By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Southeastern Conference baseball teams, such as LSU, tend to take a deserved exhale when they exit the SEC schedule and the SEC Tournament and reach the NCAA Tournament.
The league has been so balanced and difficult year after year with a plethora of great teams that NCAA postseason play tends to offer a bit of a respite in many cases … unless an SEC team has to play an SEC team.
It’s the same thing with LSU’s month of practices leading up to the 2026 season opener next Friday when the No. 1 Tigers host Milwaukee at Alex Box Stadium (2 p.m., SEC Network+).
“Drawing good competition from each other has been helpful,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said of his star-studded defending national championship team that has returned nine players, including the starting outfield, starting shortstop and several key pitchers along with a No. 1 recruiting and portal class.
“The depth of the team on both sides looks like it’s a strength. Feel like we’re playing real games right now,” he said.
But the scrimmages over the last few weeks have maybe been too real.
“I’m glad we don’t have another week of scrimmages,” Johnson said. “It’s like when you get through the SEC, if you make it to the NCAA Tournament, you kind of feel like there’s nothing that you haven’t seen before. I feel like our scrimmages have given us some of that going into the season.”
LSU closer, long reliever, middle reliever, starter Casan Evans also wanted to bat and play shortstop last season. And Jay Johnson let him try it.https://t.co/GTd4UJVe3C
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) January 27, 2026
It is likely that sophomore right-hander Casan Evans (5-1, 2.05 ERA, 7 saves in 2025) will start the opener with Kansas junior transfer right-hander Cooper Moore (7-3, 3.96 ERA) starting game two on Saturday (1 p.m., SEC Network+). But the competition for the third starter, multiple mid-week starters early in the season and relievers remains heated.
Sophomore right-hander William Schmidt (7-0, 4.73 ERA) had a strong final scrimmage outing this week with nine strikeouts through 10 batters, including eight straight, and no runs or hits in five innings.
“We’re obviously being really tested by our own pitching staff,” Johnson said. “I’m talking about like 15 guys. So, there’s no break. You get to the fourth intrasquad game, and it’s the same as the first one.”
Keep your eye on sophomore left-hander Ethan Plog, a transfer from Iowa Western Community College.
“He’s really hard to hit,” Johnson said.
After a particularly dominating outing recently, Johnson felt like he had to reassure his hitters.
“I told the team that’s as close to doing something that would transfer to the Majors as anybody on our team has done on this field,” he said. “He reminds me of Billy Wagner a little bit.”
Wow.
Wagner, a left-handed closer who pitched for the Houston Astros from 1995-03 before finishing his career with Philadelphia, New York Mets, Boston and Atlanta, is one of only eight pitchers in Major League Baseball history with 400 saves. His 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings is second in MLB history.
“And Ethan is really growing in confidence and is going to be a very key part of this thing,” Johnson said.
Plog was 5-3 with a 5.94 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 36 and a third innings last year at Iowa Western, but has really blossomed at LSU so far. He was 7-0 with 84 strikeouts in 50 innings at Bay Port High in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 2024.
There is also freshman right-hander Zion Theophilus from Moeller High in Cincinnati. He has been striking out a lot of hitters in the scrimmages. He was the No. 32 right-hander by Perfect Game out of high school and the No. 1 right-hander in Ohio. Theophilus was 23-3 with a 1.40 ERA with 245 strikeouts in 164 innings in his Moeller career with a no-hit game in which he struck out 17.
Johnson felt he had to reassure some of LSU’s new hitters recently.
“I tell these young guys, ‘Man, you’re getting a PhD in baseball, and it’s not just from a coaching standpoint,'” he said. “It’s like they’re facing pitchers they have nowhere ever seen.”
He caught himself laughing with freshmen infielders Jack Ruckert of Catholic High and Ethan Clauss of Polo Verde High in Las Vegas in the dugout after each had each gone through the wringer in a scrimmage.
“They looked like Rocky Balboa after fighting Ivan Drago (in the Rocky IV film),” Johnson said. “And they’re competing great. But it’s like it wasn’t quite like that at Catholic High or Polo Verde.”
Milwaukee has some good pitchers, too, Johnson said, but likely not 15 of them.
“It’s about being great at what you’re good at,” Johnson said of the team overall. “We’ve gotten some clarity for some players and have seen some upticks in improvement, particularly on the pitching staff. I feel good about a lot of guys that we can put in the game. Excited about that. I like the starting point that we’re at. But I’m good with one more week.”
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