GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU coach Jay Johnson does not know who he will pitch on Sunday night yet when the Tigers try to make history while also completing a sweep of the NCAA Regional at Alex Box Stadium.
But LSU pitcher Kade Anderson already has a feeling about what might happen after he helped Tiger pitching deliver back-to-back shutouts in NCAA Regional games for the first time in a decade.
“Getting two shutouts in a row is not easy, but it was something I knew that we were capable of doing,” Anderson said after hurling seven innings of shutout ball with 11 strikeouts for a 12-0 win over Dallas Baptist in front of 11,884 at Alex Box Stadium Saturday night.
KADE ANDERSON SHUTS OUT DALLAS BAPTIST
DJ Primeaux, Jacob Mayers and William Schmidt threw the final three innings without allowing a hit to complete the shutout.
On Friday night, Anthony Eyanson shut out Arkansas-Little Rock for seven and two-thirds innings on five hits for a 7-0 win before Primeaux and Mavrick Rizy finished off that one.
“And I expect another one tomorrow,” Anderson said.
Well, all righty then.
But first Johnson will have to decide which of his pitchers to start after he finds out which team LSU plays. Dallas Baptist (41-17) plays Arkansas-Little Rock (25-33) at 2 p.m. Sunday in an elimination game. The winner plays LSU (45-14) at 8 p.m. Sunday. Television for that game had not been announced as of Sunday afternoon. If LSU wins, it advances to host a best-of-three Super Regional next weekend.. If LSU loses, it will get another chance on Monday against the same team at a time to be announced.
Anderson thinks Johnson has a lot of options.
“We’ve got too many pitchers, and not enough innings tomorrow,” he said.
One candidate will be freshman right-hander Casan Evans (3-1, 1.96 ERA, 6 saves). He started three Southeastern Conference games and went 2-1 with a 2.30 ERA and earned three of his saves in league play. Another one is junior right-hander Zac Cowan (3-3, 2.38 ERA, 6 saves), who was 1-3 with a 2.93 ERA and five saves in SEC games.
There is also sophomore right-hander Jaden Noot (2-1, 3.86 ERA) and sophomore right-hander Chase Shores (5-2, 4.80 ERA), who was 1-2 with a 6.25 ERA in SEC games. A left-hander option would be Conner Ware (4-1, 5.48 ERA), who was 3-1 with a 6.14 ERA in SEC play.
“We’re formulating that now,” Johnson said. “We don’t know who we’re going to play yet. That will obviously impact the decision. Judging by the relief pitching decisions we’ve made, we have a lot of options and put ourselves in a really good spot. We’re going in with some guys who are throwing the ball really, really well. We’ll let that game finish, and see where we go from there.”
Whoever gets the ball will have a tough two acts follow to say the least.
“These two starters in these two games have been about as good as anybody,” Johnson said.
But not quite as good as Alex Lange and Jared Poche. In 2015, LSU shut out North Carolina-Wilmington in an NCAA Regional at Alex Box in back-to-back 2-0 wins to sweep that Regional after a 10-3 win over Lehigh. That year, Lange and Poche each threw complete-game shutouts and each allowed six hits.
Those two wins marked the first back-to-back shutouts in LSU’s NCAA postseason history – a span of 190 games the time in 2015. On Sunday, LSU can make it three straight for the first time.
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