at home, including 4-3 on Saturday.

LSU No. 2 Starting Pitcher Cooper Moore Likely To Miss 3 Starts With Arm Injury

And he needs a new weekend starting pitcher by this weekend because No. 2 right-handed starter Cooper Moore (3-3, 3.38 ERA, 39 strikeouts, 7 walks, 32 innings) is out for three to four weeks with a stress-reaction bone bruise in his right forearm suffered during his start on Friday.

LSU hosts No. 19 Kentucky (19-4, 4-2 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday – all on SEC Network+.

Johnson originally described Moore’s injury as a triceps issue, but that was incorrect.

“The source of the pain was actually different from where it showed,” Johnson said on his weekly radio show Monday night. “So, he needs to rest to let the inflammation go down. Once he clears about 10 days, we’ll re-image it.”

If the swelling in the forearm goes down enough during the rest period, Moore will then begin throwing again to work himself up to a start, which could take a week or two.

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“Then he’ll begin rebooting his throwing program,” Johnson said. “When you throw as much as a starting pitcher does, 10 days is a long time. So we have to get his arm back in shape to be able to put him back in the game. Three weeks time is what I was told by the doctors and our trainer.”

Since Moore is a junior, he is expected to be drafted into Major League Baseball this summer.

“Cooper wants to be drafted, too, so there’s a lot on the line for him to want to get back and pitch this season,” Johnson said. “So, he’s motivated to do it. We have the right doctors, right medical help to get him to do it. I’m happy there was nothing structurally wrong. He’s a really tough kid, great competitor. I’m optimistic that that will be the timeline.”

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Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie have been mulling over who the third weekend starter will be after sophomore ace Casan Evans (2-0, 4.80 ERA, 50 strikeouts, 13 walks, 30 innings) and sophomore No. 3 starter William Schmidt (3-1, 3.00 ERA, 46 strikeouts, 9 walks, 30 innings).

“Casan will obviously lead the series off,” Johnson said. “We haven’t made a final decision of whether we are going to move William up a day or not. There are a lot of factors to that. We made some headway and talked about it. His health is paramount, too.”

Schmidt left his start at Vanderbilt two weekends ago with back stiffness, but had no issues with that in his start against Oklahoma.

“Is what’s best for him to move up a day? Given that we played a day earlier, this is the week to do it if we’re going to do it,” Johnson said.

Among the pitchers Johnson said he and Yeskie are considering are junior left-hander Oregon transfer Santiago Garcia (0-0, 5.00 ERA,1 save,16 strikeouts, 4 walks, 9 innings, 8 appearances), senior right-hander Grant Fontenot (0-0, 2.70 ERA, 1 save, 9 strikeouts, 4 walks, 6.2 innings, 7 appearances) and senior right-hander Zac Cowan (1-0, 6.23 ERA, 14 strikeouts, 2 walks, 8.2 innings, 6 appearances).

Garcia has struck out 10 over his last three appearances through six and a third innings with just two runs and one walk allowed around five hits. He struck out three in the 4-2 loss to Oklahoma Saturday with no walks and one run allowed on two hits in two and two thirds innings.

“I thought Garcia did a really good job in that game,” Johnson said.

Fontenot is coming off two strong performances. In the 4-2 loss to Oklahoma on Friday, he allowed no hits or runs with one walk and two strikeouts in an inning and a third. And last week against Grambling, he struck out three with one walk and one hit allowed in two innings.

“Two really good outings last week out of Grant, so I’m proud of him and his improvement,” Johnson said.

Cowan closed out the 7-1 win Thursday over Oklahoma with a strikeout and no runs, hits or walks given up in an inning and a third. In his previous appearance at Vanderbilt the previous week, he struck out five with zero runs or walks allowed and one hit given up in three and a third innings.

“He had a couple weeks where he didn’t get a lot of opportunities, but kept his foot on the gas, kept himself ready and performed well last week twice,” Johnson said.